EANTC co-hosted Joint European O-RAN & TIP PlugFest Fall 2022 at i14y Lab
Berlin, December 16, 2022
The Joint European O-RAN ALLIANCE & TIP PlugFest Fall 2022, part of the Global PlugFest Fall 2022, took place from October 24 to November 4, 2022, in the i14y Lab in Berlin, co-hosted by Deutsche Telekom, EANTC and Vodafone.
During the testing event, 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. Furthermore, technical priorities provided by the Open RAN MoU Group of European service providers were considered. To ensure the functioning of Open RAN networks, 14 scenarios were put to the test focusing on the following:
- O-RU conformance based on O-RAN and TIP test specifications and test plans
- Open FH transport testing/Xhaul testing, including PTP/SyncE
- Testing multi-vendor O-RAN-based E2E solution using O-RAN test plans
- Orchestration and management of RAN elements using SMO over O1 interface
- Evaluation of xApps in a standalone emulation scenario
- Evaluation of rApps in a standalone emulation scenario
- Demonstration and performance validation of O-Cloud infrastructure
In addition to the hosts, participants included 18 solution and 7 measurement equipment providers.
What has been achieved during four intensive weeks of testing?
- Three end-to-end scenarios successfully evaluated for multi-UE and multi-slice scenarios
- Great support from seven test tool vendors: Many scenarios tested with multiple emulators
- Initial evaluation of four xApps/rApps with three non-RT/near-RT RICs: Traffic steering, anomaly detection, energy saving
- Initial functional evaluation of O1 interface with participating SMO and one O-DU/O-CU
- O-Cloud testing with two containers (K8s) platforms hosting RIC workloads and performance test tools successfully completed
- Open Fronthaul testing of Class-C PTP clock precision successfully completed
- Combination of on-site and remote test support proved efficient in two-vendor test scenarios across similar time zones
Together with Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone, EANTC co-hosted the PlugFest at the i14y Lab. The PlugFest is one of the 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 together 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. The goal of EANTC is 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 essential joint Open Lab initiative to accelerate Open RAN deployments, build a truly open ecosystem, and lower market entry and participation barriers.
The virtual showcase will be publicly available in January.