Keysight’s Participation in O-RAN Global Plugfest 2021 Enables Ecosystem to Speed Open RAN Technology Development and Specifications Maturity

Comprehensive portfolio used to verify interoperability and conformance and to demonstrate proof of concepts

SANTA ROSA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS), a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, participated in the third global Plugfest event organized by the O-RAN ALLIANCE, accelerating development of technologies with open standard interfaces.

Keysight Open RAN Architect (KORA) solution portfolio enabled more than 40 vendors, 12 mobile operators and 5 Open Testing and Integration Centers (OTIC) to verify integration of multi-vendor network functions and compliance to O-RAN specifications. Leading vendors and mobile operators used Keysight’s lab-based emulation platforms, passive monitoring and troubleshooting tools, as well as field test solutions, at seven Plugfest venues, ten locations and twelve labs across Asia, Europe and North America. Rigorous testing under real-world conditions is critical to successful end-to-end integration of O-RAN equipment prior to live network deployment.RU

Plugfest participants seamlessly integrated KORA software and hardware platforms to test the following:

• O-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU) and Central Unit (O-CU) Interoperability (IOT) – the combination of Keysight’s O-RU emulator with embedded UEE capabilities (RuSIM), core emulator (CoreSIM) and network impairment emulator (Network Emulator II, Network Emulator 100G+) were used to verify functionality, compliance to O-RAN specifications and performance including a Xhaul transport network under real-world conditions. Keysight’s Performance Benchmarking Solution (PBM) was used to orchestrate end-to-end tests across all KORA solutions for latency and throughput characterization of the fronthaul implementation. Collaborators: Intel, LIONS Technology, MiTAC Computing Technology Corp., Radisys and Wiwynn
• O-RAN End-to-End (E2E) – the combination of Keysight’s UEE capabilities (UeSIM), test user equipment (Nemo Outdoor), core emulator (CoreSIM) and PBM were used to assess small and macro cells E2E performance, security and latency under load and stress test conditions. An over-the-air monitor (WaveJudge) was used to extend real-time visibility to disaggregated radio access, correlation and interaction between O-RAN protocol and 3GPP physical layers in wireless transmissions. Collaborators: Advantech, Alpha Networks Inc., Altiostar – A Rakuten Symphony Company, Compal Electronics, Inc., DZS, Foxconn, iConNext Co., Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Inventec, LIONS Technology, Mavenir, NEC, Pegatron Corp., Quanta Cloud Technology, Sercomm Corp., Wiwynn and WNC

“We are grateful to work with Keysight for Wiwynn’s s O-DU/O-CU interoperability tests at the 3rd Global ORAN ALLIANCE Plugfest,” said Steven Lu, senior vice president of product development at Wiwynn. “By connecting Keysight’s UE/RU/5GC emulators and Wiwynn’s EP100, we successfully made the test cases based on O-RAN.WG8-IOT v02, including cell setup, UE registration, PDU session modification with multiple flow, and bidirectional UDP data transfer. Keysight’s complete end-to-end solution and solid technical support has enabled this Plugfest to go smoothly.”

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211217005357/en/Keysight%E2%80%99s-Participation-in-O-RAN-Global-Plugfest-2021-Enables-Ecosystem-to-Speed-Open-RAN-Technology-Development-and-Specifications-Maturity