• LG U+ joins O-RAN as the 28th operator member

• O-RAN Open Summit (virtual) on February 25, 2021 will brief on O-RAN’s progress and outlook

• 7 O-RAN demos to be presented at MWC Shanghai 2021 and the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition

As of January 2021, the O-RAN ALLIANCE welcomes LG U+ as its 28th operator member. With strong support by its expanding number of contributors, the alliance now counts more than 260 companies from around the globe, building a foundation and unifying the Radio Access Networks (RAN) industry towards open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable RAN solutions.

O-RAN Open Summit (Virtual) Complements the O-RAN Demos at MWC Shanghai 2021

For latest updates on the evolution of open RAN, the O-RAN ALLIANCE invites interested industry participants to the O-RAN Open Summit. This compact virtual event will open with operator executives delivering a summary of O-RAN’s progress and developments. Subsequent keynotes and panel discussions with major O-RAN players will summarize the achievements and next steps in the O-RAN specification effort, testing and integration, and delivery of open software for the RAN.

The O-RAN Open Summit virtual event is scheduled for February 25, 2021 from 9:00-11:00pm China Standard Time (8:00-10:00am EST, 14:00-16:00 CET). For more information and to join the summit free of charge, please visit our website.

O-RAN Demonstrations at MWC Shanghai 2021 and at the O-RAN Virtual Showcase

Two O-RAN demonstrations are planned to be presented at the MWC Shanghai 2021:

• Sageran is demonstrating a complete O-RAN white-box small cell solution based on an x86 platform with an FPGA Accelerator card that showcases a stand-alone end-to-end use case using white box hardware for an indoor cell which supports MIMO with 4T4R. The demo is hosted at MWC Shanghai 2021 by Sageran, booth N2.C114, as well as at the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition.

• VIAVI and Rohde & Schwarz are jointly demonstrating validation of open fronthaul performance. As network operators adopt disaggregated, multi-vendor networks, rigorous testing of performance and interoperability must accompany conformance testing. This demo showcases generation and delivery of typical standards based testcase IQ data to the O-RU utilizing the Lower Layer Split Option 7.2x fronthaul interface with the VIAVI TM500 O-RU Tester. Moreover, uplink and downlink fronthaul logs are captured, and RF signal generation and capture are performed using the Rohde & Schwarz VSG and VSA hardware with VSE Software for RF and IQ signal analysis. Testcase workflow is simplified for the end user utilizing the VIAVI O-RU Test Manager, providing a single point of test control. The demo is hosted at MWC Shanghai 2021 by VIAVI Solutions, booth N1.B137, as well as at the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition.

5 more virtual demos for MWC Shanghai 2021 have enriched the O-RAN Virtual Exhibition:

• ITRI is demonstrating traffic steering xApps and Near-Real-Time Radio Intelligent Controller platform utilizing E2 procedures to monitor cell and UE metrics generated by RAN simulator and to offload some UE to neighbor cells such that the A1 policy is guaranteed.

• NVIDIA and VMWare are jointly demonstrating PoC of Aerial 5G gNB Layer-1 orchestration on VMWare telco cloud platform. This demo showcases NVIDIA Aerial SDK as cloud native function, with docker containers and Kubernetes manifests. Aerial cuBB onboarded to VMWare telco cloud platform offers service agility, operational efficiency and reduced CAPEX/OPEX through MANO.

• Viettel is demonstrating an end-to-end-solution based on Intel server (Xeon-D) with NIC (XXV710-DA2T) that is integrated with an outdoor micro O-RU via an Open Fronthaul Interface. The base station connects with EPC and Viettel’s eNB perform a complete NSA (Option 3X) white-box base station solution and ready for Commercial Deployment. The integrated system is verified using a commercial UE through the attach and speed test.

• Altiostar has teamed up with Airtel and NEC to demonstrate interoperability testing and integration of massive MIMO radio units (O-RU) and virtualized distributed units (O-DU) running on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers. The demonstration features a commercial end-to-end Open Fronthaul interface based on O-RAN specifications.

• Parallel Wireless is demonstrating 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G O-RAN based macro Open RAN to expand and modernize cellular networks with reduced TCO & simplified maintenance. It’s been proven in rural in 50+ networks globally and is now scalable for urban 2G 3G 4G while unleashing the full 5G potential.

About O-RAN ALLIANCE

The O-RAN ALLIANCE is a world-wide community of more than 260 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 standards will enable a more competitive and vibrant RAN supplier ecosystem with faster innovation to improve user experience. O-RAN based mobile networks will at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by the 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.

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