Announced at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona (MWC) 2023, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) hosts the O-RAN Asia & Pacific Open Testing and Integration Centre (OTIC) in Singapore. As part of Singapore’s S$70 million Future Communications R&D Programme (FCP) supported by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and the National Research Foundation, Singapore (NRF), the Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore is co-located within SUTD’s Future Communications Connectivity Lab (FCCLab).
The Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore aims to advance Singapore’s digital infrastructure capabilities and enable the next level of innovation in future communications and capabilities. Its vision is to establish a centre of excellence on the security, sustainability and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) aspects of Open RAN. With the addition of OTIC at SUTD’s FCCLab, the first 6G R&D lab in Southeast Asia has expanded its existing infrastructure and can support holistic testing and integration activities for mobile networks and applications with both indoors and outdoors test environments. The centre in Singapore strives to serve as part of the global OTIC networks and establish itself as the South-east Asia hub and gateway to the global Open RAN ecosystem.
The Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore located in the SUTD campus offers a secured, safe, and conducive environment for operators and vendors to collaborate, test and optimize vendors’ O-RAN solutions while ensuring each operator’s and vendor’s confidential information and IPs are well protected as they operate in the OTIC lab facility either through on site or remote activities.
The Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore lab is equipped with the following list of test and measurement equipment.
- Multi-UEs emulator (Keysight UeSIM, VIAVI TM500 UESim)
- O-RUs emulator with embedded multi-UEs emulation (Keysight RuSIM)
- Mobile Core network emulator (Keysight CoreSIM, VIAVI TeraVM Core Emulator)
- 3GPP Security Assurance Specifications (SCAS) test modules (Keysight O-RAN Security Test Suite)
- DDoS attacks emulator (Keysight O-RAN Security Test Suite)
- Cloud attacks emulator (Keysight O-RAN Security Test Suite)
- Vulnerability and Port Scanning solution (Keysight O-RAN Security Test Suite)
- Test Automation (Keysight Test Automation Framework)
- RAN simulator for RIC and xApp/rApp test (from VIAVI)
- Test devices (handsets, CPEs, dongles, drones, robots, etc.)
- Network switches
- Network Emulator NE3 (from Keysight)
- Paragon Neo (from Calnex) for S-plane testing
- Time Synch Analyzer TSA and DU Emulator (from Keysight)
- Fronthaul, Midhaul Packet Capture Appliance
- Optical transceiver modules and breakout cables up to 100G
- Fiber optical network tap
- Timing and sync equipment GPS, PTP grandmaster etc
- Mobile testing tool (TEMS Pocket and TEMS Discovery from Infovista)
- Shield room and Faraday cage for testing FR1
- O-RU conformance test equipment
- Energy efficiency test equipment: AC Power Analyzer, DC Advance Power System, and Keysight E-Plane Test Suite
- NR/IoT NTN simulation for UE test (From Alifecom NE7500, NE6000)
- NR/IoT NTN Digital Twin for NTN testing (R&S CMX500, CMW500 and VIAVI TM500)
- TN and NTN Channel Emulator (Keysight PROPSIM)
- Vector Signal Generator, Spectrum Analyzer (from multiple vendors)
- MIMO testing tools: MTRX (from Keysight)
- Adjustable RF Attenuators, up/down RF converters
The Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore offers world-class testing services in a laboratory environment focusing in the following areas:
- Security testing of multi-vendors O-RAN solutions, including:
- O-RAN recommended security testing (including gNB, O-DU, O-CU, Fronthaul Gateway, O-Cloud)
- Integrated testing for specific application vertical
- Advanced security testing for Near and Non-Real-time RIC / xApps / rApps / SMO
- Energy efficiency is a key sustainability goal for companies around the world. Singapore has charted its Net Zero future as it has committed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 with significant reduction in emissions by 2030. The Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore supports the testing and optimization of AI/ML enabled network energy efficiency and energy savings techniques for real world networks in its lab.
- Application verticals that are critical for Singapore and the region. Singapore is a world leader in maritime, and the continued growth of this industry is important for Asia Pacific region. The first vertical that our OTIC has focused on, hence, is the maritime vertical. Our OTIC is interconnected with Singapore’s first maritime operational technology security testbed in SUTD and the co-location of these two labs in the same building in the SUTD campus enables the development of testing and integration capability for this application vertical.
Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore proudly offers a comprehensive suite of O-RAN testing and certification services, tailored to meet the evolving demands of the O-RAN ecosystem. Our service portfolio includes:
- O-RU/O-DU Conformance Testing Services
- O-RAN Certification for O-RU and O-DU
- Security Testing Services
- O-RAN Badging for End-to-End (E2E) System Integration
These services are based on industry-aligned standards, including the O-RAN Working Group 4 (WG4) open fronthaul interface, Security Requirements and Test Specifications from the O-RAN Security Working Group 11 (WG11), and the E2E Test Specifications developed by the Testing and Integration Focus Group (TIFG).
In addition, we are engaging with industry partners to research and develop advanced test scenarios—including attack simulations, vulnerability scans, and security audits—to support deployment readiness testing and DevSecOps integration.
Looking ahead, Asia & Pacific OTIC in Singapore is committed to expanding its capabilities to offer O-RAN Certification in Security, RIC, and Energy Efficiency, in line with the O-RAN ALLIANCE’s ongoing development of specifications focused on security, sustainability, and support for application and industry verticals.