In Short:
Rohde and Schwarz (R&S) and Viavi Solutions have improved their partnership to enhance wireless lab test solutions focusing on new industry specifications. The companies have delivered compact solutions ensuring seamless user experience. The partnership has led to the development of energy efficiency testing for O-RAN radio units and scalable testing solutions for O-RAN radios. They have also developed a digital twin testbed for evaluating Non-Terrestrial Networks. Both companies are expanding their collaboration to address customer challenges.
Rohde and Schwarz (R&S) and Viavi Solutions (Viavi) have expanded their partnership to enhance joint wireless lab test solutions, focusing on new 3GPP and O-RAN specifications. Both companies have delivered compact and flexible solutions to ensure a seamless user experience since the inception of this partnership, announced on Wednesday.
Open RAN Solutions
Open RAN technology is witnessing significant deployments by Tier-1 service providers, increasing the necessity for subsystem and end-to-end conformance, performance, and interoperability testing, as per the joint statement released.
Energy Efficiency Testing
The majority of power consumption in 5G networks is attributed to O-RAN radio units (O-RUs). To tackle this, R&S and Viavi have developed an automated testbed to verify the energy efficiency of O-RUs. This testbed includes the R&S RTO6 oscilloscope, R&S NGP800 power supply, and Viavi TM500 O-RU Tester. It conducts tests on energy efficiency under various load conditions and accurately monitors power consumption dynamics.
Scalable Testing Solutions
As O-RAN radios progress towards commercial deployment, there is a shift towards more extensive use case and functionality testing. R&S and Viavi offer a scalable solution with the R&S PVT360A vector signal analyzer (VSA) and vector signal generator (VSG), paired with the Viavi TM500 O-RU Tester and Test Manager Application. This setup caters to R&D teams in need of multiple test lines to accelerate time to market.
Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN)
R&S and Viavi have introduced an NTN digital twin testbed for evaluating NTN networks, encompassing Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO). This testbed supports use cases such as end-to-end connectivity validation, Quality of Service measurement over vast areas, and application performance testing under varied conditions.
The testbed comprises the R&S CMX500 mobile communication network tester, Viavi TM500-AS2, and VIAVI TeraVM Real Data Applications (RDA) engine, providing extensive and realistic testing scenarios, as mentioned in the official release.
Company Statements
Alexander Pabst, Vice President Market Segment Wireless Communications at Rohde and Schwarz, commended the success of the collaboration in addressing customer challenges, particularly in energy efficiency and NTN solutions.
“Since the introduction of joint O-RU conformance testing, R&S and Viavi have been fulfilling our vision of a best-of-breed approach with a unified customer experience,” stated Ian Langley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Business Unit, Viavi. “We are delighted to expand our partnership into new areas of demand, as O-RAN equipment transitions into commercial deployment and evolution, and the industry incorporates NTN to enhance coverage in mobile communications.”
