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Keysight Technologies, Inc. co-organised the first Global Open Testing and Integration Centers (OTIC) Summit with the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in close partnership with O-RAN ALLIANCE. The event, which took place on 23–24 August, aimed to foster collaboration with the OTICs and accelerate innovation and adoption of O-RAN solutions by sharing visions, roadmaps, plans, and best practices.

O-RAN ALLIANCE has approved 15 OTICs globally with the intent of leveraging their expertise and state-of-the art lab testing facilities to accelerate Open RAN technology adoption and commercial deployments. SUTD hosts the Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore with the other OTICs located in the rest of Asia, Europe, and U.S.

Peng Cao, Vice President, and General Manager at Keysight’s Wireless Test Group, said: “Open RAN is making significant progress with increased lab testing, more field trials, and widespread global deployment plans. Keysight sees the OTICs playing an instrumental role in enabling the Open RAN ecosystem with its world-class test and integration lab capabilities and expertise. Keysight co-organized this first global OTIC summit with SUTD, IMDA, and O-RAN ALLIANCE with the goal of strengthening collaboration among OTICs and Open RAN ecosystem partners to accelerate multi-vendors Open RAN deployments.”

Keysight co-facilitated a workshop at this summit in which leading operators provided their feedback on the OTICs, O-RAN Certification, and Badging. High-quality certificates and badges with repeatable and consistent test results were among few of the key expectations identified, as this will provide operators with confidence that the O-RAN network functions are adhering to O-RAN specifications and supporting multi-vendors interoperability.

A Showcase of Keysight’s Leading Innovations

Keysight showcased its leading 5G and Open RAN test solution portfolio in collaboration with partners to help demonstrate vendor solutions maturity and deployment readiness:

• 5G and O-RAN Security. Keysight’s Security Test Suite was used to perform automated 3GPP Security Assurance Specification (SCAS) testing and reporting with Quanta Cloud Technology’s commercial gNodeB.
• O-RAN Energy Consumption. Keysight’s Energy Plane Test Suite was used to perform automated energy consumption measurements and characterization of LITEON’s O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU), leveraging ETSI standardised methodology and reporting, RAN energy consumption measurements, and characterisation.

• O-RAN RAN Intelligent Controller (RIC). Keysight’s RIC Test Suite was used to perform closed loop automated verification of Juniper Network’s RIC, including the AI/ML-enabled RAN Admissions Control xApps/rApps.

• 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN). Keysight’s End-to-End (E2E) NTN test bed was used to demonstrate 3GPP Release 17 NTN NR technology in a live-to-lab setup where an entire NTN communications network was emulated with Keysight’s UE emulator (UeSIM), channel emulator (PROPSIM), and base station emulator (UXM). Each of these Keysight products can be used for testing the NTN base stations and NTN devices separately.

A Gathering of Industry Leaders

More than 190 participants from 12 countries representing network operators, government agencies, vendors, lab operators, academia, and O-RAN ALLIANCE leadership team attended the event.

Professor Tony Quek, Director of Future Communications R&D Programme (FCP) and Head of Pillar, Information Systems Technology and Design at SUTD, said: “Together with IMDA and Keysight, SUTD is glad to organize the first Global OTIC summit aimed at bringing together different stakeholders and OTICs from around the world to strengthen collaboration and share expertise to make Open RAN a success.”

“This summit was a great opportunity to showcase Keysight’s 5G and Open RAN test solution portfolio in collaboration with our partners,” added Jun Chie, Vice President and General Manager at Keysight’s Asia Pacific Sales. “The successful demonstrations strengthen Keysight’s position at the forefront of Open RAN technology adoption and commercial deployment.”

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