Viavi Solutions has made its virtualized, cloud-based TeraVM O-RAN Central Unit (O-CU) Tester available on AWS Outposts, which the company says makes it the first O-CU test solution deployed on Amazon Web Services’ managed services at the network edge.
“As 5G services leverage edge computing, the ability to validate application and infrastructure performance at any point in the network has become essential to ensuring quality of experience,” the company said in a release, noting that its customers are simultaneously deploying 5G, seeking to leverage mobile edge computing and implementing Open RAN elements in their networks. The O-CU, Viavi said, is a “critical resource as the first point in the uplink from end users, where large amounts of traffic converge and need to be handled efficiently in order to meet performance expectations. The O-CU Tester … validates that the O-CU works according to 3GPP standards and O-RAN C-plane and U-plane profiles; interoperates with other 5G and O-RAN network functions and components; and performs optimally when fully loaded with complex mobile traffic profiles.”
“Our major customers are embracing the power of the cloud and 5G, unleashing rich applications for consumers, businesses and cities,” said Ian Langley, VP and GM of Viavi’s wireless business unit. “We’re pleased to work alongside them to validate application performance at any point in the network and welcome the collaboration with AWS.”
In other test news:
–UL says its labs in Basingstoke, England, and Stuttgart, Germany are the first Wi-Fi 6E testing and certification facilities in Europe for testing regulatory requirements for the U.S. and Europe.
“Balancing new Wi-Fi 6E technology innovation and speed-to-market with operational and product safety are crucial to customer success as they move to market this future-facing Wi-Fi upgrade,” said Maan Ghanma, smart solutions director for UL’s consumer, medical and information technology division. “This is why we have proactively addressed potential challenges facing wireless technology manufacturers and their suppliers and have increased Wi-Fi 6E investments to test a myriad of devices and equipment.”
–Keysight Technologies launched a new test solution for regulatory certification of wireless devices that operate in 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz unlicensed frequencies. The Keysight IOT0047A regulatory test solution has “Wi-Fi 6E-ready hardware,” the company said, and its software is “continuously updated” with the latest standard releases from ETSI and the FCC for required testing. In particular, Keysight highlighted the use of the solution in an IoT context.
“Rapid growth of new IoT devices and designs creates challenges for test labs to address the increasing complexity in regulatory testing. Keysight’s IOT0047A enables labs to simplify the testing process, increase throughput and easily upgrade to support new standards,” said Boon Juan Tan, VP and GM for general electronics measurement solutions at Keysight. “Our goal is to help customers improve ROI in capital investment and gain a competitive edge by enabling their clients to be first-to-market by supporting the latest wireless standards.”
In other company news this week, Keysight acquired quantum computing software company Quantum Benchmark, its third quantum-related buy in the past few years. Full story here. The test company also unveiled what it says is the first Media Access Control Security (MACsec) Test Solution for high-speed Ethernet, to test the security of data traveling within cloud and data center environments; and expanded its collaboration with Ansys to integrate Ansys testing capabilities into Keysight’s flagship Pathwave Advanced Design System. The two companies announced in February that they would be working together to improve the interplay between their respective work flows, and now Keysight says it has integrated Ansys’ HFSS electromagnetic simulation into PathWave’s RFPro environment so that engineers don’t have to manually couple the design tools.
–NTS is touting its multi-million-dollar investments across its 28 labs in North America, to both expand test capabilities and adjust for COVID-19 safety protocols for safe observation of testing. Many of the specific improvements it called out are related to aerospace and defense testing, but NTS also noted in particular that it has bolstered its EMI/EMC chamber capacity at its flagship test lab in Boxborough, Massachusetts, going from eight to ten chambers and adding two new EMI testing ground planes. The facility’s largest chamber is a whopping 43 by 23 square feet with a 12×12 foot door.
–Bureau Veritas said this week that its automotive testing facility in Detroit has received approval from General Motors for automotive EMC testing, including radiated emission testing, electrostatic discharge testing, automotive transients and radiated immunity including radar pulse. The automotive lab’s test capabilities include EMC validation as well as radio frequency testing for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, GNSS testing and vehicle-to-everything testing.
-IoT module maker Telit this week spotlighted the completion of extensive interoperabilty testing for its FN980m 5G module, which it says has now been testing successfully across all major Radio Access Network vendors and mobile network operators, and in indoor and outdoor environments. The module uses Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System and supports up to 5.5 Gbps in the downlink and 1.5 Gbps in the uplink.
