O-RAN Alliance Conducts First Global Plugfest to Foster Adoption of Open and Interoperable 5G Radio Access Networks
19.12.2019 13:57:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
The O-RAN Alliance successfully conducted its first worldwide plugfest and proof of concept to demonstrate the functionality as well as the multi-vendor interoperability of network equipment that complies with the recently published O1, A1, and Open Fronthaul interface specifications.
“O-RAN’s first global plugfest showcases the power of the community to document and develop truly open interface specifications with the potential to accelerate new 5G advanced services that will be multi-operator, multi-vendor, and create opportunities for the entire ecosystem,” said Andre Fuetsch, Chairman of the O-RAN Alliance and Chief Technology Officer of AT&T. “These live demonstrations represent yet another step toward the realization of O-RAN compliant 5G RAN solutions that should soon become part of the product offerings of both mainstream and niche vendors.”
ASIA
Hosted by China Mobile, the plugfest Asian Session was held in the China Mobile International Information Port, an Open Test and Integration Center, with physical attendance well over 200 attendees from over 70 companies, plus on-line attendance of over 70 participants. Representatives from global operators including British Telecom, China Telecom, China Unicom, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Reliance Jio, Telecom Italia Mobile and an operator from North America have actively participated in this event. The plugfest tested and integrated multi-vendor solutions that comply with the O-RAN Open Fronthaul interface and exercised decoupling different hardware technologies from the RAN software:
- Cloud-based small cell running on virtualization technology was demonstrated by CertusNet, Lenovo, ChengDu NTS and Inventec. It features a VM-based O-CU and containerized O-DU cohosted on the same x86 processor plus accelerator platform.
- Multi-vendor interoperability with 5G commercial products was demonstrated by NTT DOCOMO with Fujitsu and NEC.
- A low power configuration of cloud base station running on Yocto OS and container technology was demonstrated by Altran, ArrayComm, WindRiver, Baicells and CIG. It features the open architecture baseband signal processing based on ARM processor plus accelerator computing platform.
- Soft base station with O-RAN compliant open fronthaul interface, but without virtualization, was demonstrated by Radisys, Foxconn (Taiwan), QCT and Intel. It leverages open source software including the O-RAN Open Source Community’s OFH Lib, and BBDev based Accelerator Abstraction Layer SDK API.
- The interworking of the O-RAN open fronthaul interface was demonstrated on technology provided by FHK (Shenzen) and Viavi, which performs comprehensive tests based on the test specification by O-RAN with O-RU and UE emulator in a multiple-UE test environment.
The plugfest held in the NTT DOCOMO R&D Center presented multi-vendor interoperability between CU/O-DU and O-RU using the O-RAN Open Fronthaul interface and multi-vendor interoperability between eNB and gNB using the O-RAN X2 interface. The functionality has been successfully demonstrated by NTT DOCOMO, Fujitsu, NEC, and Nokia. NTT DOCOMO has already started 5G pre-commercial service with the presented products. An Open Test and Integration Center is planned to be established in Japan.
NORTH AMERICA
The plugfest and proof-of-concept conducted within an Open Test and Integration Center candidate in North America, 5G COSMOS, which consists of vendor and university labs in the NYC metro area, was hosted by AT&T and focused primarily on the validation of the O1 and A1 interfaces:
- Physical Network Function (PNF) Plug and Play, a 3GPP-aligned O1 use case that provides a means for service providers to collaborate with equipment vendors to have PNFs discovered by Service Management Orchestration (SMO) via a PNF registration handler, was demonstrated by Nokia, CommScope and Ericsson. Remote SMO functions were also demonstrated with connections to labs in France and Germany.
- Bulk Performance Management Data Collection was demonstrated by Ericsson and Nokia.
- O1 interface functionality for Configuration, Performance, and Fault Management of multi-vendor equipment via a vendor-agnostic SMO was demonstrated by Altiostar, CommScope, and Samsung.
- A1 interface functionality to optimize PCI/RSI for a large-scale RAN simulator using a closed loop automation framework was demonstrated by IBM, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and highstreet technologies.
- Convergence of the Open Fronthaul Management Plane specification with O1 interface was demonstrated by Samsung.
“The O-RAN Alliance has been continuously expanding its influence in the industry since its inception. It is really amazing to see such a symbolic milestone achieved just 10 months since its release of the first specification in MWC Barcelona this year,” said Zhengmao Li, EVP of China Mobile. “The successful holding of the plugfest event globally with deep contribution from over 30 partners represents a consolidated step towards a full disaggregated O-RAN compliant 5G network.”
Dr. Hiroshi Nakamura, EVP and CTO, NTT DOCOMO commented, "We believe wide adoption of O-RAN compliant products will enable more agile, flexible and cost-effective network construction, and welcome the testing and integration efforts of O-RAN standards that are being carried out across the globe. NTT DOCOMO will continue to lead O-RAN Alliance activities and expand its 5G network, and will accelerate the co-creation of 5G services and markets with vertical industry partners."
O-RAN Industry Briefing at MWC 2020
For a comprehensive update on O-RAN activities, including significant developments in Europe, the O-RAN community will come together for the O-RAN Industry Briefing event at MWC Barcelona 2020. Representatives from O-RAN operator and vendor member organizations will discuss and share views on the important steps towards realizing O-RAN compliant commercial solutions. O-RAN Alliance is looking forward to meeting you on Feb 25, 2020, 9:30-10:30 am at the Deutsche Telekom Booth, Hall 3, Booth 3M31.
About O-RAN Alliance
O-RAN Alliance is a world-wide community of more than 130 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, 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-compliant mobile networks will at the same time improve the efficiency of RAN deployments as well as operations by the mobile operators. To achieve this, 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.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191219005289/en/
Contact information
O-RAN Alliance PR Contact
Zbynek Dalecky
pr@o-ran.org
O-RAN Alliance e.V.
Buschkauler Weg 27
53347 Alfter/Germany
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
New Visa Research Finds Consumer Trust is Accelerating the Path to Agentic Commerce9.9.2026 14:00:00 EEST | Press release
Visa (NYSE: V) today announced the Visa Trust Index for agentic commerce, providing new insight into how consumers are navigating the next evolution of AI shopping and payments. While consumers are increasingly using AI across the shopping journey, only 23% of U.S. consumers trust GenAI to handle payment transactions on their behalf. However, confidence in agentic commerce shifts when payments brands come into consideration. Visa emerged as the most trusted brand for AI-powered payments with 61% of respondents saying they would trust Visa to handle agentic transactions. The findings suggest that while consumers are intrigued by agentic commerce, trust remains the key factor determining whether adoption moves from possibility to reality. "AI has the potential to fundamentally reshape how people discover, buy and pay for goods and services, much like e-commerce and mobile commerce did before it," said Oliver Jenkyn, Group President, Visa. "While we're still in the early days, trust will
NIQ’s Optiq™ Goes Live in Discover, Expanding Access to Trusted Consumer Intelligence9.9.2026 13:45:00 EEST | Press release
NielsenIQ (NIQ), a leading consumer intelligence company, today announced that Optiq is now live within Discover, NIQ’s platform for accessing, analyzing and applying consumer and market intelligence, advancing the company’s strategy to make trusted consumer intelligence easier to access and apply. Where Ask Arthur introduced new ways to explore and analyze NIQ data through AI within Discover, Optiq expands that experience across conversational AI, mobile access and enterprise AI integrations, giving clients greater flexibility to access and apply NIQ intelligence across the applications and workflows where they make decisions. “AI models are becoming ubiquitous. Trusted intelligence is not,” said Irina Stoian, Chief AI Commercial Officer at NIQ. “That is why we are building the full system. Think of it like a body: harmonized NIQ data acts as the nervous system, delivering signals about the marketplace to decisioning agents that act as the brain, helping clients evaluate relevant info
Cegid and Silae Join Forces to Create a European Leader in AI-Driven Business Technology9.9.2026 13:32:00 EEST | Press release
Cegid, an AI-driven European leader in cloud business management software for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and accounting professionals, and Silae, France’s leading payroll and human resources platform, today announced their intention to merge. The combination will create a national technology champion and the leading European technology platform for businesses and their partners, helping them grow safely and efficiently with the support of a fully integrated and compliant suite covering their end-to-end financial and administrative needs. Between them, Cegid, following its recent acquisition of Shine, and Silae power the day-to-day accounting, tax, finance and payroll of 2 million end-customers and more than 15,000 chartered accountancy firms, while producing more than 13 million payslips across Europe every month. The planned transaction is expected to value the combined group at more than €10 billion in enterprise value, positioning it as one of France's largest softwar
Compass Pathways’ New 52-Week Topline Open-Label Data from Phase 3 COMP005 Trial Demonstrates Additional Benefit from Another COMP360 Dose in Part C Extending Durability Out to 1 Year9.9.2026 13:30:00 EEST | Press release
Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), a biotechnology company dedicated to unlocking urgently needed new treatment options in mental health care, announced today the topline 52-week results (Part C) from its Phase 3 COMP005 trial of COMP360, a synthetic, proprietary formulation of psilocybin, for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) which further support COMP360’s differentiated profile and potential for long lasting benefit. The open-label Part C data demonstrate four important findings: first, notable additional benefit was observed with an added reduction in MADRSscore leading to an average 13-point reduction from baseline at Week 52 and extended out to 1 year for participants who were randomized to the 25 mg arm and received an additional dosein Part C; second, for participants in the Placebo arm who received their first dose of COMP360 25 mg in Part C, these findings further reinforce that a single dose of 25 mg has the potential to produce rapid onset, meaningful effect and durabi
New ABB and BCG Report Highlights Growing Role of Direct Current Technologies in Future Power Systems9.9.2026 12:42:00 EEST | Press release
ABB today published a new report, The Strategic Case for Hybrid AC/DC Power: Shaping the Transition to the Next Electrical Architecture, developed in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report makes the case that direct current (DC) technology is moving from the periphery to the center of industrial, commercial, and digital infrastructure – and that the decisions made by business leaders and policymakers in the next two to three years will determine who shapes that transition and who inherits it. The future of power distribution is not an either-or choice between alternating current (AC) and direct current, but a hybrid system that combines the strengths of both technologies. While AC will remain the backbone of most transmission and regional distribution networks, DC is expected to play an increasingly important role within facilities where many major energy sources and loads already operate natively on direct current. The fastest-growing technologies, including sola
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom