The focus of the PlugFest at the i14y Lab this spring was on energy efficiency and full end-to-end (E2E) system integration testing. Most activities took place online, with additional on -site support ensuring smooth execution.
Regarding energy efficiency, Rimedo Labs, T-Labs, Keysight and Juniper networks collaborated to validate the cooperation between Rimedo Labs Cell On/Off Switching (COOS)-xApp deployed in the Juniper Near-RT RIC and Rimedo Labs COOS-rApp in Juniper Non-RT RIC.
As a result of the PlugFest they were able to successfully demonstrate the cooperation between COOS-xApp, COOS-rApp and TS-xApp and the task of the energy efficiency optimization under the Juniper Non-RT and Near-RT RIC and Keysight RICtest. They showed significant power savings while maintaining low outage. The positive results meant that the partners would like to investigate the impact of each individual app on the network energy efficiency and investigate the potential for utilization of AI/ML tools to reduce throughput degradation even more.
Also, during the PlugFest, Capgemini showcased robust end-to-end integration of its O-DU/O-CU with VVDN’s O-RU and VIAVI’s UE emulator, focusing on stress and long-duration stability testing. The setup demonstrated high-performance 5G SA architecture with real-time processing and hardware acceleration.
This PlugFest was hosted by seven organizations across six labs in Europe, enabling participating vendors to focus on validating interoperability and technical readiness across key Open RAN components—contributing to a more open and robust network ecosystem.