Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi support European OTIC in Berlin for O-RAN conformance certification for VVDN kit
The European Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) in Berlin, supported by Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi, has awarded its firdst O-RAN conformance certification for international markets. The certification of an indoor O-RU of the LPRU-series from VVDN Technologies was completed according to O-RAN specified processes as defined by the O-RAN Alliance.
Indian contract manufacturer VVDN Technologies has developed its LPRU-series 5G NR Radio Units (O-RU) to be fully compliant to O-RAN ALLIANCE standards. The VVDN 4T/4R Split 7.2 radios are covering 5G NR TDD bands n77, N78 and n79. They are compact, lightweight, easy to install, and provide optimal coverage for indoor applications.
VVDN alsready has production ready radio units for Private 5G Network for multiple countries and markets. The company has both low power (4T4R 1W) and mid power (4T4R 20W) radio units suitable for private 5G deployments. VVDN’s radio units support global requirements in Band 48 CBRS, Band n78/n77 (3400 to 4100 MHz), and bandwidth up to 100Mhz, TDD duplex mode 4T4R and 2T2R for indoor and outdoor applications.
Last October the company, which also makes smartphones, announced plans to expand its manufacturing outside India although at the time founder and president Vivek Bansal would not be drawn on whether such a facility would be in the US, Middle East or Europe. Bansal hinted in an interview that Poland and Mexico were potentials. VVDN already has a small manufacturing presence in Fremont, California, to serve US customers.
Test mechanics
The O-RU verification followed the O-RAN fronthaul conformance test specification defined by O-RAN WG4, including the Control, User, and Synchronization plane (CUS-Plane) and the Management-plane (M-Plane). WG4’s objective is to deliver open fronthaul interfaces, in which interoperability between Distributed Unit (DU) and Radio Unit (RU) from multiple vendors can be realised.
The Berlin OTIC, one of four in Europe, is part of a publicly funded project called i14y Lab with its main facility hosted on premises at the Deutsche Telekom innovation campus. The others are located in Turin, Madrid and Paris, sponsored by TIM, Telefónica and Orange respectively. All approved Open Testing and Integration Centers (OTIC) worldwide cooperate with the O-RAN ALLIANCE in the O-RAN Certification and Badging Program, which represents a mechanism to ensure confidence in O-RAN solutions within the industry.
The i14y Lab is an open lab for interoperability testing of disaggregated telco systems, such as open RAN, led by Deutsche Telekom together with consortium partners. Rohde & Schwarz is one of the consortium members and offers an integrated solution for conformance testing of O-RAN Radio Units together with Viavi Solutions.
Both companies are active in specifications development in the O-RAN Alliance and have combined their capabilities: the solution consists of the Viavi TM500 O-RU Tester and the R&S SMBV100A vector signal generator (VSG), R&S FSVA3000 signal and spectrum analyser and Vector Signal Explorer (R&S VSE) software from Viavi TM500, with the O-RU Test Manager from Viavi as single point of control, providing a seamless user experience.
Image (l-r): Andreas Gladisch (i14y Lab Deutsche Telekom), Veneeth Sankarakutty (VVDN Technologies), Alexander Pabst (Rohde & Schwarz)