Viavi Solutions on Wednesday announced the company successfully participated in a global O-RAN plugfest hosted by several Tier-1 communications service providers (CSPs) and the O-RAN ALLIANCE.
The plugfest involved a series of on-site demonstrations in multiple countries, conducted in September and October 2020. VIAVI provided industry-leading 4G and 5G test and validation platforms to support the worldwide event, which demonstrated key Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) use cases involving a number of network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and system integrators, accelerating the commercialization of O-RAN and diversification of the RAN supply chain.
In a multi-vendor based O-RAN environment, ensuring interoperability will become the network operator’s principal concern. The VIAVI Test Suite for O-RAN Specifications offers comprehensive, integrated solutions to validate that all interfaces are working correctly – including RF, signaling and interoperability, timing and synchronization – and equipment is performing to specifications even under load and stress.
In the lab, the TM500 and TeraVM families deliver UE, O-RAN subsystem and core network simulation to enable conformance, interoperability and performance testing of both complete base station and core network testing as well as wraparound testing of individual O-RAN subsystems and core network elements. In both the lab and the field, T-BERD/MTS-5800 validates critical synchronization parameters with necessary precision using its Timing Extension Module (TEM), delivering a highly stable reference signal for synchronizing test equipment and O-RAN components. CellAdvisor 5G characterizes and analyzes 4G and 5G RF signals. ONT-800 tests transport network performance up to 800G.
Sameh Yamany, Chief Technology Officer, VIAVI
The successful results of the global O-RAN ALLIANCE plugfest represent a significant step forward in the advancement of multi-vendor O-RAN environments, which are essential to scaling and sustaining 5G networks.
