MWC 2025 test news focused on Open RAN, AI-RAN and NTN
Mobile World Congress Barcelona sets the tone for the telecom industry’s focus in the coming year. And this year, those areas of focus appear to be both using and supporting artificial intelligence; Open Radio Access Networks (Open RAN); the continued evolution of networks toward 5G Standalone and 5G-Advanced; as well as the expected proliferation of Wi-Fi 7 and the emergence of Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN).
AI-RAN was one of the key themes of the show, with the AI-RAN Alliance celebrating its one-year anniversary and supporting a number of demos across the show. Keysight Technologies announced that it had worked with Samsung and NVIDIA to train AI models for Samsung’s 5G-Advanced and 6G technologies, including a model for its vRAN software; and also supported testing of AI-RAN orchestration with Northeastern University.
In terms of NTN, the further development of the technology has been marked over the past few months by the launch of T-Mobile US’ beta satellite-based service with Starlink (read more on that from our MWC interview with Karri Kuoppamaki, T-Mobile US’ SVP of technology development and strategy, here) and AST SpaceMobile’s launch of its first five Bluebird satellites that will support NTN services backed by AT&T and Verizon.
Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi Solutions demonstrated their joint NTN testing solution at the show, and NTN was a major spotlight at Keysight Technologies’ booth as well. Additionally, at the Murata booth, you could see a demo that included voice over NTN that leveraged a Murata module using a VoIP client application developed by Rohde & Schwarz specifically to operate at ultra-low bitrates in order to bring voice to the NB-NTN game.
O-RAN Alliance said that there were more than two dozen demonstrations of various aspects of O-RAN at the show, supported by a number of test companies, of which Viavi Solutions was one of the most prominent. (Catch up on our MWC interview with Yigal Elbaz, AT&T’s SVP of technology and network services and network CTO for AT&T Services, on the company’s O-RAN progress and AI use, here.)
“In order to monetize their investments, operators must optimize and secure increasingly complex network architectures comprising 6G, AI and the cloud. It will take a community of trusted vendors to dynamically address the resulting challenges. The ecosystems being put in place and the standards being developed will, therefore, play a key role in the technology being delivered,” said Viavi CTO Sameh Yamany.
Viavi Solutions also said in conjunction with MWC that it had struck a strategic partnership with AT&T and Verizon, bringing the Viavi Automated Lab-as-a-Service for Open RAN (VALOR) into support of the Acceleration of Compatibility and Commercialization for Open RAN Deployments (ACCoRD) project that both carriers are backing. Viavi siad that it will will initially supply ACCoRD labs at Iowa State University and Rutgers University, plus an additional lab at the University of Texas at Dallas in 2026. Additionally, the full suite of O-RAN tests “will be available to customers referred to the VALOR lab by ACCoRD.”
“Collaborating with VIAVI and Verizon through the ACCoRD project allows us to advance our Open RAN initiatives, ultimately benefiting our stakeholders with improved network capabilities and greater flexibility,” said Robert Soni, VP of RAN Technology at AT&T.
In other test news:
-ICYMI: With about six weeks to go before the expected close of Keysight Technologies’ acquisition of Spirent Communications, Keysight announced last week that it will sell Spirent’s high-speed Ethernet and network security business to Viavi Solutions. Read more of our coverage on that story here.
–Anritsu said that its Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A will be used by South Korean operator SK Telecom and Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) to explore technologies for real-time optimization of antenna systems using artificial intelligence. As the number of antennas in smartphones increases, as specified in 3GPP Rel-18 and beyond, so does the risk of interference, Anritsu explained in a release. A demonstration which used the MT8000A as a base station simulator “revealed a remarkable improvement in the data transmission speed despite the smartphone under test remaining the same size as a conventional device and operating within the same frequency bandwidth,” the test company said.
-In network planning news, Infovista announced a new collaboration with Google Cloud to utilize Google’s Propagation API, which will be available to North American customers int the second quarter of this year.
Google had shut down its network planning tool, but the partnership with Infovista is meant to “create a simplified process to ingest Google Network Planner data,” according to Google.
“This partnership with Google Cloud marks a paradigm shift in how wireless networks are planned and optimized,” said Rick Hamilton, CEO at Infovista. “By combining Google’s unparalleled geodata capabilities with our network planning expertise, we’re democratizing access to sophisticated RF planning tools. This is particularly crucial as the industry expands CBRS deployments, accelerates Fixed Wireless Access rollouts, and embraces private networks.”
