New 5G testing and research opportunities announced this week from Deutsche Telekom and the U.K. government
It was a notable week in 5G testing, with Qualcomm and Keysight Technologies claiming the first connection of a 5G modem at 28 GHz, using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G modem chipset, the SDR051 millimeter wave RF transceiver integrated circuit and Keysight’s 5G protocol R&D toolset and UXM 5G wireless test platform. The two companies announced back in June that they would be collaborating to test and validate 5G chipsets, both at millimeter wave frequencies and below 6 GHz. Read the full story here.
In other 5G test developments, software-defined spectrum analysis company ThinkRF garnered $5 million in new funding to help it pursue its goal to “capture a significant share of the spectrum analyzer market, which is expected to reach $1.75 billion US by 2022,” and accelerate the growth of the company that recently integrated Keysight Technologies software into its hardware and is particularly focused on real-time spectrum analyzer support for 5G.
“We are pleased to have achieved this key funding milestone, enabling us to further disrupt the market,” said Jim Roche, President and CEO of ThinkRF. The funding round was led by existing ThinkRF investor Wesley Clover International and “new private investors,” according to the company, and the money will be used to “execute the next phase of the company’s business strategy, which includes expanding into key new geographic and vertical markets.”
Both Deutsche Telekom and the United Kingdom also announced new programs this week aimed at supporting 5G testing and development. DT’s hub:raum unit, through which it supports start-ups for technology incubation, has started a new low-latency prototyping program with a focus on the use of mobile edge computing in 5G. DT is accepting applications and will provide up to $350,000 to companies that are selected to participate, as well as financial support for a pilot project. Hub:raum has locations in Berlin, Krakow and Tel Aviv; there will be 5G MEC test environments in both Krakow and Berlin, starting next month.
The U.K. government will start accepting applications next week for 5G testbed and trial proposals, with approximately $33 million in funding up for grabs. Read the full story here.
In other test news:
-Industry group OmniAir launched the first vehicle-to-x Dedicated Short Range Communications certification program. The program, focused on interoperability among connected cars, kicks off with test equipment from Spirent Communications and Danlaw as the first qualified equipment under the program and 7Layers as the first authorized lab for device testing.
-According to a recent report from Frost & Sullivan, the impact of industrial internet of things on the test market is forecasted to grow by nearly 7% per year until 2022, from a market size of $71.1 million last year.
–EXFO now has a pocket-sized tester with more than 140 tests and a new platform for deploying residential and enterprise services that utilizes the popular Speedtest by Ookla that consumers often use to gauge what internet speeds they are receiving. EX1 measures “real-life throughput up to full line rate gigabit Ethernet,” according to EXFO.
“To confirm they get what they pay for, residential and business Ethernet subscribers measure actual throughput/speed using off-the-shelf solutions that fall short in capturing correct speed rates. Performing speed tests using a dedicated carrier-grade device is necessary to provide subscribers with reliable proof that speed delivered and service level agreement rates match,” EXFO said. The company added that the tester is capable of evolving to support other network test, including Wi-Fi testing.
–OTSL launched a real-time millimeter wave radar simulator for autonomous driving, the Advanced Millimeter Wave Radar Simulator.
“The AMMWR Simulator uses a virtual 3D image of a millimeter-wave radar and visualizes in real-time the calculated values of radiation range, angle, distance, reflection intensity, relative speed to the object, etc.,” said Shoji Hatano, CEO of OTSL, in a statement. “This simulator drives a vehicle with a millimeter-wave radar in virtual space and moves virtual models such as the target vehicle to be tracked, oncoming vehicles, or pedestrians to enable simulation of a closer-to-reality driving situation. This simulator will be marketed to automotive manufacturers, system component suppliers, and semiconductor manufacturers around the world. We strongly believe that the new product will contribute to their system development activities and to shorten development periods.
Also in an automotive test simulation context, Synopsys and NXP are extending a “center of excellence” program that makes pre-silicon software development kits available with a virtual prototype of a Hardware Electronic Control Unit. The program is meant to help speed development and testing for automotive systems.
–National Instruments partner Viviota, meanwhile, said this week that it has a new data management partnership with measX on software that “[complements] and {extends] the value of the newly released National Instruments Data Management Software Suite.”
–Tektronix is outfitting a nanofabrication lab at the University of Illinois designed to give students hands-on experience with micro- and nano-electronics.
