Samsung, Verizon and Keysight Advance Commercial Open RAN With Extensive Conformance and Interoperability Testing

Testing across portfolio of radios illustrates Samsung's virtualized Open RAN leadership and advancements with its Massive MIMO radios

Samsung Electronics today announced it has completed Open RAN (O-RAN) conformance and interoperability testing for commercial-grade LTE and 5G NR radios for Verizon’s network. Leveraging Samsung’s extensive expertise in the vRAN and O-RAN global markets, Verizon and Samsung have expanded their collaboration a step forward by embracing openness.

For the series of tests carried out in Samsung’s lab in Dallas, Texas, the companies used Samsung’s market-leading radios compliant with O-RAN specifications. The tests included multiple Samsung radios including CAT-A radios 4T4R supporting 700/850 MHz and AWS/PCS bands, CAT-B 64T64R Massive MIMO C-Band radios and 16T16R C-band and CBRS dual-band radios.

The tests underscore Samsung’s Massive MIMO leadership, specifically with its 64T64R Massive MIMO radio which Verizon has already deployed throughout its large-scale commercial vRAN networks nationwide. Results from the tests illustrate Samsung’s capability to handle advanced Massive MIMO radio integration, which is more complex for 64T64R Massive MIMO radios compared to simple CAT-A radios.

Using Keysight Technologies’ O-RAN distributed unit (O-DU) emulator, the companies tested O-RAN mandatory and optional beamforming capabilities in the same Massive MIMO unit and delivered promised performance gains. This level of conformance testing helps ensure that new O-RAN networks will perform as expected while delivering the full capabilities that next-generation 5G solutions enable.

“We’re excited to achieve Open RAN conformance across five key radios in our portfolio compliant with the latest O-RAN and 3GPP standards,” said Jisha Hall, Vice President of Operations, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics America. “This joint work shows how Samsung is empowering forerunning operators like Verizon to deploy virtualized Open RAN, backed by our strong ecosystem and proven expertise in commercial networks for Tier 1 operators in North America, Europe and Asia.”

“O-RAN is a very important component of our network evolution strategy,” said Steven Rice, Vice President of Network Planning, Verizon. “By leveraging O-RAN radios and software-driven infrastructure with industry-leading partners like Samsung and Keysight, we continue to drive the industry towards a more open, interoperable environment which will provide greater flexibility, greater innovation and better performance for our customers.”

“Keysight is excited to have partnered with Samsung and Verizon on successful Open RAN testing and looks forward to continued collaboration to advance next-generation network solutions,” said Peng Cao, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Test Group at Keysight. “Our leadership in O-RAN standards and testing empowers the industry to confidently build, test and deploy cutting-edge, interoperable Open RAN solutions in real-world networks.”

In 2021, Samsung supported the commercial launch of Verizon’s first 5G C-band networks with its vRAN solution. This led to establishing another milestone in 2022, with Samsung successfully building the world’s largest vRAN commercial network. The continued collaboration between Samsung and Verizon reinforces their commitment to O-RAN and leadership in enabling virtualized open networks with greater flexibility, faster time-to-market and unmatched performance.

Samsung has pioneered the successful delivery of 5G end-to-end solutions including chipsets, radios and cores. Through ongoing research and development, Samsung drives the industry to advance 5G networks with its market-leading product portfolio, from vRAN 3.0, Open RAN, Core to private network solutions and AI-powered automation tools. The company currently provides network solutions to mobile operators that deliver connectivity to hundreds of millions of users worldwide.