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Test and Measurement: Labs gear up for MIMO OTA testing

As testing labs prepare for the new SISO and MIMO OTA testing standards from CTIA, PCTest Engineering Laboratory said it is expandings its capabilities in those areas with a MIMO OTA testing solution from Spirent Communications. Spirent’s solution is also going to be used by test lab SGS according to an announcement this week.

For details on the top things to know about those upcoming test plans, check out this conversation with Paul Moller of Motorola and Ron Borsato of Spirent, who lead CTIA’s OTA working group. CTIA has opted to rely on an anechoic chamber approach for MIMO OTA testing that puts a device under test in the middle of a group of eight dual-polarized antennas. The device will be rotated in the azimuth plane, or around its vertical axis, with measurements taken every 30 degrees. The device will be assessed on the basis of whether it can achieve 70%, 90% and 95% of its maximum theoretical throughput as particular signal-to-interference ratio levels are presented.

PCTest also added Enhanced Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services (a.k.a. eMBMS or LTE broadcast) test plans for conformance and carrier acceptance in upgrading its Rohde & Schwarz equipment, and has new eMBMS testing support on Anritsu equipment as well.

Spirent, meanwhile, had a board of directors change recently. Board member Ian Brindle, who has been on the board since 2006, stepped down. His position as chairman of the audit committee will be filled by Jonathan Silver, and Sue Swenson will take on the role of senior independent non-executive director.

– Tom Waechter, CEO of JDSU for six years prior to its split into Viavi and Lumentum, stepped down as CEO of Viavi less than two weeks after the separation was completed. More on that story in our coverage earlier this week.

– Keysight Technologies has completed its $600 million acquisition of test company Anite, and Anite’s shares have been delisted from the London Stock Exchange. The final transaction was completed one day after Anite officially joined the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey, which has been active in exploring next-generation wireless technologies; Anite also led a METIS working group researching initial 5G channel models.

Keysight plans to hold its first analyst and shareholder meeting on Sept. 1 in New York.

– Rohde & Schwarz has a new production-environment test solution for satellite systems, designed to test global positioning technologies including GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo more quickly, as well as characterize GNSS chipsets and modules.

The test set-up includes R&S’ MBV100A vector signal generator outfitted with the new SMBV-P101 package and allows the testing of GNSS signal reception and the connection between the antenna and chipset during the production process, according to Rohde & Schwarz, by simulating separate satellites.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Kelly Hill
Kelly Hill
Kelly reports on network test and measurement, as well as the use of big data and analytics. She first covered the wireless industry for RCR Wireless News in 2005, focusing on carriers and mobile virtual network operators, then took a few years’ hiatus and returned to RCR Wireless News to write about heterogeneous networks and network infrastructure. Kelly is an Ohio native with a masters degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused on science writing and multimedia. She has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oregonian and The Canton Repository. Follow her on Twitter: @khillrcr