VIAVI Expands Open RAN Lab-as-a-Service Facility with Industry's First Test-as-a-Service Offering for Massive MIMO OTA Performance Testing

Core Insights - VIAVI Solutions Inc. has expanded its VALOR Lab with a new RF-shielded anechoic chamber and two additional customer labs to enhance its Automated Lab-as-a-Service for Open RAN testing [1][4] - The expansion is funded by the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund [1] Group 1: Facility Expansion - The new RF chamber is the industry's first test-as-a-service offering for Massive MIMO and beamforming over-the-air (OTA) validation, supporting system-level performance testing for up to 16 parallel spatial layers [2] - The VALOR Lab now offers over 500 test cases compliant with O-RAN WG4, WG5, WG11, TIFG, and 3GPP specifications [3] Group 2: Industry Impact - The expansion addresses the growing demand for Open RAN testing, providing technology vendors with a comprehensive, on-demand test suite throughout the product lifecycle [4] - VALOR serves as a hub for the AI-RAN Alliance, fostering innovation in AI-powered telecommunications [6] Group 3: Collaboration and Certification - VALOR's full suite of O-RAN tests will be available to customers referred by ACCoRD, in collaboration with AT&T and Verizon [6] - It is the first test service authorized by the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) for its system performance certification program [7]