O-RAN ALLIANCE Advances Technology Readiness Globally Through Fall 2023 PlugFest

08.12.2023 - 07:06:18

Business Wire India

Fifty-two companies collaborated in 16 labs across eight countries
Key activities included subsystem and end-to-end testing, security testing, advanced RIC testing, and field trials

The O-RAN ALLIANCE, fulfilling its mission to transform Radio Access Networks to be open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable, today announced the successful completion of the O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFest Fall 2023.

O-RAN Global PlugFests are periodic events organized and co-sponsored by O-RAN ALLIANCE to enable efficient progress of the O-RAN ecosystem through well-organized testing and integration. Vendors and providers come together to test, evaluate and verify their products and solutions.

The O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2023 carried out critical testing and validation of O-RAN technologies to support and encourage ongoing adoption by the industry. The tests provided participants validation of O-RAN equipment conformance, performance and interoperability; tackled issues to overcome hurdles to wider technology adoption; and facilitated exploration of new features, scenarios and applications. Of note, two labs conducted field trials of O-RAN equipment, one in a rural environment and the other in an urban one.

O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2023 was co-hosted by 24 major operators, Open Testing and Integration Centres (OTIC) and independent institutions. It was conducted from September to November 2023 in 16 labs across Asia, Europe and North America, with 52 participating companies or institutions, many of which participated at more than one venue.

“The continued level of industry participation in the Global PlugFest demonstrates commitment and progress in advancing O-RAN,” said Alex Jinsung Choi, Chair of the Board of O-RAN ALLIANCE and SVP Group Technology, Deutsche Telekom. “In the Fall 2023 PlugFest, we expanded scope of testing beyond lab-based conformance and interoperability of equipment. Security validation continued to be a priority throughout the PlugFest. Several venues hosted demonstrations of RIC for energy savings, enabling attainment of sustainability objectives. And participants applied AI/ML for intelligent automation of network operation.”

Participants in O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2023

O-RAN ALLIANCE appreciates such high interest from the community in testing and integration at the O-RAN Global PlugFest Fall 2023 and would like to recognize hosts, labs and participants from the O-RAN community, including:

Aarna Networks, Actiontec, Aira Technologies, AirHop Communications, Analog Devices, Anritsu, AT&T, CableLabs, Calnex Solutions, Ciena, COSMOS Lab, Dell Technologies, Deutsche Telekom, Digital Catapult, DISH, DZS, EANTC, EURECOM, ETRI - Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Fujitsu, Future Connections, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HFR, i14y Lab, Infinera, Innowireless, Intel, Juniper Networks, KDDI, Keysight Technologies, LENOVO, LG Uplus, MAVENIR, NEC, Net AI, National Instruments, NIST, Nokia, NTT DATA, NTT DOCOMO, NVIDIA, Orange, PHYTunes, POWDER Lab Site, Qualcomm, Quanta Cloud Technology, Radisys, Rakuten Mobile, Rakuten Symphony, Red Hat, Ribbon, Rimedo Labs, Rohde&Schwarz, Samsung Electronics, Sercom, Simnovus, SK Telecom, SoftBank, Software Radio Systems, SOLiD, Spirent Communications, Super Micro Computer, Telefonica, TIM, UNH-IOL, Verizon, VIAVI Solutions, VMware, Vodafone, VVDN, Wind River, Wiwynn Corporation, Xena Networks and YRP (Yokosuka Research Park) R&D Promotion Committee.

About O-RAN ALLIANCE

The O-RAN ALLIANCE is a world-wide community of more than 300 mobile operators, vendors, and research & academic institutions operating in the Radio Access Network (RAN) industry. As the RAN is an essential part of any mobile network, the O-RAN ALLIANCE’s mission is to re-shape the industry towards more intelligent, open, virtualized and fully interoperable mobile networks. The new O-RAN specifications enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation to improve user experience. O-RAN based mobile networks at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by mobile operators. To achieve this, the O-RAN ALLIANCE publishes new RAN specifications, releases open software for the RAN, and supports its members in integration and testing of their implementations.

For more information, please visit www.o-ran.org.