Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced that Innogence, a vendor of 5G base stations, has selected Keysight's user equipment emulation (UEE) solution platform, UeSIM, to validate the performance of O-RAN compliant small cell infrastructure.

Innogence is the latest manufacturer within the open radio access network (RAN) ecosystem to choose Keysight's UEE solutions for validating the performance of O-RAN compliant small cell infrastructure. Innogence is part of an expanding ecosystem established to support mobile operators with network equipment based on open RAN standard interfaces for cost-effective and flexible delivery of a diverse range of 5G services. As a result, more open RAN vendors are seeking Keysight's integrated solution portfolio to access unique end-to-end performance visibility from the edge of the RAN to the 5G core.

"We're pleased to support Innogence with technology that Keysight has developed by successfully merging our organic and inorganic capabilities," said Cao Peng, senior director at Keysight. "By combining expertise in foundational technologies, such as 5G and virtualized RAN, with an expanded software-based solution portfolio, Keysight is helping the industry make the transition towards open RAN interfaces."

Keysight's UeSIM offers integrated sophisticated channel emulation capabilities which enable Innogence to accelerate verification of network elements aimed for deployment in a complex radio environment. It also provides access to a comprehensive range of real-world scenarios in frequency range 1 and 2 for protocol and load testing.

"Keysight has provided Innogence access to an integrated edge-to-core portfolio that is critical to efficiently validating each network component and verifying their performance when part of multi-vendor RAN," said Chun Yin, deputy general manager at Innogence. "We rely on Keysight's solutions to establish interoperability between O-RAN compliant radio units and distributed units, across the protocol stack, from the physical layer to the application layer."

Keysight recently participated a Plugfest organized by the O-RAN Alliance with broad participation across the industry. The results of the event, which allows designers of electronic equipment or software to test the interoperability of their products or designs with those of other manufacturers, underscore the readiness of the O-RAN standard, currently supported by more than one hundred and seventy businesses. 

This, combined with the approval of the O-RAN fronthaul conformance test specifications, is helping chipset vendors, network equipment manufacturers and software developers deliver innovative solutions to mobile operators looking to create a multi-vendor environment.