PLANO, Texas -- DZS (NASDAQ: DZSI), a global leader in broadband connectivity platforms and communications software solutions, today announced its participation in the third Global O-RAN ALLIANCE PlugFest at the European Open Test and Integration Center (OTIC) in Turin, Italy hosted and sponsored by TIM. This testing validated multi-vendor 5G interoperability and end-to-end functional tests of O-RAN ALLIANCE specifications for 5G and 4G Radio Access Network (RAN) elements, including fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul interfaces between Radio Access Network equipment provided by DZS, Mavenir, Dell, VMware, Microelectronics Technology (MTI), and Keysight Technologies.

“DZS is proud to have collaborated in the Turin OTIC lab with Mavenir and a strong complement of other O-RAN ALLIANCE members in defining the future of 4G and 5G O-RAN architectures in Europe and around the world,” said Charlie Vogt, President and CEO, DZS. “This highly successful PlugFest in Italy showcased DZS open fronthaul transport solutions and demonstrated how we, in combination with our industry partners, can enable a path forward for service providers seeking to modernize their networks with the flexibility and efficiencies of O-RAN architectures. The success of the Global O-RAN Plugfest 2021 clearly shows that O-RAN is emerging as a compelling solution for not only greenfield networks, but also for established service providers who are already pioneering large-scale 5G deployments.”

Starting in Q3 2021, the third O-RAN ALLIANCE Global Plugfest was held in 7 venues across the world including 94 participating companies – demonstrating the commercial readiness of many O-RAN implementations. Vendors participating in the Turin OTIC lab multi-vendor interoperability test network included:

• DZS C1216RO open fronthaul gateways featuring built-in GPS and network timing support
• Mavenir 5G radio units (RUs) and MTI 4G RUs
• Mavenir MAVair 4G and 5G virtualized RAN (VRAN) and MAVcore converged core network software
• Dell EMC PowerEdge R-Series and XE carrier-grade servers
• VMware Telco Cloud Platform software environment
• AWS Outposts edge cloud infrastructure environment
• Keysight Technologies test solutions

“Mavenir commends DZS for its expertise and leadership in bringing cutting-edge fronthaul transport technology to this highly successful O-RAN ALLIANCE Plugfest validating the open fronthaul use case for 5G and 4G solutions,” said B.G. Kumar, President of the Communications Services Business at Mavenir. “O-RAN and virtualization continues to gain momentum in Europe. As service providers look to cost effectively deliver advanced and differentiated services in their highly competitive markets, Mavenir and DZS will work together to enable carriers across the globe to move forward with this technology.”

With a forward-looking business strategy centered on empowering service providers and network operators through open standards, software-driven systems and freedom of choice, DZS solutions are at the core of groundbreaking, wide-scale open ecosystems like Rakuten Mobile’s fully virtualized, cloud-native O-RAN 5G mobile network and playing key roles in other parallel O-RAN ALLIANCE PlugFest activities in Asia (click here for more information). The DZS commitment to the O-RAN architectural model is but one example of how DZS is enabling service providers worldwide to enjoy the cost, manageability and service benefits of flexible, scalable and interoperable wireless and wireline broadband networks with no vendor lock-in.