Spirent, Hong Kong’s ASTRI showcase performance of new standalone mode for 5G core networks

Spirent Communications, the company that provides test, measurement, assurance solutions for 5G devices and networks, and Hong Kong Applied Science and Research Institute Limited (ASTRI) participated in a joint 5G demonstration at MWC 2019.

In this live demonstration; Spirent Landslide was used to validate the conformance and performance of the 5G standalone core network provided by ASTRI based on 3GPP Release 15.

5G supports massive density of devices of any kind, operating at very high data rates with minimum latency, while making an efficient use of the network’s resources. The 5G standalone (SA) mode core network is a new architecture design that supports completely new radio access, network slicing, control, and user plane separation, and distributed network functions.

According to the release, Spirent Landslide emulates 5G devices, user traffic and network functions to test 5G mobile and core infrastructure, ensuring its readiness for successful 5G rollouts. Landslide’s emulation and testing capabilities support 3GPP release 13 and onwards, making Landslide ideal for validating the entire evolution path towards 5G. In addition to the extensive 5G testing capabilities, Spirent Landslide also offers individual 5G-related node emulators (e.g., gNB, AMF, UPF, PCF, AUSF, SGW-C, SGW-U, PGW-C, PGW-U, etc.). This emulation option, according to the statement, is ideal for lab setups where a 3GPP compliant node is required to complete a test objective.

“Our service provider and network infrastructure customers have promised their customers that 5G will bring revolutionary new capabilities such as ultra-low latency and blazing fast data speeds,” said Ross Cassan, Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Spirent. “Our joint demonstration with ASTRI shows how we are assuring our customers will be able to keep those promises by leveraging the latest 5G standards.”