Keysight and Analog Devices collaborate on O-RAN demos

Analog Devices used Keysight Open Radio Architect (KORA)  solutions to showcase the performance of an O-RAN radio unit (O-RU) reference design at Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Spain.

The O-RU reference design provides designers a tested platform, which includes Analog Devices' new RadioVerse SOC and an Intel Agilex FPGA running Analog Devices 7.2x split low PHY baseband.

It enables development of high-performance multi-channel O-RUs using an optimized number of components.

"Keysight is pleased to strengthen the company's collaboration with Analog Devices by joining forces at key industry Plugfests and exhibitions, as well as by aligning our respective O-RAN technology roadmaps to accelerate deployment of multi-vendor networks," said Giampaolo Tardioli, vice president and general manager of Keysight's Network Access group. "KORA test tools allow Analog Devices to create end-to-end performance verification environments across a wide range of scenarios and use cases using real-world data."

Keysight offers a comprehensive suite of O-RAN solutions that span early pre-silicon development to system integration and addresses test requirements from the edge of the RAN to the core of the network.

The two companies recently collaborated to verify the interoperability and conformance of ADI's 3.5GHz 5G O-RU platform at the 2021 Global Plugfest event organised by the O-RAN ALLIANCE.

"As a leading provider of 4G and 5G software defined radios, Analog Devices supports the O-RAN ecosystem with solutions that speed time-to-market and deliver optimal performance for 5G networks," said Joe Barry, vice president of Wireless Communications at Analog Devices. "Keysight's robust solutions for O-RAN test, validation and emulation enable Analog Devices to accelerate development schedules, delivering early access to advanced O-RU technology for a global O-RAN ecosystem."

In June 2021, Keysight and Analog Devices signed an agreement to speed development of O-RAN solutions and ease the transition towards open, disaggregated and virtualized radio network architectures.

Analog Devices leverages several KORA solutions, including Open RAN Studio andDuSIM. Open RAN Studio offers test capabilities across radio frequency (RF) and protocol measurement domains to create a complete O-RU test environment for performance, interoperability and conformance validation, ensuring compliance to both 3GPP and O-RAN specifications.

DuSIM enables Analog Devices to validate the functionality, performance and conformance of a central unit by using embedded user equipment emulation capabilities.