TIP’s three-tier badging system – bronze, silver, gold – is based on TIP’s T&V Framework and demonstrates the increasing maturity and interoperability of individual products, product combinations, or solutions.Bronze badges demonstrate a vendor’s self-assessed compliance with TIP requirements, while silver and gold badges involve increasing levels of testing. The bronze, silver, and gold badge requirements are based on use cases emerging from TIP’s various project groups. For silver and gold badges, the project groups also define relevant test requirements and/or test plans. Vendors and operators should review the TIP requirements and test plans associated with particular badges. A bronze or silver badge does not mean that a particular product, combination, or solution is not suitable for deployment. Rather, operators will typically do more in-house testing before deploying a bronze or silver product, combination, or solution alongside other technologies, or in a particular use case. For example, some Tier 1 operators may continue relying on their own testing of bronze or silver-badged products, while smaller operators may prefer silver or gold-badged solutions.

Badges & Ribbons

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    a Bronze – Requirements Compliant

    Bronze-badged products, combinations, and solutions demonstrate self-assessed compliance with the relevant TIP requirements. Bronze badges reflect a commitment by the vendor (or vendors) to align their product or solution with TIP requirements. TIP’s project groups are continuing to define different types of bronze badges as the ecosystem for open and disaggregated infrastructure evolves and new use cases are prioritized.

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    b Silver – Controlled Environment

    Silver badges demonstrate testing of a product, combination, or solution for alignment with TIP-defined requirements, typically in a controlled environment. The specific tests required for a particular badge are established by TIP’s project groups and will comprise a significant subset of all tests required for deployment. Operators deploying silver solutions or combinations of multiple silver products would still undertake some in-house testing and integration, and would engage with vendors on particular compatibility issues.

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    c Gold – Commercial Grade

    Gold badges indicate that products, combinations, or solutions have been tested and validated comprehensively in accordance with test plans prepared by TIP. TIP’s test plans typically require technologies to be used in live environments with real customer traffic for a period of months. Operators can expect gold-badged products and solutions to be commercial-ready and deployable upon purchase and installation, although some operators may still require compatibility testing with their existing infrastructure.

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    d Operator Tested Ribbon

    The Operator Tested Ribbon is awarded to previously listed products on TIP Exchange that were tested in an operator field trial. The ribbon is applicable to individual network components and products, integrated network layers, and end-to-end solutions, tested under commercial traffic conditions.

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Legacy Badges

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    a Requirements Compliant Ribbon

    • As a minimum requirement to get listed on TIP Exchange, individual network components or products are compliant with the requirements set by the associated project group
    • For the initial listing on TIP Exchange, components and products do not need to be formally tested
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    b Blueprint Badge

    Project Groups create requirements, software projects, white papers, design documents, use cases, tests, research, and other documentation that supports the diverse needs of the ecosystem. Project Groups are the epicenter of innovation between the participants and allow for the exchange of ideas and information that open doors for collaboration that may have been difficult to open before. Project Group participants may submit information to the Project Group that confirms, enhances, or accelerates a design. The submissions that are peer reviewed and shared prior to receiving the Blueprint Badge.

    The Blueprint Badge indicates documents and other materials that fulfills criteria outlined by the Project Group and illustrates a participant’s support for the Project Group direction or goals. Examples include:

    • a design document that illustrates an implementation of a TIP requirement and may be a candidate for a Lab, Field Trial or PlugFest.
    • a report or product description document that meets baseline criteria, such as system architecture, form factor and connectivity, or performance monitoring requirements necessary for possible use in a lab or field trial.
    • white papers that outline how to advance application of a Product Lab Trial approved technology in a new way significant enough to be recognized by the Project Group leads.
    To Learn More:

    Proposals for BLUEPRINT Badges are reviewed and approved by the relevant Project Group chair and published in TIP Project Groups To participate, Become a TIP participant, join the Project Group that is focused in your area of interest, and contact the Project Group Chair.
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    c TIP Community Labs Badge

    TIP Community Labs are sponsored by TIP participants who provide a physical space for open innovation on TIP defined use cases. The goal of the TIP Community Labs is to accelerate the speed of innovation with a clear path to scalable deployment.

    A TIP Community Lab provides a collaborative working environment for Project Groups to test new proofs of concept or solutions that are designed to address specific use cases developed in the TIP Project Groups. Projects that successfully implement and integrate reference implementations and solutions in the Lab will serve as a starting point for commercialization.

    Community Lab participants must meet the following minimum criteria for participation:

    • Participation in the designated Project Group that sponsors the relevant use case
    • Completion of an agreement with TIP that identifies the milestones, deliverables, equipment, and timeline
    • Each participant in a Community Lab was required to attend Project Group calls, report on status updates, and troubleshoot problems.
    To Learn More:

    Community Lab results are presented in the TIP Project Groups To participate, Become a TIP participant, join the Project Group that is focused in your area of interest, and contact the Project Group Chair.
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    d TIP Field Trial Badge

    TIP Field Trials are hosted by the service provider participants of TIP, bringing a community together to trial products in a realtime environment with a defined use case. Field Trials focus on products that are scalable, cost effective, suitable for wide scale deployment and will be tested for deployment readiness. This badge identifies the products and solutions used for the trials.

    Field Trials must meet the following minimum criteria:

    • Participated in the designated Project Group that sponsors the relevant technology and use case
    • Alignment with the service providers on the design and outcome of the trials and have dedicated support to the trials in the agreed upon timeline
    • Provide evidence of products meeting the criteria agreed upon with the service providers and are deployment ready.
    To Learn More:

    Current Field Trial results are presented in the Coo. To participate, Become a TIP participant participant and join the OpenRAN Project Group.
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    e TIP PlugFest Badge

    TIP PlugFests are events where our community comes together to test and validate TIP solutions in an end-to-end environment informed by network provider requirements. PlugFests provide partners and service providers opportunities to define test environments and documents. The PlugFest Project Group is planning additional events. You can view more about the PlugFest Project Group here (link to microsite).

    To Learn More:

    TIP PlugFest results are presented in the TIP Project Groups To participate, Become a TIP participant, join the Project Group that is focused in your area of interest, and contact the Project Group Chair.
Participate in TIP to list products and solutions on the TIP Exchange Marketplace.

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