O-RAN Interoperability for Multi-Vendor 4G/5G RAN

Accelerating O-RAN radio interoperability and multi-vendor 4G/5G integration

5 min read

Overview

Enabling multi-vendor O-RAN radio interoperability through a virtualized lab environment

This case study highlights the successful implementation of an O-RAN Radio IoT (Interoperability Testing) solution for a leading American telecom equipment vendor and a leading Japanese OEM.

The engagement focused on enabling multi-vendor radio interoperability across both 4G and 5G RAN environments, leveraging O-RAN Split 7.2 architecture to support disaggregated and open RAN deployments. The solution was supported by a fully virtualized and containerized O-RAN lab environment, designed to accelerate integration, validation and scalability.

The Challenge

Scaling radio IoT capabilities across multi-vendor 4G and 5G ecosystems

As the customer expanded their Radio IoT capabilities, they encountered several critical challenges like setting up Lab infrastructure with multi-vendor environment and building team with required skill set:

The need to offer Radio IoT as a service to operators and ecosystem partners
Integration of multi-vendor radios with 4G and 5G RAN
Support for both FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) and TDD (Time Division Duplex) modes across 4G and 5G radios
Ensuring compliance with O-RAN WG4 Split 7.2 fronthaul (CUSM) specifications
Managing end-to-end system validation across diverse platforms, frequency bands and vendor ecosystems

The Objective

Validating O-RAN split 7.2 compliance and end-to-end system performance

The engagement was driven by the following objectives:

Enable Radio IoT and system integration testing for O-RAN-based 4G and 5G networks
Validate Split 7.2 fronthaul interoperability in alignment with O-RAN WG4 standards
Perform comprehensive end-to-end system testing, including performance, latency, KPI and CUSM protocol validation
Support multi-band and multi-vendor radio testing across indoor and outdoor deployments

The Solution

Designing a comprehensive O-RAN radio IoT and integration framework

A comprehensive O-RAN Radio IoT solution was designed and implemented with the following capabilities:

Radio integration using Split 7.2 architecture
End-to-End IoT and system testing, including:
- Performance testing
- Delay and latency profiling
- KPI validation
- CUSM protocol testing
Coverage of 40+ radio bands across multiple radio vendors
Support for 4G LTE and 5G NR (FDD/TDD) infrastructure
Radio IoT with RAN deployed on multiple software platforms, including:
- MWP
- VMware
- RHOSP
Validation of indoor and outdoor radios from vendors including Sunwave, Fujitsu, Benetel, Foxconn, Solid, Prose, Comba, and MTI.