TIP Community Labs

TIP Community Labs were created to support TIP’s overall mission of working together to develop, test and deploy open, disaggregated, and standards-based solutions that deliver the high quality connectivity that the world needs. A Community Lab is dedicated to TIP projects, but the space and basic equipment are sponsored by individual TIP participant companies. Our Community Labs are a new approach to testing and deploying telecom network infrastructure which encourages the industry to adopt open and collaborative practices for developing new technologies.

It’s through the TIP Community Lab framework that TIP participant organizations can more seamlessly collaborate on disaggregated solutions, minimize duplication of testing efforts, share resources, best practices and results, as well as accelerate the time and rate of their solution(s) to commercialization and listing on TIP Exchange.

Community Lab Locations

Madrid, Spain
Sponsored by Telefónica

Adastral Park, Ipswich, UK
Sponsored by BT

Turin, Italy
Sponsored by TIM

Berlin, Germany
Sponsored by Deutsche Telekom

Manesar, India
Sponsored by Airtel

Tokyo, Japan
Sponsored by KDDI

Louisville, Colorado, USA
Sponsored by CableLabs

São Paulo, Brazil
Sponsored by CPqD

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Sponsored by TIM Brazil

Bandung, Indonesia
Sponsored by Telkom University

Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Sponsored by Instituto Nacional de Telecomunicações

Lima, Peru
Sponsored by Pontifical Catholic University of Peru

Zhudong Township, Taiwan
Sponsored by Industrial Technology Research Institute

Paris, France
Sponsored by Orange

OUR FRAMEWORK

There are three types of TIP Community Labs, with a concerted effort on testing products and solutions that have reached a level of maturity with an ultimate focus for complete End-to-End testing. TIP’s Test and Validation Committee is responsible for the approval of new labs and testing projects.

TIP Product Labs

TIP Product Labs provide a collaborative working environment for project groups ideate on possible new technologies and proof of concepts to bring to the Project Groups to further define. A TIP Product Lab aims to accelerate the speed of innovation with a clear path to scalable deployment on TIP Exchange. New technology developed in TIP Product Labs serve as one of the starting points for commercialization of new architectures possible solutions.

Highlights
TIP OpenRAN Project Group Makes First Version of OpenRAN CI/CD Platform Available to TIP Community
Telefónica and the Telecom Infra Project’s OpenRAN Project Group are pleased to announce that a first version of an OpenRAN Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery & Deployment (CI/CD) Platform is now available for TIP members to advance development of CI/CD use cases, technology and solutions.

TIP Integration Labs

TIP Integration Labs are home to End-to-End testing efforts and continuous Integration, through a concerted effort of automation. Our Integration Labs, previously referred to as “Plugfest”, will continue to focus on testing products and solutions in an End-to-End environment and demonstrating readiness for deployment in a commercial environment.
Integration Labs provide the ability to evaluate end-to-end solutions, especially in simulated (or real) deployment environments which ultimately provides more practical experience than focusing on a single interface. TIP’s capabilities to facilitate practical testing in End-to-End environments yields insights that are not readily apparent in single-interface testing.

Highlights
TIP Launches Total Site Solution for Ultra-Rural Network Deployments
Deploying reliable and high-speed networks to ultra-rural communities has long been one of the greatest challenges for the telecoms industry. The combination of lower population densities, lack of existing infrastructure, and availability of local expertise means that expanding networks into these areas has traditionally not been economically viable, leaving significant areas of the world unconnected. To help catalyze the industry to find a solution to this challenge, the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) and its members have developed the Total Site Solution (TSS), an optimized, lean site configuration specifically adapted to ultra-rural environments.

Learn more about Total Site Solution (TSS) on TIP Exchange
Starting with a use-case based approach, TIP-TSS is working with partners to create economically sustainable, optimized, pre tested, and remotely managed rural site configurations. These configurations leverage existing commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products and passive elements (e.g. towers, fencing, concrete, etc.), catalyzing industry to connect more people in rural areas.

TIP Deployment Labs

TIP’s newest lab type, the TIP Deployment Lab, focuses on three key areas:

    • People – Creating a space and platform for hosting educational bootcamps and hackathons to speed up the adoption and proliferation of modern, disaggregated software based telecom infrastructure solutions.
    • Process – The disaggregation and virtualization of networks that require more software driven processes to optimize operation and maintenance of a testing system.
    • Tools – Automation tools such as Continues Integration Continues Testing (CI/CD)

Highlights
New Industry Collaboration to Improve Connectivity in Indonesia and Drive Economic Growth
As part of efforts to significantly improve connectivity in Indonesia, a new TIP Community Lab and center of excellence is launching as the first stage of a new, multi-year collaboration between the GSMA, TIP, the Indonesian government, Telkom University and mobile network operators (MNOs) to support the country’s ‘Making Indonesia 4.0’ program. This collaboration will seek to advance digital and economic growth in Indonesia through testing and validating standards-based TIP open and disaggregated network technologies in the Lab and in the field, advance the deployment of commercially viable solutions, build a local talent pool, and foster a robust and diverse telecoms ecosystem, including a startup economy.

TIP OpenRAN Project Group Makes First Version of OpenRAN CI/CD Platform Available to TIP Community

Creating a community

The TIP Community Lab framework also forms a community of Hosts that share best practices, infrastructure blueprints, processes, forms, and experiences. The learnings and experiences are also shared outside the TIP community, helping organizations and initiatives collaborating with TIP to establish spaces for open innovation on new technologies.

Want to learn more?

The best way to learn about TIP Community Labs is to become a TIP and Project Group member. Contact Us for more information about membership or if you’re interested in hosting a TIP Community Lab.