Small Cell LTE Plugfest

Kranj, June 10 – 14, 2013 – Small Cell LTE Plugfest was hosted by SINTESIO facillity in Kranj, Slovenia.

This plugfest aimed to verify the interoperability between LTE small cells and Evolved Packet Cores (EPC) equipment from different vendors aim to cultivate an effective ecosystem of standardised small cells (3G, LTE and WiFi).

This helps providing operators and consumers with a wider choice of small cell products while also facilitating economies of scale. LTE small cell deployment will help to solve the user’s demand for ubiquitous coverage on the go and innovative mobile data services with sufficient bandwidth. LTE small cells can evolve in the future to become media gateways in the connected home, thus combining LTE and M2M/IOT technology.

The event was supported by 16 companies including equipment vendors, test tool vendors and companies providing test network infrastructure.

The primary objective of the event, organised by the ETSI Centre for Testing and Interoperability, was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 3GPP LTE standards in supporting interoperability between small cells and EPC equipment from different vendors.

Companies also had the possibility of connecting remotely for six weeks into the hosting lab to prepare for the event.

The 3GPP LTE Release 9 standards were frozen in December 2009 and are widely used in LTE macro networks. Small cells compliant to the standards allow mobile operators to simplify deployment and enable better coverage and capacity for their LTE networks.

Successful interoperability tests, monitored by test tools, were conducted between small cells and EPCs, security gateways, macro eNodeB and as an option HeNB gateways to verify the S1 interface implementations.

In a multi-vendor HetNet environment – as an option – mobility scenarios of hand-out with the macro network using S1 and X2 interface were tested. VoLTE (IMS) calls were also tested. The Plugfest routinely repeated tests of IPsec/IKEv2 security protocols which allow small cell to communicate over the public Internet to operators’ core networks in a highly secure manner.

Highlights of the Plugfest are:
• All vendors succeeded the mandatory S1 tests
• 2 HeNB vendors succeeded to make a VoLTE call on the dedicated bearer using Iskratel IMS
• 3 HeNB vendors succeeded S1 small cell to macro handout with TS eNB
o inter: band 1 small cell to band 3 macro
o intra: band 3 small cell to band 3 macro, same frequency
o inter: band 3 small cell to band 3 macro, different frequency
• 2 HeNB vendor succeeded S1 small cell to small cell handover with TS EPC
o intra: band 1 small cell and band 1 small cell, same frequency
o inter: band 1 small cell and band 3 small cell, different frequency
• 1 vendor succeeded X2 small cell to macro handout with TS eNB

RCS/VoLTE Interoperability Event

Kranj, September 24 to October 12, 2012 – Second RCS/VoLTE Interoperability Event was hosted by the SINTESIO facility in Kranj, Slovenia, co-hosted by Telekom Slovenia and China Mobile Research Institute in Beijing, China.[dt_divider style=”double-gap”/]

The MultiService Forum (MSF), European Telecoms Standards Institute (ETSI) and GSM Association (GSMA) organized a RCS VoLTE Interoperability Event 2012 focused on validating core network interfaces to ensure multi-vendor deployment strategies for RCS and VoLTE technology. The event endorsed and tested a number of GSMA PRDs and validated the Testing Scenarios developed by MSF and ETSI to facilitate multi-vendor deployment of LTE./EPC/IMS technology for RCS and VoLTE services.

The event was hosted by the SINTESIO facility in Kranj, Slovenia, co-hosted by Telekom Slovenia and China Mobile Research Institute in Beijing, China. It took place over the period of September 24 to October 12, 2012 . Dates varied by location.

Please visit the event website for more detailed information:

 

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2nd IMS Plugtest

Bled, 10-14 November, 2008, Slovenia

The IMS Plugtest focused on the interoperability of 3GPP IMS Release 7 equipment.

The purposes of this event were:

  • To enable participants to assess the interoperability of core IMS networks with commercial IMS user equipment as well as 3rd party application servers realizing key MMTel services and presence.
  • To assess the quality of IMS core networks and their conformance to IMS specifications, and to provide feedback to standardization.
  • To ease the introduction of IMS systems into the market place by providing the means to solve interoperability problems before widespread deployment.

This event has been open to both, IMS equipment vendors and operators, as well as ETSI members and non-members. In addition, an exhibition area enabled vendors to showcase their products.
The second ETSI IMS interoperability event has been held in Bled, Slovenia from October 10th to 14th 2008 at the Hotel Golf. It was organized with the technical partnership of Sintesio, who has supplyed the test network infrastructure, and has coordinated the technical organization of the event.
The event has evaluated IMS network interoperability covering all aspects of core IMS standard TS 24.229, including interworking, roaming, border control, and support of supplementary service handling, i.e., OIP/OIR, HOLD, ACR-CB, and/or CDIV.
The test descriptions which has been the basis of the event was part of the second version of ETSI TS 186 011-2.
Six IMS core network vendors participated at this event. Using commercial Fraunhofer TISPAN openIMS clients and supplementary service application servers in different IMS network configurations, participants has been able to evaluate interoperability on standardized interfaces used to connect IMS networks together. During the event 410 of 1110 potential IMS NNI tests were executed.

OMA Testfest

Bled, 8-16 November, 2007, Slovenia

 

More than 70 mobile data experts from around the world were located at the Hotel Golf in Bled, Slovenia, for an interoperability testing event organized by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). An international specifications setting body consisting of more than 380 mobile operators, device and network suppliers, information technology companies, and content providers.

OMA selected Mobitel, Slovene national mobile operator and Sintesio, an ETSI endorsed NGN interoperability test lab located in Bled, to host the event. Mobitel and Sintesio provided test network configurations, supporting 2G and 3G wireless technologies, where it was possible to test applications in a real network situation.

TestFest was dedicated to the interoperability testing of OMA’s Enablers using IP Multimedia Subsystems (IMS), which is seen as key for the successful and rapid deployment of next generation networks’ applications, and the convergence of fixed and mobile networks.

SIP-I interoperability test

Bled, 15-19 May, 2006, Slovenia

 

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SINTESIO Testlab hosted the 1st NGN Interoperability event PSTN/ISDN Emulation Services Scenarios under endorsement of ETSI (European Telecommunication Standardization Institute) and supervision of TISPAN technical body.

The scope of the interoperability event was preparation and execution of network integration tests (NIT) for the following NGN migration scenarios:

  1. NGN Emulation scenario, by means of SIP-I based PES (PSTN/ISDN Emulation Subsystem) with either Softswitch or Core IMS implementations:
    • Partial PSTN/ISDN replacement of the transit exchanges with Softswitches/IMS platforms;
    • Whole PSTN/ISDN replacement of the local and transit exchanges with access gateways and Softswitch/IMS platforms.
  2. Interworking between NGN Core and PSTN/ISDN Legacy network:
    • Interworking SIP/ISUP Profile A and B according to draft ATS test specification ETSI DTS 6014-4
    • Interworking SIP/ISUP Profile B according to draft TSS/TP test specification ETSI TS 6012-2 (the extent of the test will depend on availability of ETS implementation of the draft standards)

The aim of the event was preparation and execution of well structured end-to-end network integration tests based on ETSI TISPAN draft reports with the objectives to:

  • test the interoperability of different vendor’s implementations at the functional level and to evaluate the coherence of draft standards;
  • test interworking between ISUP/BICC and SIP Profiles A, B and C;
  • test Quality and Performance in a real multi-operator environment;
  • generate technical report with the Implementation guides for deployment of NGN scenarios, that will be tested end-to-end.

The interoperability event participants were:

  • Softswitch/Core IMS equipment vendors,
  • network operators and service providers,
  • system integrators

who validated the current state of implementations agains the ETSI TISPAN NGN Release 1 standards. The interoperability event gave participants the opportunity to evaluate NGN solutions and products, its interoperability with the solutions of world leading players. With the SINTESIO testlab connections to public ISDN/PSTN network and to Internet and the network configurations with remote NGN domain, it was possible to test and validate real network behavior such as Performance, Quality and Security issues.