The VIAVI RANtoCore solution combines the VIAVI TM500 and VIAVI TeraVM, from Cobham plc's recently acquired wireless test and measurement business. The VIAVI TM500 offers a complete and scalable 3GPP-compliant network test system for base station development. It simulates end-user and IoT devices and tests the impact of RAN traffic on the core network. Meanwhile, VIAVI TeraVM can test and validate virtualized network functions and the evolved virtual packet core (vEPC), providing a scalable, real-world application, secure RAN, and cybersecurity attack emulation. When used together as VIAVI RANtoCore, operators benefit from a comprehensive end-to-end network test solution.
Evan Gray, Vice President of Business Development at VIAVI Solutions, said: “Carrier networks are undergoing rapid architectural change with the introduction of 4.5G and 5G technology to improve network performance and support new mission-critical applications, such as self-driving car services and smart cities. Supporting these new applications requires operators to optimize the air interface and move their core processing power to the network edge. This addresses the need for higher data speeds for gigabit phones, cost-effective scaling and security for IoT, and reduced latency for mission-critical applications.”.
"VIAVI has been working with operators as they experience these network changes, offering a RAN-to-core testing solution that validates the impact of real-world conditions across the entire network. It measures the quality of the end-user experience for data applications while ensuring robust network security," Gray said.
The VIAVI RANtoCore solution will enable the development and commercialization of a wide range of use cases. For the connected automotive environment, for example, the solution will validate networks to ensure that a connected car receives and prioritizes safety-critical communications between the vehicle's operating system and sensors in the external environment. At the same time, the network will be able to continuously support, but without prioritizing, numerous additional traffic streams, such as a passenger streaming video over IP from their smartphone.
"With our suite of testing solutions, VIAVI has taken a leading role in the 5G ecosystem. It is working alongside operators and NEMs as they evolve and future-proof their networks and introduce new approaches, including network slicing and multi-access computing, to support the massive connectivity requirements of the IoT," Gray concluded.
