SK Telecom (SKT) announced on December 8 that it participated in the "PlugFest" event hosted by the O-RAN Alliance, a global Open RAN standardization organization, as an organizer and presented the results of technical tests related to the Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN) and the direction of technology evolution.
PlugFest is a global event on Open RAN where members share their technical test results on the openness, interoperability and functionality of base station equipment and solutions compliant with the O-RAN Alliance's specifications to expand the Open RAN ecosystem.
This year's PlugFest was held online and offline from November 27 to December 1 at seven locations around the world, including Korea, Japan, the United States, and Europe, with 76 global companies and organizations participating.
Together with eight companies and organizations that are collaborating to develop Open RAN technology, SKT presented the results of the open fronthaul-based base station equipment test, virtualized base station power consumption reduction technology test, and Open RAN power consumption measurement test.
First, SKT, together with the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), HFR, Keysight Technologies, Nokia, and others, released the test results for open fronthaul-based base station equipment.
SKT said it has confirmed the performance level compared to existing single-manufacturer base station equipment through technical tests of open fronthaul conformance for individual base station equipment, as well as interworking between base station equipment from different manufacturers and end-to-end technical tests in indoor and outdoor environments.
Next, SK Telecom announced the results of a power consumption reduction technology test for Open RAN virtualized base stations conducted in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Intel, Samsung Electronics, and Viabi Solutions.
By virtually building its commercial network environment through a terminal emulator and using the features of Samsung Electronics' virtualized base station software to effectively control the C-State (sleep state) of Intel CPUs mounted on HPE general-purpose servers, SK Telecom confirmed the power saving effect of virtualized base stations.
In November, SKT announced the test results of AI-based technology to reduce the power consumption of virtualized base stations in collaboration with Intel, and this time, in collaboration with Samsung Electronics, an actual commercial base station manufacturer, SKT succeeded in confirming the power consumption reduction effect and provided a direction for the evolution of Open RAN technology to improve the power consumption, which is a major technical challenge of virtualized base stations.
In addition, SKT, together with Nokia and Keysight Technologies, announced the results of a power consumption measurement test for Open RAN base stations, showing the need and direction for standardization of related technologies to effectively measure the power consumption and savings of Open RAN equipment.
SKT will hold the first O-RAN Alliance standardization meeting in Korea next June. SKT's hosting of the June 24 standardization meeting was confirmed at the regular standardization meeting held in Phoenix, USA last October. The company is preparing to collaborate with relevant domestic Open RAN-related organizations such as the TTA to use the meeting as a stepping stone to activate the Open RAN ecosystem.
