Keysight and Synergy Advance 5G O-RAN Development

KEYSIGHT Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, and Synergy Design Technologies are expanding a collaboration to advance the development of 5G Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) and Virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) infrastructures. Through the collaboration, Synergy will use Keysight's user equipment (UE) emulation solutions to validate Radio Access Network (RAN) performance. 

With the increasing complexity of mobile network ecosystems and the evolution of RAN technologies, infrastructure vendors need accurate and efficient network performance testing solutions to ensure functionality across all interfaces. UE emulation solutions replicate real network traffic to validate end-to-end RAN performance and improve product design.

Synergy will employ Keysight's P8800S UE Emulation RAN (UeSIM) and P8822S UE/O-RU Emulation Over the O-RAN Fronthaul (RuSIM) solutions to create a network test environment supporting the development and troubleshooting of its software-based 5G Smart RAN solution. Using both UE emulation platforms, Synergy will be able to validate its all-in-one small cells as well as O-RAN radio units (O-RUs), distributed units (O-DUs), and central units (O-CUs) allowing for continuous product optimization and design enhancements.

Keysight's UeSIM UE emulation solutions enable infrastructure vendors, chipset providers, and mobile operators to validate end-to-end RAN performance by emulating real network traffic over both radio and O-RAN fronthaul interfaces. RuSIM enables functional, conformance, and performance testing of O-DUs over fronthaul functional split option 7.2x.

Cao Peng, Vice President and General Manager for Keysight's Wireless Test Group, said: "In 2021, Keysight and Synergy initiated a collaboration on test solutions that enable a connected global ecosystem of O-RAN vendors, mobile operators, and test labs to create end-to-end performance verification environments based on real-world data. We are delighted to continue to support Synergy in their development of vertically-integrated software solutions, from RF and open fronthaul validation to conformance testing and from low/high PHY to higher layers protocol stack testing."

Paul Li, President at Synergy Design Technology, said: "Keysight's UeSIM and RuSIM are enabling Synergy to continuously optimize and enhance our software. We're pleased to expand our partnership to advance the development of our 5G Smart RAN technology design and reduce time-to-market, which is thanks to Keysight's complete end-to-end, interoperability, and conformance test solutions portfolio."