Twelve of the Forum's member companies worked with ETSI to remotely test and address the key issues with LTE small cells.

May 22, 2015

1 Min Read

LONDON -- Small Cell Forum and ETSI have completed the first remote LTE Plugfest, which saw 12 different member companies and ETSI work together to address key issues with LTE small cells.

This was the first Plugfest to take place remotely, where participants ran test sessions from their own offices by connecting to a VPN based remote test infrastructure. On top of the VPN, ETSI’s flexible interconnection network allowed participants to evaluate the interoperability of solutions with any possible testing partner. Participating companies included Acceleran, Aricent, Athonet, Casa Systems, Cisco, Fujitsu, Ip.access, JDSU, Node-H, one2many, Parallel Wireless, Qucell and Sistelbanda.

The 70 test sessions took place over a two week period and involved participants from Europe, Asia and North America. Testing involved the full range of network elements – HeNBs, eNodeBs, HeNB-GWs, CBC, Core and IMS networks - combined with advanced test monitoring support. The event was also supported by the European Commission.

The key areas addressed included Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), which can reduce the signalling load on access networks, Voice over LTE (VoLTE), Emergency Alerts (CMAS) and mobility.

“This fully remote approach was a real challenge and this is something we aim to apply beyond Small Cell events,” said Anthony Wiles, Director of ETSI’s Centre for Testing and Interoperability. “We have taken this approach before with our electronic signature Plugtests, but Small Cell was the first proving ground for doing remote testing with a heavily hardware-dependent technology.”

Small Cell Forum Ltd.

European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

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