Shares O-RAN Equipment Test Results at Plugfest
SK Telecom announced on Dec. 15 that it shared the results of its tests on Korean Open-Radio Access Network (O-RAN) equipment at Plugfest hosted by the O-RAN Alliance.
It conducted the tests with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), HFR, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intel and Keysight Technologies.
O-RAN is a technology that enables mobile communication equipment, such as base stations, from different manufacturers to interoperate through standardization of interfaces.
Plugfest is an informal event designed to give hardware engineers and software developers an opportunity to conduct interoperability testing with other products. Member companies share their test results on the openness, interoperability, and functionality of base station devices and solutions that comply with the O-RAN Alliance specifications.
SK Telecom became the first Korean company to disclose the detailed results of standard conformance tests and field tests on O-Ran, CU, DU and RU through Plugfest. In particular, it was the first time that the results of tests using an O-RAN base station from a medium-sized Korean company were presented.
Based on test procedures defined by the O-RAN Alliance specifications, SK Telecom conducted extensive demonstrations on RU, DU and CU which constitute 5G O-RAN.
In particular, SK Telecom successfully carried out the demonstrations by taking into account various service environments such as demonstrations on domestic O-RAN 5G base station systems, standard conformance and compatibility tests on O-RAN RU and virtualized O-RAN CU and DU and O-RAN communication tests in indoor environments.
The demonstrations were carried out at O-RAN Test Lab in SK Telecom's Bundang Office Building in collaboration with Korean and foreign researchers. The ETRI and HFR were in charge of conformance tests and O-RAN equipment, respectively. Keysight was responsible for metering RU, DU and UE emulator equipment essential to O-RAN conformance tests. HPE handled general-purpose servers for virtual base stations. Intel worked on accelerators and processors that hold the key to base station virtualization.