Showcases

EANTC co-hosted O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2023 at i14y Lab

The O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFest Spring 2023, took place from October 9-27, 2023, in the i14y Lab in Berlin, co-hosted by Deutsche Telekom and EANTC.

During the testing event, 17 participating vendors got the opportunity to validate their individual solutions' market readiness and explore multi-vendor interoperability. The tests were based on O-RAN and TIP test specifications. Technical priorities provided by the Open RAN MoU Group of European service providers were considered.

To ensure the functioning of Open RAN networks, the following scenarios were put to the test. The high-level test scope included:

• Verification of O-RAN-based O-RU, O-DU/O-CU implementations for Open Fronthaul functions and performance
• Testing of multi-vendor O-RAN-based end-to-end solutions (including products and solutions aligned with TIP requirements documents): Systems under test: O-RU + O-DU + O-CU; optionally including Near-RT RIC with xApps; optionally including Non-RT RIC with rApps; optionally including NETCONF-based SMO solutions with standards-based Yang models; including indoor disaggregated small-cell systems using TIP-specified end-to-end test plans
• Evaluation of network optimization use case scenarios: Near-RT and non-RT RICs implementing A1/E2 interfaces; xApps and non-RT RIC rApps in standalone emulation scenarios

New or improved test cases that are developed as part of this event will be upstreamed to the respective SDO.

Together with Deutsche Telekom, EANTC co-hosts the bi-annual PlugFests at the i14y Lab. The PlugFests are cornerstones in the i14y research project (2021-2024) focusing on the evolution of Open RAN.

EANTC contributes to developing automated test methods and conducts joint interoperability tests with strong project partners aligned with the European and global testing initiatives of the O-RAN ALLIANCE and Telecom Infra Project. As one of the work package leaders, EANTC aims to ensure continuous testing in a vendor-neutral environment. EANTC aims to automate as many of these test cases as feasible. This way, solution interoperability will be tested efficiently and accurately in a minimum amount of time, closing the gap toward production readiness of Open RAN technology.

EANTC proudly contributes to the joint Open Lab initiative to accelerate Open RAN deployments, build a truly open ecosystem, and lower market entry and participation barriers.