Viavi Solutions continues its efforts to support the testing needs of the developing Open RAN ecosystem, this time with Capgemini Engineering. Viavi says it has partnered with Capgemini Engineering in Portugal to deliver a 5G and O-RAN lab test capability that leveraged Viavi’s O-RAN Lab-as-a-Service (LaaS) approach.
“The success of 5G open networks depends on both end-to-end performance and core testing,” Viavi explained ina release, going on to say that open networks have to provide a combination of reduced infrastructure costs, faster additions of new functionality and performance levels that are the same or better than traditional networks — all the while, making components work across the products of multiple new supply chain entrants. Viavi says its work with Capgemini focuses on network integration and validation in 5G open network environments, and that its portfolio of test tools “enables comprehensive measurements for the entire network lifecycle, providing functional, system integration and performance testing of gNBs, core networks, core network components and O-RAN subsystems, delivering true end-user QoE visibility.”
“Capgemini is at the forefront of 5G and O-RAN innovation, where testing and maintaining the resilience and performance of an entire network chain is crucial,” said Shamik Mishra, CTO of connectivity for Capgemini Engineering. Mishra added that, “we chose to team up with VIAVI to ensure we continue to deliver the best service to our clients, augmenting our 5G Lab As A Service capability in Portugal to reduce time to market and mitigate technical and business risks significantly.”
“Our leading position in testing new open RAN architectures has been achieved thanks to our history and expertise working with manufacturers and operators and in defining benchmarks for how high-performance networks must operate,” said Ian Langley, VP and GM of Viavi’s wireless business unit. “We’re delighted to work alongside Capgemini to validate end-to-end network performance, providing test solutions from [Radio Access Network] to Core.”
In May of this year, Viavi made its virtualized, cloud-based TeraVM O-RAN Central Unit (O-CU) tester available on AWS Outposts, which the company said made it the first O-CU test solution deployed on Amazon Web Services’ managed services at the network edge.
In other test news:
–Rohde & Schwarz says that reverberation chamber provider Bluetest has added an option to use the R&S CMX500 5G New Radio radio communication tester with its reverberation test set-up for over-the-air measurements in sub-6 GHz frequencies.
–LitePoint has introduced a new Wi-Fi 7 test system. The IQxel-MXtest system is a fully integrated RF PHY test solution with signal generation and analysis combined in a single tester, supporting a continuous frequency range from 400 MHz to 7.3 GHz. Full story available here.
–Spirent Communications is partnering with data center interconnect company MultiLane on vendor-neutral 800G-related testing. As Spirent explained in a release, QSFP-DD800 is one of the first port standards that uses individual electrical 100G lanes. “The design, optimization, and fabrication of these 100G lanes presents a significant challenge for host and pluggable developers alike,” Spirent continued. “The partnership facilitates the test and verification of QSFP-DD hardware, including transceivers, switches that use these transceivers, and hyperscaler use cases.”
“Successful 100G electrical lane design requires novel techniques and robust test procedures,” said Kees Propstra, VP of Marketing at MultiLane. “Our joint effort with Spirent to tackle these challenges facilitates the transition to the 800G node, the next frontier in data center interconnects.”
–Teledyne Relays says it has expanded its portfolio of 50+ GHz coax switches.
“With increasing demand for 5G equipment, our customers have been asking for switching solutions that comfortably exceed 50 GHz bandwidth,” said Michael Palakian, Teledyne Relays’ global director of sales and marketing.
