Test and measurement companies are highlighting their recent support of Open RAN testing and demonstrations, in the wake of the recent Open RAN global plugfest.
Viavi Solutions was among the vendors which enabled plugtest demos and testing around the world for the O-RAN Alliance testing event, while Rohde & Schwarz this week announced its support of “practical demos” of Open RAN testing at last month’s i14y Lab Summit 2022 in Berlin.
As part of the global O-RAN plugfest, Viavi supported demos and testing of AT&T and Dish Wireless at three locations: Rutgers University’s COSMOS Lab, the TIP Community Lab that Meta hosted in Menlo Park, California, and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory in Durham, NC. Viavi also worked with Telefónica in Madrid and the Auray OTIC and Security Lab in Taiwan.
“The increasing maturity of the O-RAN ecosystem was evident across the entire plugfest,” said Dr. Ian Wong, who is co-chair of the testing and integration focus group for O-RAN Alliance and part of Viavi’s CTO office, in a statement on his observations of the plugfest. “Open Radio Units (O-RUs) are completing fronthaul conformance certification, and moving beyond certification into performance testing. Interoperability in multi-vendor environments beyond the O-RU was also more in focus, with key combinations including O-RU and Open Distributed Unit (O-DU), O-DU and Open Central Unit (O-CU), and complete end-to-end networks being demonstrated. Vendors showcased the RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) and its potential to bring AI/ML techniques to network optimization and service management. And with security of open networks growing in importance, this PlugFest session also included running O-RAN and 3GPP security test cases.”
Additionally, Stephe Hire, VP of wireless marketing at Viavi, noted that interest in cross-industry collaboration on Open RAN has “grown so substantially” that there are now multiple plugfest sessions during the course of a year.
In Germany, Rohde & Schwarz said that its test solutions were used to verify conformance of O-RUs as well as end-to-end network performance at the i14y Lab, which is a Deutsche Telekom-led industry consortium of European and German vendors and system integrators that focuses on Open RAN and network disaggregation. The lab receives some funding from the German Ministry of Digital and Transport in support of open system development.
“Disaggregation is one of the key ingredients of the evolution and convergence of networks. The i14y Lab has brought a collaboration space to Berlin that will strengthen Germany and Europe as a leading technology location,” said Alexander Pabst, VP of the wireless communications market segment at R&S.
In other test news:
–Anritsu recently launched new analysis software for IQ data files captured on its Field Master Pro and some of its remote spectrum monitoring spectrum analyzers, aimed particularly at the needs of government regulators or security agencies trying to track down rogue signals, spectrum owners and defense electronics companies. In addition to advanced analysis of data captured in the field, Anritsu said that the the IQ Signal Master MX280005A Vector Signal Analysis software also has a feature that can enable conversion of the data so that signals captured in the field can be simulated in the lab.
–Delta Electronics announced this week that it has acquired a nearly 30-acre site in Plano, Texas, where the power management company plans to open a “landmark site” for research and development, manufacturing and sales of energy-saving tech solutions. The power management company said that the new facility will have state-of-the-art design, prototyping and testing equipment for electronics materials and product R&D, and expand Delta’s product offerings in the U.S.—particularly in what the company calls “key areas” that include high-efficiency power systems and solutions for 5G networks and data centers, automotive power-related systems and energy infrastructure.
In addition to supporting development of greener tech, Delta’s president of the Americas region, Kelvin Huang, says that the company expects the new site to operate 100% on renewable electricity by 2030.
-Test equipment and antenna company PCTel made two announcements this week: One regarding a new rugged, multi-band 5G and Wi-Fi antenna for fleets, mass transit and rail use, and also that it has received European certification for a new 802.11ac WiFi radio module. Chintan Fafadia, VP of industrial IoT device product management at PCTel, called the module certification “a significant milestone in our strategy to expand PCTEL’s Industrial IoT devices market in Europe.”
On the new antenna solution, Juan Verenzuela, PCTel’s VP of product management and strategy, noted that precise positioning and determination of exact location are important for Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) use cases, particularly high-speed rail, and that the new CMTA antenna portfolio complies with both EN50155 and Association of American Railroad standards, for safety and durability in railway use.
