OREANDA-NEWS. NEC Corporation successfully completed interoperability testing of its residential Small Cell at the Small Cell LTE Plugfest. The objective of the Plugfest was to demonstrate the effectiveness of the 3GPP LTE standards in supporting interoperability between small cells and LTE core network (Evolved Packet Core) equipment from different vendors.

NEC, along with other vendors, demonstrated that multivendor Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) solutions are a reality which offers operators and consumers a wide choice of small cell products while also facilitating economies of scale.

The plugfest, the first focused on 3GPP Release 9 compliant FDD LTE small cells, was organised by the Small Cell Forum in partnership with ETSI (*1) from June 10 to 14, and hosted by the SINTESIO test lab in Slovenia. 16 companies including equipment vendors, test tool vendors and test network infrastructure providers participated in the testing event.

"As the first LTE Plugfest, the results exceeded expectations both in terms of the number of small cell vendors attending and the extent of successful interoperability demonstrated," said Kreso Bilan, Senior Systems Architect, NEC Europe.

"During the week of interoperability testing we have really seen the great results of NEC's commitment to 3GPP open interfaces. The Plugfest event has demonstrated the ability of the small cell industry to offer telecom operators healthy flexibility in their choice of equipment whilst remaining confident in the experience delivered to subscribers," said Neeraj Gupta, Senior Group Manager, NEC Telecom MODUS.

NEC has an extensive track record in the Small Cell market, having contract and field trials with leading telecom operators around the world to deliver comprehensive Small Cell Solutions.