Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) and VIAVI have announced the expansion of their partnership to enhance joint wireless lab test solutions.
As leaders in wireless communication testing and active contributors to standards development, the two companies continue to address critical requirements based on the latest 3GPP and O-RAN specifications.
“Since we introduced joint O-RU conformance testing, R&S and VIAVI have been delivering on our vision of best-of-breed approach with a unified customer experience,” said Ian Langley, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Business Unit, VIAVI. “We are pleased to expand our partnership into new areas of demand, as O-RAN equipment enters commercial deployment and evolution, and the industry incorporates NTN to augment coverage in mobile communications.”
Since the inception of their partnership, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI have built a reputation for delivering compact, flexible solutions that leverage the strengths of both companies, ensuring a seamless user experience.
Open RAN
With major deployments by Tier-1 providers, Open RAN is now mainstream in network infrastructure, increasing the need for comprehensive testing.
Network Energy Saving: O-RAN radio units (O-RU) consume most of the power in 5G networks, making energy efficiency a priority. Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI have developed an automated testbed for verifying O-RU energy efficiency. This setup includes the R&S RTO6 oscilloscope, R&S NGP800 power supply, and VIAVI TM500 O-RU Tester, allowing detailed monitoring of power consumption under various load conditions.
Test Scalability: As O-RAN radios reach commercial deployment, testing must extend beyond lab validation to R&D use cases focusing on simplicity, speed, and cost-effectiveness. The R&S PVT360A, a compact VSA and VSG, works with the VIAVI TM500 O-RU Tester and O-RU Test Manager Application to provide a scalable, cost-optimized solution ideal for accelerating R&D testing.
Non-Terrestrial Networks
Satellite operators, mobile network operators, equipment vendors, and end-user application providers need to evaluate the performance of NTN networks and their traffic. To support this, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI have developed an NTN digital twin testbed covering LEO, MEO, and GEO satellites.
This testbed supports use cases such as validating end-to-end connectivity and performance, measuring Quality of Service over large areas with various UEs, assessing application performance under different distance and mobility conditions, and ensuring reliability and stability.
"It feels great to work with experts,” said Alexander Pabst, Vice President Market Segment Wireless Communications at Rohde & Schwarz. “Combining our market leading products to create solutions that address our customers’ problems in smart ways. Energy efficiency tests hit the nerve of the industry, and our smaller footprint setup meets the needs of new segments that are popping up left and right of conformance. In addition, I am extremely pleased to see our collaboration expanding into space with the most compact digital twin solution for NTN. Here, not even the sky is the limit!”
