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Digital Catapult > Get involved > Labs > Open Networks Lab
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Open Networks Lab

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About

Our open networks lab is a collaborative environment for testing the interoperability and integration of open, disaggregated, and software-centric network solutions and multi-vendor architectures.

It is designed to help identify enablers and barriers that may influence open network adoption by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), private network owners, neutral-host service providers, and other wireless operators.

We are the only European Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) in the UK awarded by the O-RAN ALLIANCE. The accreditation recognises Digital Catapult’s world-class capabilities in testing, validating and integrating open and interoperable radio access network (Open RAN) technologies, and our aim to advance the development and deployment of open and future networks.

Explore our lab

Our 360 desktop lab tour gives you the chance to visit our lab from the convenience of your office or home. It is designed to highlight our technical capabilities and expertise, giving you the chance to see how we our facilities supports Open RAN product development through rigorous testing and validation.

It’s easy to navigate your way around:

  • simply use your mouse to look around and click on the location hotspots to journey through our lab space.
  • by clicking on the Digital Catapult team members, you can hear more about the Digital Catapult and the lab’s key capabilities
  • the plus buttons dotted around the lab unlock further insights.
  • if you’d like to get in touch to find out how your company could work with us, click on the envelope on the right hand side to contact us.

Combining lab and real-life testing facilities

Located across central London, our open networks testing facilities combine four unique sites that have parallel, interconnected Open RAN testbeds based on common infrastructure and distributed computing. 

Indoor lab at Digital Catapult

Two of our testing sites are based in Digital Catapult’s central London HQ. It includes the main indoor lab environment, located in a dedicated space, as well as an indoor field trial location within the open office. It has nine 5G Open RAN radio units in a representative private network solution with over 1,000m2 seamless coverage across two floors. 

Outdoor testing site

Our extensive 5G Standalone outdoor site takes testing to the next level by simulating the typical challenges encountered in a real-world network. 

Developed in partnership with Capgemini and Cellnex UK under a special research and development licence from Ofcom, this unique site is located in Hammersmith & Fulham. It provides over 1.5km of urban coverage and includes two rooftop macro sites and seven street-level microcell sites, giving companies the chance to test their products in a representative network deployment scenario.

Ofcom Site

The Ofcom site lab is a satellite indoor lab environment, part of the media and network lab at Ofcom’s Riverside House, London. It supports parallel Open RAN activities and geographically distributed deployments.

SONIC Labs
The SONIC Labs facilities. A line of computers on the left hand side leading to a server room. On the right are large tables for collaborative working
SONIC-Labs-servers

Who’s it for

Our open networks lab supports open network companies who have working products and would like to build an end to end system or solution with open networking products from other vendors, with a view to selling in the UK market. This is primarily focused on pre-commercial testing in advance of engagements with potential customers or conformance testing.  However, we will include swapability testing with more mature products to confirm interface capabilities.

Capabilities

Digital Catapult can support you with:

  • End-to-end integration with support for interface testing and performance, in addition to security as it relates to standardised testing.
  • An initial focus on the O-RAN Alliance specs and 3GPP interfaces for:
    • Open RU
    • Open DU
    • Open CU
    • Open RIC
    • Open Front haul split 7.2, FAPI/split 6, F1 interface/split 2, and E2 for the RIC.
  • A continually refined approach to testing and capabilities based on feedback from participants, stakeholders and potential adopters through stakeholder engagement activities.
  • Test automation, to automatically design and replicate key tests, accelerating integration steps.
  • Methods to record and report on results from automated testing.
  • On site engineers, in addition to remote integration and testing.
  • Testing and measurement, with the essential functionality to support new vendors or new products to be integrated and interoperability tested.

Our indoor lab is equipped with the following:

  • End-to-end integration with support for interface testing and performance, in addition to security as it relates to standardised testing.
  • An initial focus on the O-RAN Alliance specs and 3GPP interfaces for:
    • Open RU
    • Open DU
    • Open CU
    • Open RIC
    • Open Front haul split 7.2, FAPI/split 6, F1 interface/split 2, and E2 for the RIC.
  • A continually refined approach to testing and capabilities based on feedback from participants, stakeholders and potential adopters through stakeholder engagement activities.
  • Test automation, to automatically design and replicate key tests, accelerating integration steps.
  • Methods to record and report on results from automated testing.
  • On site engineers, in addition to remote integration and testing.
  • Testing and measurement, with the essential functionality to support new vendors or new products to be integrated and interoperability tested.

Location

London

The main test bed is in Digital Catapult’s office in London with space for vendors’ technical experts to work and collaborate with each other. In addition there is a smaller deployment at Ofcom’s lab, and an extensive outdoor test site in West London to enable different architectures of local and remote disaggregated network functions.

101 Euston Road, London, UK 02038 823 557

Partners

Our open networks lab was developed under our SONIC Labs programme. SONIC Labs is a joint programme between ourselves and Ofcom, funded by DSIT as part of their 5G Diversification Strategy, to foster emergence of new solution providers in the telecom supply chain in the UK.

Register your interest

If you would like to find out more about accessing our facilities, register your interest using the form below and a member of our team will get in touch:








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