O-RAN Announces Certification and Badging Program, Next Generation Research Group, Open RAN Summit, and Results of Spring 2022 PlugFest

BONN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Since its beginning in 2018, the O-RAN ALLIANCE’s mission has been transforming Radio Access Networks towards open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable RAN. Now, the O-RAN Ecosystem counts more than 340 companies and institutions from all over the world. O-RAN’s emphasis on openness is reflected in its setup as an open technical organization, according to the WTO criteria, where incumbent as well as emerging industry players or academic institutions can join and contribute.

O-RAN ALLIANCE Industry Summit June 2022

The O-RAN ALLIANCE Industry Summit June 2022 concluded on June 29, 2022 and is now available for on-demand replay at our website.

O-RAN Certification and Badging Program in cooperation with Open Test and Integration Centres (OTIC)

O-RAN ALLIANCE has launched its Certification and Badging program. O-RAN certificates state that an equipment or function is conformant to O-RAN specifications, whereas the O-RAN badges confirm interoperability or end-to-end functionality of an O-RAN solution. O-RAN certificates and badges will be issued by the Open Testing and Integration Centers, or OTICs.

The OTICs provide collaborative, open, and impartial working environment to ensure consistency and quality of testing of O-RAN products and solutions. O-RAN ALLIANCE has just approved the 7th OTIC and first one in Americas: Kyrio O-RAN Test and Integration Lab hosted by CableLabs.

See the full list of approved OTICs at our website.

O-RAN next Generations Research Group will focus on future network standards

O-RAN ALLIANCE has formed its next Generations Research Group (nGRG).

“The nGRG will focus on research of open and intelligent RAN principles in 6G and future network standards,” said Chih-Lin I, Co-chair of O-RAN Technical Steering Committee and Chief Scientist, Wireless Technologies, China Mobile Research Institute. “We are seeing very positive uptake on nGRG from the O-RAN ecosystem as well as the academic sphere and we are looking forward to seeing further progress of the research.”

Open RAN Summit @ Fyuz to be held on 25-26 October 2022 in Madrid

O-RAN ALLIANCE is delighted to announce the Open RAN Summit @ Fyuz, powered by the O-RAN ALLIANCE and Telecom Infra Project, which will take place in Madrid on October 25-26, 2022. We welcome TIP as they join us for this combined event.

Designed to bring together stakeholders from across the ecosystem, the Open RAN Summit at Fyuz will deliver the latest from the industry as we drive towards more disaggregated, intelligent, open, and fully interoperable mobile networks. All of that, served in a unique experience combining technology with gastronomy to stir your imagination. Learn more and register at the Fyuz event website.

O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2022 concluded at 3 continents with 50 participants

 

Starting from this year, O-RAN ALLIANCE switches to hosting two global PlugFests per year, to accommodate for ever increasing interest of the diverse O-RAN community to efficiently test and integrate their O-RAN solutions.

O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2022 took place at 3 continents with 50 participating companies or institutions, some of which participated at more than one venue.

In North America, the O-RAN ‘PoCFest’ hosted by AT&T and DISH spanned across 4 labs in cooperation with several universities:

  • TIP Community Lab at Meta, Menlo Park CA
  • POWDER Lab and NSF PAWR SITE with the University of Utah
  • COSMOS Lab and NSF PAWR SITE with the Rutgers University, Columbia University, NYU Wireless
  • InterOperability Lab at the University of New Hampshire

Activities focused on demonstrations of use cases within the O-RAN Use Cases Detailed Specification version 6.0 & 7.0, as well as use cases that are currently in the process of being specified such as Energy Saving / Energy Efficiency. More than 20 unique O-RAN components were tested for conformance to O-RAN specifications.