The Small Cell LTE Plugfest took place last month, organized jointly by ETSI and the Small Cell Forum with the support of the European Commission. The event which lasted for two weeks saw companies from all over the world conducting tests and validating their LTE small cell solutions.
The Plugfest boasts the ability of enabling various solutions to be tested for things such as interoperability and features without requiring vendors to meet physically.
During the Plugfest, a number of 70 test sessions were reported with 500 documented test results. According to ETSI, the main features addressed during the test sessions were Closed Subscriber Group (CSG) which allows Operators to reduce the signalling load on access networks, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Emergency Alerts (CMAS), as well as mobility.
To make the remote testing among small cell equipment and core networks possible, ETSI said that it deployed a VPN-based secure transport network. The testing was further boosted by the recent enhancements in ETSI’s Plugtests™ tool suite, facilitating interaction among companies and ensuring consistent reporting of results.
ETSI added that the remote Plugfests will not replace face to face events which are necessary for testing areas such as those relating to radio, but they will help to reduce the number of meetings, improve their efficiency and contribute to a greener world, an issue ETSI has been keen to integrate in its organization and standards making process.
Anthony Wiles, Director, Testing and Interoperability, ETSI Centre
This fully remote approach - infrastructure, tools, organization - was a real challenge and this is something we aim to apply beyond Small Cell events. We have already done so for many years with our electronic signature Plugtests but Small Cell was the first proving ground for doing remote testing with a heavily hardware-dependent technology. A major milestone has been reached!
Kreso Bilan, Interoperability Group Chair, Small Cell Forum
Conducting the event remotely made it a more convenient and effective exercise for all involved. It allowed our full focus to be on the work with headway being made around Closed Subscriber Group, Local IP Access and Carrier Aggregation.
