US-12628014-B2 - Measurement device and measurement method

US12628014B2US 12628014 B2US12628014 B2US 12628014B2US-12628014-B2

Abstract

A measurement device includes: a display unit that displays information related to a test; a device control unit group that includes a plurality of device control units controlling control target devices of a control target device group, respectively, the control target device group including the control target devices that each simulate the component of the component group, respectively; a measurement target setting unit that sets a component selected from the component group as a measurement target device; a test case creation unit that creates a test case by displaying a use order of device control units to be used for the test of the measurement target device among the device control unit group on the display unit in a user-settable manner; and a test case execution unit that executes the test case as to the device control units to be used for the test in the set use order.

Inventors

Takahiro KASAGI
Koichi Inoue
Hiroyuki TANIKAGE

Assignees

ANRITSU CORPORATION

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20230203
Priority Date: 20220331

Claims (7)

1 . A measurement device for testing a component included in a component group constituting an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), the measurement device comprising: a display unit, including a display screen, that displays information related to a test; a device control unit group, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that includes a plurality of device control units controlling control target devices of a control target device group, respectively, the control target device group including the control target devices that each simulate the component of the component group; a measurement target setting unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that sets a component selected from the component group as a measurement target device; a test case creation unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that creates a test case by displaying a use order of device control units to be used for the test of the measurement target device among the device control unit group on the display unit in a user-settable manner; a test case execution unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that executes the test case as to the device control units to be used for the test in the set use order; and a control target selection unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that displays identification information of control target devices usable for the test of the measurement target device among the control target device group in a manner on the display unit in a user-selectable manner, wherein the control target selection unit selects, in accordance with the measurement target device set by the measurement target setting unit and without requiring user selection, an emulator of a component adjacent to at least the measurement target device in the Open RAN as the control target device.
2 . The measurement device according to claim 1 , further comprising a processing component extraction unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that extracts, from a processing component database, identification information of a control processing executable for the control target device selected by the control target selection unit as a processing component, and displays the extracted processing component in a user-selectable manner, wherein the processing component selected by the user is associated with a device control unit in which the user order is specified in the test case.
3 . The measurement device according to claim 2 , further comprising a processing component arrangement unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that displays processing components selected from the processing components extracted by the processing component extraction unit side by side on the display unit in align in a manner that the user can change an order of the displayed processing components, and stores, in a memory unit, information on a series of the processing components arranged in the order changed by the user as the test case.
4 . The measurement device according to claim 3 , further comprising a processing component detailed setting unit, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that displays, on the display unit in a user-settable manner, a processing content of the processing component displayed on the display unit by the processing component arrangement unit.
5 . The measurement device according to claim 1 , the component device group includes a radio unit of the Open RAN (O-RU), a distributed unit of the Open RAN (O-DU), a central unit of the Open RAN (O-CU), and a user equipment (UE).
6 . The measurement device according to claim 1 , wherein the device control unit group includes a plurality of device control units, including a CPU, an ASIC or an FPGA, that control one or a plurality of measurement equipment, respectively.
7 . A measurement method of testing a component included in a component group constituting an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), the measurement method comprising: a display step of displaying information related to a test in a display unit; a preparing step of preparing a device control unit group that includes a plurality of device control units controlling control target devices of a control target device group, respectively, the control target device group including the control target devices that each simulate the component of the component group, respectively; a measurement target setting step of setting a component selected from the component group as a measurement target device; a test case creation step of creating a test case by displaying a use order of device control units to be used for the test of the measurement target device among the device control unit group on the display unit in a user-settable manner; and a test case execution step of executing the test case as to the device control units to be used for the test in the set use order, the measurement method further comprising a control target selection step of displaying identification information of control target devices usable for the test of the measurement target device among the control target device group in a manner on the display unit in a user-selectable manner, wherein, in the control target selection step, an emulator of a component adjacent to at least the measurement target device in the Open RAN is selected as the control target device, in accordance with the measurement target device set by the measurement target setting unit and without requiring user selection.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims Convention priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-059000, filed Mar. 31, 2022, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a measurement device and a measurement method, and in particular to a measurement device and a measurement method for testing a component that constitutes O-RAN, or Open RAN in the broad sense. BACKGROUND ART Radio Unit (RU), Distributed Unit (DU), and Central Unit (CU), which constitute Radio Access Network (RAN) of 5th Generation Mobile Communication System (5G), have different communication interfaces between the equipment depending on the vendors, and it is difficult to constitute RAN by combining the equipment from different vendors. To solve this problem, Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) has recently been proposed as an open radio access network with standardized specifications for communication interfaces between the equipment, based on the Open RAN concept of allowing RAN to be used by separating and combining its components. Each vendor supporting O-RAN is required to develop equipment that complies with the O-RAN specifications established by the O-RAN Alliance and to execute interoperability test with the equipment provided by different vendors. Therefore, telecommunication carriers are required to test networks constituted by a combination of those equipment. With respect to 5G RAN, a measurement device capable of creating a test case for testing a mobile communication terminal has been disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). The test case specifies various conditions for executing a test, including test execution conditions, test procedures, inputs and expected outputs. CITATION LIST Patent Literature [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2021-168444 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Technical Problem Conventional measurement device as described in Patent Document 1, is used to test a mobile communication terminal connected to a base station that constitutes 5G RAN as a test target (a device under test) and is intended to measure only the radio section with a base station simulator. On the other hand, if the O-RAN Radio Unit (O-RU) is the test target, for example, it is necessary to simultaneously control a signal analyzer and signal generator for measuring the radio section and an O-RAN Distributed Unit (O-DU) emulator for measuring the wired section. Accordingly, when a component constituting O-RAN is used as a test target, there is a problem that the conventional measurement device is not able to systematically control a control target device such as an emulator and measurement equipment with a single software or system to execute the test efficiently. An object of the present invention is to provide a measurement device and a measurement method that can systematically and efficiently execute a test by freely selecting a component constituting the Open RAN such as O-RAN as a test target. Means for Solving the Problem In order to solve the above problems, a measurement device according to the present invention is a measurement device (1) for testing a component included in a component group constituting an Open Radio Access Network (Open RAN), the measurement device including: a display unit (12) that displays information related to a test; a device control unit group (14) that includes a plurality of device control units (141-147) controlling control target devices (201-207) of a control target device group (20), respectively, the control target device group (20) including the control target devices (201-207) that each simulate the component of the component group; a measurement target setting unit (151) that sets a component selected from the component group as a measurement target device; a test case creation unit (15) that creates a test case by displaying a use order of device control units to be used for the test of the measurement target device among the device control unit group on the display unit (12) in a user-settable manner; and a test case execution unit (132) that executes the test case as to the device control units to be used for the test in the set use order. As described above, in the measurement device according to the present invention, the measurement target setting unit sets, as the measurement target device, the component selected arbitrarily from the Open RAN component group that constitutes the Open RAN. Accordingly, it is possible to freely select the measurement target from the component group that constitutes the Open RAN and execute the test. Further, the control target device group comprehensively includes, as the control target devices, at least a plurality of emulators that each simulate the component of the component group constituting the Open RAN, and the device control unit group comprehensively includes a plurality of device control units that each control the control target devices among the con