Viavi Solutions has announced the launch of NITRO Wireless, a portfolio of solutions enabling all participants in the ecosystem – equipment manufacturers, service providers, semiconductor companies, software developers and system integrators – to accelerate technology development by validating performance at each stage in intelligent, intuitive and automated ways. The company will showcase NITRO Wireless at events around the globe, including Futurecom (São Paulo), FYUZ (Madrid), Network X (Paris) and India Mobile Congress (New Delhi).
With 5G reaching a tipping point in terms of buildout and capabilities, leading service providers and their ecosystems are developing paths to 6G. Industrial applications such as large-scale private networks, smart cities and critical communications require higher throughput and lower latency to enable the real-time computing and communication required for precise sensing, imaging and positioning data. The introduction of terahertz/terabit/microsecond connectivity through the cloud, open networking in a multi-vendor environment, and artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning to automate network operation, all point to a fundamental re-architecting of the network, at the semiconductor, equipment, software and application levels. The resulting challenges of network performance, quality of service (QoS), security and energy consumption now need to be mitigated and simplified.
NITRO Wireless brings together proven performance and interoperability test platforms, used throughout the industry for 3GPP and open radio access network (RAN) with cloud, intelligence, automation and digital twin technology enabled by the Network Integrated Test, Real-Time Analytics and Optimisation (NITRO) platform. As networks become more complex and layered, a focus on measuring and verifying the experience from the user’s perspective by emulating usage scenarios modelled on real network data is generating the essential intelligence to simplify the delivery of new technology. NITRO Wireless use cases include:
- RAN intelligence: The NITRO Wireless TeraVM RIC Test trains the RAN intelligent controller (RIC) based on data from real network scenarios. The app validation engine acts as an app “IQ test” to verify if the proposed changes improve RAN efficiency, while geolocation exposes geolocated data to r/xApps, including 24×7 insights on spatial distribution and mobility dynamics of subscribers.
- Private network intelligence: To support the high reliability and QoS requirements of private networks, NITRO Wireless offers signal analysis, timing and synchronisation verification, antenna alignment, fibre certification, and coverage and performance testing from design to operation.
- Network security: 5G RAN, 5G core, secure access service edge, next-generation firewalls, virtual private networks and cloud security solutions all need to be compliant with the latest specifications while ensuring uncompromised network performance. The NITRO Wireless open RAN security solution provides test coverage that checks, among other things, 3GPP subsystem computer application software compliance, disk operating systems and fuzzing attacks, O-Cloud resource exhaustion, protocol validation, port scanning and open fronthaul security tests.
- Digital twin: Digital twins can reduce business risk in multiple ways. They can help test software updates and introduce new services in a safe environment to pre-empt failures before deployment in the live network. NITRO Wireless digital twins combine tools such as RAN and core emulators, assurance solutions, realistic traffic scenarios and cyberthreats to mirror an operator’s network in the lab, allowing network changes and challenges to be planned and implemented with results analysed before action is taken on the live network.
- Military communications: NITRO Wireless’s integration and test portfolio offers complete end-to-end and subsystem testing of 5G private military radio and core networks. These can be deployed on the ground, via high-altitude platform stations or satellite.
