O-RAN ALLIANCE Initiates Global PlugFest Spring 2024

The O-RAN ALLIANCE (O-RAN), fulfilling its mission to transform Radio Access Networks (RAN) to be open, intelligent, virtualized and fully interoperable, started this year's first PlugFest – the O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2024.

O-RAN ALLIANCE global PlugFests facilitate the progress of open RAN from specifications to commercialization

O-RAN Global PlugFests are periodic events organized and co-sponsored by O-RAN ALLIANCE to enable efficient progress of the O-RAN ecosystem through well-organized testing and integration. PlugFest participants gain early experience with conformance, interoperability and E2E testing in cooperation with other industry players. Achievements made at O-RAN PlugFests pave the way to O-RAN certification, proving confidence in commercially available O-RAN products.

O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2024 focuses on six themes prioritized by the O-RAN ALLIANCE, aiming to accelerate commercialization of O-RAN products and solutions from diverse vendors around the world. These themes are:

O-RAN Energy Consumption, Efficiency and Savings Testing – carried out at five PlugFest venues
O-RAN E2E Deployment Templates, DevOps, and Test Automation – carried out at four PlugFest venues
Demonstration of consistent and repeatable open fronthaul testing in multiple labs – carried out at four PlugFest venues
O-RAN System Testing with Layer 1 Acceleration – carried out at two PlugFest venues
O-RAN White-box Hardware diversity ecosystem – carried out at one PlugFest venue
Open Fronthaul Transport Testing with multiple O-RUs – carried out at one PlugFest venue
O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2024 engages 20 hosts with over 40 companies and institutions that announced participation at the event.

Hosts of O-RAN Global PlugFest Spring 2024 include:

Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore in cooperation with North American OTIC in Boston Area (Northeastern University) in USA
Auray OTIC and Security Lab in Taiwan
Digital Catapult in UK
EURECOM in France
Japan OTIC in Japan
Korea Telecom in South Korea
Kyrio OTIC in USA
LG Uplus in South Korea
Nakao Lab in Japan

Joint North American PlugFest in USA with University of New Hampshire, AT&T, DISH, NIST, Northeastern University, Rutgers University/WINLAB, University of Utah, and Verizon
XNET in cooperation with Asia & Pacific OTIC by ritt7layers
The PlugFest is scheduled to finish and results to be announced at the beginning of June 2024.

"O-RAN ALLIANCE continues to organize its global PlugFests to facilitate the progress of open RAN industry from specifications to commercialization," said Brian Daly, Co-chair of O-RAN Technical Steering Committee, and AVP, AT&T Services Inc. "PlugFest themes chosen by operators help to focus efforts on accelerating commercial readiness of priority areas. We welcome high interest from the O-RAN ecosystem to participate and make progress in testing and integration at O-RAN PlugFests."