Anritsu and reverberation chamber testing company Bluetest are collaborating on 5G over-the-air testing capabilities, Bluetest’s second recent partnership in 5G OTA testing.
Anritsu’s Radio Communications Test Station MT8000A and Bluetest’s OTA Reverberation Test System RTS65 have been integrated in order to support 5G OTA testing. The move into 5G OTA testing builds on an existing long-term collaboration between Anritsu and Bluetest on LTE OTA testing and the two companies noted that it allows existing customers to upgrade their LTE solutions to enable 5G testing.
Because 5G NR will be used in both millimeter wave and sub-6 GHz bands and 3GPP recommends using over-the-air call connections for mmWave band tests, the two companies said they have worked together to “provide compact integrated solutions with shorter test times.”
The MT8000A test platform supports wideband signal processing and beam forming, protocol tests and signalling radio frequency testing at a range of frequencies, including 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, 28 GHz and 39 GHz, Anritsu added. Bluetest product manager Klas Arvidsson said in a statement that its chamber supports more sub-6 GHz measurement ports and frequency options up to 40 or 43 GHz.
This is the second partnership that Bluetest has announced this month related to 5G OTA testing. Earlier this month, Keysight extended its collaboration withBluetest to include test emulation support for over-the-air testing for 5G New Radio in sub-6 GHz frequencies.
In related news, Anritsu put out two new 5G NR TDD sub-6 GHz software packages: one for its Vector Signal Analyzer MG3710A and another for its signal analyzer series (MS2690A/91A/92A) with a vector signal generator installed. The company said that the new software is designed to support engineers working on the development and manufacturing of 5G NR mobile terminals and communications equipment and can verify both 5G NR chipsets, modules and systems as well as LTE products.
In other test news:
–Keysight Technologies had a busy week in regards to 5G news, particularly on the device testing side. Keysight said that its test solutions will be used in Korea to support testing and certification for 5G devices (full story here), and it was selected as the sole supplier of 5G network emulation solutions for Chinese electronics Xiaomi as it seeks to speed up development of 5G NR mobile devices. Xiaomi will be using Keysight’s 5G RF DVT Toolset, which supports 3GPP’s 5G NR Release 15 specification and enables testing of features including beamforming and beam management across both millimeter wave and sub-6 GHz spectrum bands.
Keysight also said that it has expanded its testing relationship with test lab company SGS to include 5G NR network emulation solutions based on Keysight’s UXM 5G wireless test set, for testing regulatory RF, protocol testing and radio resource management in 5G mobile devices.
–Rohde & Schwarz has new handheld microwave spectrum analyzers that cover a range up to 31 GHz. The three new base models of the R&S Spectrum Rider FPH cover up to 6 GHz, 13.6 GH and 26.5 GHz respectively, and R&S said that there are frequency extensions available via software upgrades that take spectrum analysis capabilities up to 31 GHz. The company said that the upgrades don’t require downtime or recalibration.
The instruments weigh about five and a half pounds and have a battery life of up to 6 hours, and they can be remotely controlled via USB or LAN, according to Rohde & Schwarz.
–PCTel has launched new scanning receivers for measurement of 5G networks. The HBflex scanning receiver supports 5G New Radio measurements on both mmWave and sub-6 GHz spectrum, the company said, and on its flagship IBflex scanning receiver for sub-6 GHz bands. Both devices are available for order now, and PCtel noted that software upgrade paths are available for current customers who own IBflex scanners.
Watch a recent RCR Wireless News interview with PCTel CEO David Neumann on the company’s areas of focus (including 5G) amid a recent reorganization.
–Verizon was rated the best on Broadway by Rootmetrics, which highlighted its latest test results in the New York City area this week. This was Verizon’s fifth sweep of Rootmetrics’ awards in the Big Apple, earning outright wins in five out of six categories and sharing the sixth — the text performance award — with AT&T and T-Mobile US.
Verizon recorded the fastest median download and upload speeds out of the four national carriers: 47.5 Mbps and 18.7 Mbps respectively. However, Rootmetrics did note that Sprint has made improvements in its data speeds in the New York area, jumping from a median download speed of 13.8 Mbps in the previous testing period to 19.6 Mbps in the most recent testing. Rootmetrics said that it conducted tests “across all hours of the day and night” at 295 indoor locations and while driving more than 5,600 miles in the New York area between September 13 through September 22.
-Speaking of Verizon, the carrier also nabbed the “best in test” award in P3 Group’s most recent report, which looked at the performance of the four biggest U.S. mobile networks on a national basis. Read the full story on P3’s report here, and check out our discussion with P3 CEO Hakan Ekmen about P3’s crowd-sourced, device-based approach to benchmarking.
-Network monitoring company InfoVista has a new North American wholesale distribution agreement with software-defined WAN-as-a-service company TELoIP to offer InfoVista’s application-aware software-defined WAN solution, InfoVista Ipanema, which offers application visibility and control in a hybrid WAN context.
InfoVisa has described its global channel strategy as “all indirect, all the time.” The company’s new SVP of Global Channel Sales, Jon Howes, said in a statement that InfoVista’s offering “is gaining a great deal of traction as the company quickly and efficiently scales its channel presence in the U.S. and Canada, and more partnerships with strategic resellers will be announced in the coming months.”
–UL is now an officially authorized test lab for CTIA’s internet of things security certification. CTIA’s IoT Cybersecurity certification program, UL noted, is available for both Wi-Fi and LTE devices and includes “tiered security testing in three categories to meet the evolving security needs of IoT device manufacturers, beginning with core IoT device security features, and adding additional requirements based on increasing device complexity, sophistication and manageability.”
UL also has its own IoT cybersecurity certification and offers other cybersecurity-related testing programs as well. Ghislain Devouge, global vice president and general manager of the Consumer Technology division at UL, said in a statement that “while the CTIA certification provides minimal baseline security requirements, we believe that it is a step in the right direction for addressing cybersecurity risks and complimentary to more comprehensive cybersecurity solutions.”
–Broadband Forum and prpl Foundation are partnering to come up with an an open-source reference implementation of the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Multi-AP Specification for mesh networks, which are becoming increasingly popular for both in-home and small business Wi-Fi networks. The two groups said their effort will “[accelerate] time-to-market by providing a software foundation upon which service providers and OEMs can quickly and easily develop and deploy carrier grade mesh Wi-Fi systems which may be submitted for testing under the Wi-Fi Certified EasyMesh program.”
-Autonomous vehicle simulation start-up Cognata has closed on an $18.5 million funding round led by existing investors Emerge, Maniv Mobility, and Airbus Ventures and adding new investor Global IoT Technology Ventures. Cognata said that it plans to use the funds to increase its engineering group and “rapidly expand commercial operations in the United States, Europe and Asia.”
Cognata offers an automotive simulation platform for realistic virtual test-driving of vehicles, including autonomous vehicles; the company describes its solution as combining “artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision to provide a realistic virtual environment that accurately simulates real-world test driving, allowing for fast and highly realistic results.” The company was recently selected by Audi subsidiary Autonomous Intelligent Driving GmbH to be its autonomous vehicle simulation partner.
