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Keysight’s Participation in O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2022 Enables Ecosystem to Speed Open RAN Technology Development and Specifications Maturity
Comprehensive portfolio used to verify conformance, interoperability, performance, security and demonstrated innovative proof of concepts such as energy savings and AI/ML assisted optimization
SANTA ROSA, Calif. June 30, 2022
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 fourth global PlugFest event organized by the O-RAN ALLIANCE , accelerating development of Open RAN (O-RAN) technologies with open standard interfaces, intelligence and security.
Keysight Open RAN Architect (KORA) solution portfolio enabled 15 vendors, 4 mobile operators and 2 Open Testing and Integration Centers (OTIC) at 3 PlugFest venues and 5 labs across Asia, Europe and North America to verify integration of multi-vendor network functions and compliance to O-RAN specifications.
Keysight collaborated with leading vendors and mobile operators on industry first demonstrations in key areas of innovation including:
- Evaluation and assessment of energy savings features using live networks traffic profiles which have shown significant reduction in energy consumption for a multi-vendors cloud-native O-RAN system.
- Enablement of RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC) assisted artificial intelligence / machine learning (AI/ML) optimization for energy savings and admission control use cases, as well as an orchestration framework that supports rapid deployment of test and validation for near-real time RICs and xApps.
- Pre-certification testing of the O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU), automated security testing for DevSecOps with 3GPP Security Assurance Specification (SCAS) test cases, Denial of Service (DoS) and fuzzing attacks simulations and performance testing of O-RAN Xhaul transport network elements' fronthaul implementation under real-world conditions.
"Keysight is pleased to collaborate with partners in the fourth O-RAN Global PlugFest during which we have successfully completed several industry-first demonstrations in key areas including energy savings, RIC-enabled AI/ML based optimization, test automation framework for RICs and applications, pre-certification testing, DevSecOps security with attacks simulation and transport network elements performance testing," said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president and general manager of Keysight's Network and Operators group.
Fourteen Keysight solutions were used to make progress in the development of technical and test specifications for open standard interfaces, Xhaul transportation, O-Cloud, RIC, and AI/ML that enabled use cases and O-RAN security requirements. Keysight worked with the global PlugFest hosts, sponsors and labs in:
- Europe with Telefonica (European OTIC in Madrid)
- Taiwan with Auray Technology Corp. (OTIC in Taiwan)
- United States with AT&T and DISH (co-sponsors) in the COSMOS Testbed sandbox at WINLAB, Rutgers University, POWDER Platform at the University of Utah and University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory
PlugFest participants seamlessly integrated KORA software and hardware platforms to test the following:
- O-RAN Energy Savings - Keysight's O-RAN Energy Savings test solution was used to demonstrate reduction in power consumption for a multi-vendors O-RAN system that includes containerized O-DU and O-CU software, O-Cloud software and hardware including state of the art processors with telemetry and power management features and accelerators using live network traffic profiles. Collaborators: Intel, Radisys, Vodafone and Wind River
- This test solution consists of O-RU emulator with embedded UEE capabilities (RuSIM), core emulator (CoreSIM) and test automation framework (PathWave Test Automation) for stateful emulation of the network digital twin to test the O-RAN system. Keysight's power analyzer (PA2203A IntegraVision) performed precise real-time measurements of the power consumption throughout the tests.
- The company's Performance Benchmarking Solution (PBM) characterized the O-RAN system's energy consumption/savings profiles and performed closed loop optimization of power savings parameters used in the O-RAN system modelled after energy savings rApps
- O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) – Keysight's O-RAN O-RU test solution consisting of the company's O-DU emulation (Open RAN Studio), radio frequency (RF) signal sources and analyzers (UXA signal analyzer, VXG signal generator), and test automation framework (PathWave Test Automation) provided pre-certification testing of the O-RUs including validation of 3GPP and O-RAN conformance and performance of the open fronthaul control, user, synchronization and management planes implementation across RF and protocol measurement domains. Collaborators: Foxconn, Kinpo Electronics and LITEON
- O-RAN End-to-End (E2E) – Keysight's RAN test solution consisting of UEE capabilities (UeSIM) and CoreSIM assessed small cells E2E performance, security and latency under load and stress test conditions. Collaborators: LIONS Technology, LITEON, Pegatron Corp., SageRAN and WNC
- O-RAN Near and non-Real-Time RICs, xApps and rApps - Keysight's RIC and xApps/rApps test solution (RICtest) was used for three scenarios:
- Energy savings use case for large scale O-RAN network simulation with Juniper Networks Energy Savings rApp leveraging the O-RAN compliant O1 interface for the collection of standards-compliant performance metrics and reconfiguration of Keysight RIC tester emulated E2 nodes. Collaborator: Juniper Networks
- 4G eNB Admission Control rApp and xApp, with Keysight's RIC test solution providing O-RAN network simulation of 60 eNBs across several tracking areas and device emulation of hundreds of onboarding subscribers and Juniper Networks' Non-RT RIC and Admission Control rApp providing the overall governance across multiple Near-RT RICs. Collaborator: Juniper Networks
- A powerful cloud-native platform for O-RAN test automation that enables vendors to automatically test and validate O-RAN near-real time RICs and xApps on-demand, across a customizable parameter space with Keysight's RICtest O-RAN Near-real time RIC test software integrated with University of Utah's POWDER "lab as a service" automation framework (PLAF). Keysight's RICtest was deployed with updated Open Networking Foundation's software-defined RAN near real-time RIC. Collaborator: POWDER Platform at the University of Utah
- O-RAN Security - Keysight's O-RAN Security test solution consisting of UEE (UeSIM),CoreSIM, transport network testing solution (IxNetwork) and transport network impairment solution (Network Emulator 3) to perform testing of security test cases specified by the O-RAN Security Focus Group (SFG) / WG11 including 3GPP SCAS automated tests, DoS and Fuzzing attacks on the O-RAN system. Collaborator: Pegatron Corp.
- O-RAN Xhaul Transport Network Elements - Keysight's O-RAN Xhaul transport network test solution consisting of O-DU, O-RU emulation (IxNetwork / Novus) and precision timing system (Metronome Timing System) to validate transport network elements' performance, benchmarking latency characteristics of fronthaul traffic under real-world conditions specified by the O-RAN Xhaul transport WG9 and measurement of relative time error between multiple O-RUs. Collaborators: Cisco Systems Inc, IP Infusion, Juniper Networks and Ribbon
About Keysight Technologies
Keysight delivers advanced design and validation solutions that help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Keysight's dedication to speed and precision extends to software-driven insights and analytics that bring tomorrow's technology products to market faster across the development lifecycle, in design simulation, prototype validation, automated software testing, manufacturing analysis, and network performance optimization and visibility in enterprise, service provider and cloud environments. Our customers span the worldwide communications and industrial ecosystems, aerospace and defense, automotive, energy, semiconductor and general electronics markets. Keysight generated revenues of $4.9B in fiscal year 2021. For more information about Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS), visit us at www.keysight.com.
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Keysight Contact:
Geri Lynne LaCombe, Americas/Europe
+1 303 662–4748
[email protected]
Fusako Dohi, Asia
+81 42 660–2162
[email protected]
SUPPORTING QUOTES
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"Keysight’s comprehensive End-to-End (E2E) O-RAN test and enablement portfolio has been instrumental in the success of the O-RAN Alliance Global Plugfest Spring 2022 as it has been extensively used for conformance, interoperability, performance, security and O-RAN certification testing in an automated framework. Auray OTIC and Security lab has completed certification testing for an O-RU in this Plugfest using Keysight’s O-RU test solution and certification test suite."
Daniel Chang, Chairman, Auray Technology Corp.
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"Cisco is committed to open architecture and contributing to 5G ORAN standardization. Open RAN transport architecture using SRv6 capabilities helps customers to build simple, scalable, and efficient transport with improved service quality that drives business growth."
Kevin Wollenweber, Vice President of Networking, Mass-Scale Infrastructure Group, Cisco
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"IP Infusion is pleased to participate in O-RAN Alliance Global Plugfest Spring 2022 hosted by Auray OTIC and Security Lab in Taiwan. IP Infusion participated in the Plugfest with Keysight Open Radio Unit (O-RU) and Open Distributed Unit (O-DU) emulated solutions. The multi-vendor test environment validated mobile xHaul timing and synchronization, network performance and latency, as well as resiliency characteristics enabling operators to disaggregate the RAN today, and well into the future."
Atsushi Ogata, president and CEO, IP Infusion
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"Admissions control and energy savings are two key priorities for operators today, as smart management of resources delivers better outcomes for their customers and bottom line. Keysight and Juniper are focused on these key priorities and are once again demonstrating how O-RAN is moving the industry forward. Juniper Networks’ RAN Intelligent Controller and suite of applications were validated and demonstrated with Keysight’s RICtest solution in the 2022 Spring Plugfest."
Constantine Polychronopoulos, vice president of 5G and Telco Cloud, Juniper Networks
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"In O-RAN Alliance Global PlugFest Spring with support from Keysight, M-Plane software developed by Kinpo on Open Radio Unit is validated for the service of 5G O-RAN Base Station management. This will ensure the successful deployment and commercialization of future network with Kinpo O-RU with the parametric compatibility of M-Plane management services of RAN equipment."
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"We appreciate the opportunity to participate the 4th O-RAN Alliance Global Plugfest hosted by Auray OTIC lab and conducted on Keysight advanced O-RAN test platform. As a second time participant, LIONS Technology has previously achieved the interoperability of our end-to-end O-RAN solution, including O-CU, O-DU, FHGW (Fronthaul Gateway / O-AU), and O-RU, based on the conformance results. In this 2nd time test, LIONS’ products successfully passed the robustness-related stress, mobility, and RF signal sensitivity tests arranged by Auray and Keysight. The result indicates that the progress of O-RAN development can now meets the practical application requirements."
Anju Day, CEO, LIONS Technology
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"LITEON TECHNOLOGY has been taking strong initiative in terms of developing a series of 5G O-RAN products including hardware and software solutions: FlexFi split2 RDU, split7.2 RU, and LiteNetics RIC platform, for the purpose to provide more flexibility and modular solution to enable new services and applications for consumers and businesses. In O-RAN Alliance 4th OTIC Lab plugfest spring 2022, LITEON collaborates with Keysight to verify the FlexFi RU with fronthaul IoT and conformance capability compliance with O-RAN WG4 CONF and IoT spec. For the O-RAN.TIFG.E2E IoT and Performance validation, LITEON's RU joint hands with REIGNS's DU/CU via Keysight emulators UeSIM and CoreSIM. The FlexFi and LiteNetics products demonstrate a new level of flexibility, innovation, and market competition within the 5G industry. LITEON will keep working together with partners of 5G eco-system to develop new applications and provide solutions for enterprise private network to facilitate enterprise digital transformation with future 5G new business opportunities."
Anson Chiu, president, LITEON TECHNOLOGY
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"To promote the O-RAN solution from the PoC stage to the commercialization stage, Pegatron built traffic models for different use cases in this O-RAN Plugfest and used Keysight UE emulator and core emulator to perform end-to-end function and load tests. Keysight transport network testing and network impairment solutions enabled us to conduct various DoS and fuzzing attack tests on O-RAN open interfaces to ensure the system has no degradation of performance while meeting 3GPP SCAS requirements, as well as confirming that the system can be applied to the real field environment."
Rick Mao, Senior Director, System verification development Div., 5G product development center, PEGATRON Corp.
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"We are pleased that Keysight recognized the potential of the POWDER LaaS environment and could collaborate with them to illustrate the utility of the POWDER LaaS Automation Framework. We look forward to building on this success."
Kobus Van der Merwe, professor and director of the POWDER Platform at the University of Utah
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"SageRAN is pleased to participate in O-RAN Alliance Global Plugfest Spring and verify its NR E2E solution using Keysight UeSIM solution. SageRAN, as a leading O-RAN protocol stack promoter, has built a good partnership with O-RAN ecosystem members and delivered high-performance O-RAN compliant L1, L2, L3 software, multi-platform NR E2E products, and practical 5G vertical use cases. We believe in-depth collaboration with Keysight, and ecosystem partners will enable the development of Open RAN and rapidly deliver next-gen technology to market."
Tony Chen, CMO, SageRAN Technology Co.
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"Interoperable systems within 5G and through the edge, as well as front/mid/back haul, to core systems will be critical for the long-term success of 5G deployments. Events like the O-RAN PlugFests and the associated work in the lab reflect the industry's dedication to this ideal."
Lincoln Lavoie, UNH-IOL principal engineer, Broadband Technologies, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory
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"Energy efficiency is increasingly an important element in designing systems for the future. Wind River Studio delivers an integrated cloud platform unifying infrastructure, orchestration, and analytics capabilities to help operators address complex challenges for a cloud-native world. Wind River is proud to be part of the O-RAN Spring PlugFest project which demonstrates how Open RAN can be used to effectively reduce power consumption and cost while improving the environment."
Gil Hellmann, vice president, Telecom Solutions Engineering, Wind River
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"WNC was delighted to partner with Keysight Technologies in the fourth global PlugFest event, giving us the opportunity to test and verify the interoperability of WNC’s 5G E2E O-RAN solution, comprising O-RU, O-DU, and O-CU," said Horen Chen, CTO of WNC. "As a one-stop-shop total solution provider in the communications industry, WNC will continue to offer customized E2E solutions for a wide range of 5G applications, thereby broadening the 5G network ecosystem."
Horen Chen, CTO, WNC
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"Meaningful 5G xHaul solutions require advanced multiservice programmable networking and that's what our purpose-driven IP Wave framework delivers. Our Neptune Access Router portfolio proved its multiservice IP/MPLS capabilities under stringent conditions by aggregating and transporting multiple Layer 2 and Layer 3 services, leveraging FlexE as required to provide network segregation. We're pleased to participate in PlugFest and help contribute to moving the industry forward."
Sam Bucci executive vice president and general manager, IP Optical Networks Business Unit, Ribbon
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