Keysight Technologies, Inc. has enabled Foxconn Industrial Internet (Fii) to become the first manufacturer to obtain a Certificate of Conformance for an outdoor Open Radio Unit (O-RU) through the O-RAN ALLIANCE?s Certification and Badging program. Fii?s O-RU was validated with the Keysight Open RAN Studio solution. By separating software from hardware through open interfaces and virtualization, Open RAN network architectures offer mobile operators increased flexibility and agility while reducing costs and enhancing security.

To ensure interoperability among Open RAN equipment, the O-RAN ALLIANCE established its Certification and Badging program allowing manufacturers to verify products are compliant with O-RAN specifications by using O-RAN conformance test specifications covering the control, user, synchronization, and management (CUSM) planes. The Keysight Open RAN Studio enabled Fii to verify its O-RU conformance by supporting emulation and analysis of all four planes, from fronthaul Ethernet to the radio frequency (RF) air interface. In the case of the synchronization plane (S-Plane), the solution allowed Fii to test devices under ideal time resources and apply simulated network noise, which is essential for conducting S-Plane conformance testing and certifying RAN equipment under realistic network conditions.

Fii verified their Outdoor O-RU using Keysight?s: U5040BSCB Open RAN Studio to combine features on various test equipment into a single test solution, supporting high-performance Open Distributed Unit (O-DU) emulation for MIMO and massive MIMO O-RU testing and validation. Time Sync Analyzer, integrated with Open RAN Studio, to emulate the O-DU for synchronization testing by generating Precision Time Protocol (PTP), Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), and digital clocks with built-in impairment for realistic testing while analyzing clock quality.