Home Newsroom O-RAN ALLIANCE PlugFest Fall 2023 press release

Future Connections demonstrates its rApp development capabilities at O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFest Fall 2023

Its Spectrum Efficiency rApp was successfully tested in the i14y Lab in Berlin

Published on 18 December 2023

Etten-Leur, Netherlands – Future Connections, the independent telco solutions provider and software developer with in-depth experience in network performance assurance, optimisation and automation and in telco managed services, today announced it took part in the O-RAN ALLIANCE Global PlugFest Fall 2023 with its Spectrum Efficiency rApp.

O-RAN Global PlugFests are periodic events organised and co-sponsored by O-RAN ALLIANCE to enable efficient progress of the O-RAN ecosystem through well-organised testing and integration. Vendors and providers come together to test, evaluate and verify their products and solutions.

As part of its mission to make the Radio Access Networks (RAN) open, intelligent, virtualised and fully interoperable, the O-RAN ALLIANCE organised the Fall 2023 edition of the PlugFest across 16 labs around the world. The event was hosted by 24 companies and institutions in 8 countries and saw 52 participants, many of which participated at more than one venue.

As a Partner of and in collaboration with VMware by Broadcom, Future Connections joined the PlugFest to run a live execution of its Spectrum Efficiency rApp, with the aim to:

Demonstrate the VMware Centralized RIC capability to support rApp development
Understand and measure the effects and benefits of spectrum efficiency execution on the network

The main objective of the Spectrum Efficiency rApp is the optimisation of cell coverage and user distribution within the target cluster by reducing the number of offenders (overshooters and undershooters). Running on the VMware Centralized RIC platform and using PM and CM data and geospatial analysis techniques, the offenders are identified and classified based on their severity. Once the offenders have been identified, the rApp automatically adjusts the etilt parameter based on an advanced algorithm improving, consequently, the throughput performance.

The live exploration of the rApp was carried out at the i14y Lab in Berlin, Germany, which is supported by Deutsche Telekom and EANTC and i14y consortium partners. The demo consisted in a single execution of the rApp which involved three sequential iterations of the algorithm, with one week of data being analysed in each iteration.

The results of the exploration of the Spectrum Efficiency rApp met fully the initial objectives set. Firstly, the correct communication between Future Connections’ rApp and all the services from the VMware Centralized RIC were verified successfully. Secondly, the improvement in the network performance was demonstrated: a significant reduction of the number of offenders in the target cluster was recorded over three weeks. In addition, the throughput in the target cluster saw a noticeable improvement after three iterations of the rApp.

“We are very pleased with our participation in the PlugFest Fall ’23“ – said Angel Cifuentes, Operations Director, Future Connections. “Not only it gave us the opportunity to benefit from a live environment that facilitated the exploration of our rApp, but it also demonstrated the solidity of the VMware Centralized RIC platform. The successful outcome has provided the rightful credentials to Future Connections as capable and successful rApp developer”.