VIAVI announced the addition of two more customer labs and an RF-shielded anechoic chamber to its VIAVI Automated Lab-as-a-Service for Open RAN (VALOR) testing facility. The VALOR Lab, located in Chandler, Arizona, provides a highly automated, open, and impartial Lab-as-a-Service/Test-as-a-Service suite for Open RAN security, performance, and interoperability.
The Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) in the United States is providing funding for the initiative.
With system-level Massive MIMO performance testing for up to 16 parallel spatial layers, the new RF Chamber is the first test-as-a-service solution in the industry for Massive MIMO and beamforming over-the-air (OTA) validation.
Massive MIMO, an advancement of Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology for earlier wireless technology generations, makes use of extensive arrays of antennas to accommodate 5G’s higher data rates and spectrum efficiency.
OTA simplifies the testing process by putting the device under test (DUT) in a chamber protected from external interference and testing it with wireless signals to further simulate real-world settings, as opposed to traditional testing that uses electrical cables between test instruments and the DUT.
There are now two more labs available in addition to the RF chamber. More than 500 test cases that adhere to O-RAN WG4, WG5, WG11, TIFG, and 3GPP requirements are available to customers. ETS-Lindgren, a global leader in wireless over-the-air (OTA) performance testing, supplies the RF chamber.
Utilizing the VAMOS unified framework for hybrid physical and cloud-based testing, VIAVI’s industry-leading NITRO Wireless Open RAN Test Suite, and reference O-RAN compliant O-RUs, O-DUs, and O-CUs supplied by multiple reliable partners, VALOR offers conformance, performance, security, and interoperability testing.
Being the first lab to get the AI-RAN Alliance-endorsement, VALOR acts as a central location for AI-RAN Alliance members, encouraging creativity and facilitating state-of-the-art developments in AI-powered telecommunications. Additionally, customers sent to the lab by ACCoRD will have access to VALOR’s complete suite of O-RAN tests as part of VIAVI’s partnership with AT&T and Verizon to expedite Open RAN testing.
Better preparedness for the certification, badging, and acceptance tests at OTICs and CSP laboratories is made possible by VALOR, which works in tandem with the majority of industrial testing labs now in operation. The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) has approved it as the first test service for its system performance certification program.
Leadership Comments
“This expansion addresses the growing demand for our innovative Open RAN Lab-as-a-Service offering, which helps democratize Open RAN testing for technology vendors by providing them with a comprehensive, on-demand test suite throughout the entire product lifecycle,” said Erik Probstfield, Senior Director, VALOR, VIAVI. “With the new RF Chamber, we are excited to offer OTA testing that will help accelerate O-RU commercialization and innovation.”
“Congratulations to VIAVI on the successful expansion of the VALOR Lab,” said Andy Warner, President, ETS-Lindgren. “We are proud to support the team with this state-of-the-art, customized chamber to bring the next generation of OTA base station test methodology to the industry.”
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