Test companies are focusing on the next generation of wireless and wired network technologies at upcoming events this month, highlighting new testing capabilities that support research and development in both “5G” and 400G networks.
Rohde & Schwarz is highlighting new 5G testing products at CTIA’s Super Mobility show next week, with a particular focus on support for massive multiple-input multiple-output, millimeter wave and complex 5G channel models. The company has a new near-field measurement technique for over-the-air testing in massive MIMO systems that, in its description, “allows continuous sampling on arbitrary grids thus decreasing the measurement time in the near field by a factor of 40 compared to stepped measurements.” It also has its R&S ZNBT vector network analyzer with 24 ports, which can be extended to 288 ports, to support antenna engineering in massive MIMO systems. Similarly, Rohde is offering an option to extend analysis bandwidth of its FSW signal and spectrum analyzer so that engineers can set up test systems that have a frequency range up to 85 gigahertz with 2 gigahertz analysis bandwidth.
In channel sounding, the company said it has the first commercial test solution for 5G channel sounding, with a test setup that includes its TS-5GCs channel sounding software with its FSW spectrum analyzer and SMW200A vector signal generator – a combination that would support multichannel test scenarios up to 40 gigahertz, covering many of the centimeter and millimeter wave bands of most interest at this point in 5G development.
“The standards that will define 5G have yet to be outlined. However, it is clear that new technologies and new frequency bands will be required to meet the needs of enhanced mobile broadband. Currently, many researchers are focused on developing new antenna technologies for massive MIMO systems, studying channel characteristics and characterizing components up to millimeter wave, all of which will require high performance and flexible test and measurement solutions to advance 5G technologies,” said Lifang Kirchgessner, VP of Rohde & Schwarz’ wireless communications market segment, in a statement.
Meanwhile, Keysight Technologies is talking up 400G networks and beyond at the upcoming European Conference on Optical Communications later this month, including pulse amplitude modulation-4 modulation and bit error rate testing, with increased accuracy to support the necessary validation and performance for wireline networks that range from 25G and 40G up to 100G and 400G optical interconnects.
In other test news:
• Keysight Technologies is making a change in its global sales organization as its head, Guy Séné, plans to retire after four decades with Keysight and its predecessor companies. Mark Wallace, VP and GM of Keysight’s Americas field operations, will take over the position as of Nov. 1. Séné plans to remain on as an adviser until the close of Keysight’s fiscal first quarter at the end of January 2017.
• P3 Group has appointed a new director of strategic business development for telecommunications in the Americas. Tim Newberg, a 20-year telecom industry veteran, will be responsible for growing P3’s business in the U.S., Canada and Latin America – where the company has already been aggressively expanding of late – with a new office in Puerto Rico for mobile device testing recently announced, along with a new innovation center in Detroit and an office in Brazil opened earlier this year.
Newberg joins P3 from RootMetrics, where he led strategic business development in the Americas. He started his career at Texas Instruments and spent 11 years there, and also worked for Broadcom before being named VP of sales and strategic business development at Sequans Communications.
• NI’s CEO and co-founder, Dr. James Truchard, is stepping down. Read RCR Wireless News’ full story here.
• Spirent Communications supported forwarding performance testing of a new Huawei 7.2 Tbps line card for datacenter core switches during Huawei Connect 2016. Spirent’s TestCenter was used to generate 100G line-rate service traffic and provide live key performance indicators, and the two companies said the Huawei line card performed at 100% line-rate with forwarding latency of less than 2 microseconds. The cards are used within switches for data center interconnections up to 100G.
• Viavi Solutions is joining several 5G initiatives as part of its support for development of next-generation network technologies. It is part of the Central Office Rearchitected as a Datacenter initiative and has previously been announced as part of the White House’s Advanced Wireless Research Initiative. CORD focuses on the intersection of software-defined networking, network functions virtualization and cloud.
• AT4 Wireless’ testing facilities in Málaga, Spain, have been authorized as a LoRa Alliance test house for certification.
• Teledyne LeCroy launched a new high-definition oscilloscope that expands its HD oscilloscope portfolio range to 4 gigahertz. The HDO line, with 10 bits of vertical resolution with 4 gigahertz bandwidth, is designed to give better visual clarity in order to show fine signal details.
• GL Communications launched a new simulator for testing wideband and narrowband voice quality testing, echo testing, and multistage dialing for analog phone systems that support a wideband codec. Tests include KPIs for Call Failure and Call Drop, One Way and Round Trip Delay measurements, and analysis of the incoming audio to determine if WB was sustained.
