Test and Measurement: Keysight, AT&T and others join forces on Open RAN white box

Keysight Technologies, AT&T and some of their fellow Open Radio Access Network Alliance members have developed a white-box O-RAN millimeter wave unit for 5G networks that will be showcased at Mobile World Congress, in a live demo that the companies say “combines essential building blocks to create and test a blueprint for next generation RAN.”The collaborative effort includes participation from Keysight, AT&T, Anokiwave, Ball and Xilinx; the white box demo will be held at Xilinx’s MWC booth 6M30 in Hall 6.“This achievement within O-RAN is exciting because it proves that a radio unit can be built on an open architecture platform,” said Andre Fuetsch, CTO and president of AT&T Labs. “Since the demo unit we’ll show at MWC is built with commercial off-the-shelf components, it’s a promising next step to deliver the flexibility we’re looking for when building networks– especially as we enter into the mobile 5G deployment era.” Rob Freedman, VP and GM for tactical solutions at Ball Aerospace, said that the white box proof-of-concept “demonstrates that an open architecture remote radio unit can be built with commercial off-the-shelf components.” Alastair Upton, Anokiwave’s SVP of business development, added that “A working prototype of a mmWave Smart Radio Unit from a fronthaul interface to mmWave beams is an important step to realize open interfaces for the O-RAN Alliance.”