SONIC Labs

Located across central London, SONIC Labs 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 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.

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.