Test company Anite has been leading a task group with the Mobile and Wireless Communications Enablers for 2020 Information Society to put together early models for 5G radio channels. Anite announced that the work on the first channel model proposal is finished and categorized the work as “the first radio channel model proposal to be delivered by an international project consisting of key industry players and universities. The proposal will help to accelerate the development of 5G radio access technologies and future mobile industry standards.”
Anite said that the METIS proposal includes three different models, described as a map-based model, a stochastic model and a hybrid model that was derived from the other previous models. The proposal “details end-user scenarios, test cases and requirements mapped to various propagation scenarios” and “address a very wide frequency spectrum, from relatively low frequencies in the current cellular frequency bands to centimeter and millimeter wave frequencies.”
• Keysight Technologies has three new low-frequency options for impedance testing with its E4982A LCR meter, and also introduced new software, its N8834A multiScope application, that lets engineers connect a leader oscilloscope and up to nine followers from Keysight’s Infiniium oscilloscope in order to make as many as 40 time-correlated analog channels for signal acquisition. Keysight said that such a testing set-up can be used for measurement in optical networking, MIMO testing and high-speed serial standards, among others.
• National Instruments recently added a rugged eight-slot controller to its CompactDAQ family, which has dual-core processors for running either Windows Embedded 7 or NI Linux Real-Time and can be used with LabView software. Also of note is the company’s recent acquisition of Beecube, which is a supplier of field-programmable signal processing platforms for prototyping in advanced wireless research, wireless and wired systems, military applications and signal intelligence; NI expects the purchase to strengthen its position in 5G development.
“As the ‘Internet of Things’ drives greater demand for data and an increasing number of connected devices, NI is excited to be at the forefront of research and prototyping tools for next-generation 5G wireless technology,” said Charles Schroeder, NI director of RF communications, in a statement. “NI and Beecube share a common philosophy and vision of platform-based design, and we believe the combination of the two companies will strengthen our leadership position as 5G progresses toward commercialization.”
Details of the transaction were not released and NI said it was “not material” to NI’s finances; Beecube will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of NI, and its CEO and founder, Chen Chang, will continue to lead the company.
• Speaking of 5G, I’ll be moderating a panel on the technical challenges of 5G at the upcoming LTE Innovation Summit in Del Mar, Calif. The agenda hits a number of hot wireless topics right now – LTE-U/Licensed Assisted Access, testing for IoT and quite a bit of focus on the things we’re supposed to start seeing in 5G, both in terms of actual channel sounding work that has been done, to massive MIMO.
• Anritsu’s handheld transport testers and its BERT signal quality analyzer won Lightwave Innovation awards this week for field and lab instrumentation.
• I got a chance to get my test-geek on at CableLabs‘ newly renovated facility in Louisville, Colo., last night – there is some very cool stuff going on there in regard to IoT development; next-generation content features such as 4K resolution; chromaticity expansion, which broadens the range of colors that TVs support; and high dynamic range TV, which relates to the depth and detail of the light/dark contrasts in the pictures – more of an explanation here.
My favorite parts: visiting the massive anechoic chamber for testing Wi-Fi access points and end-user devices, and hearing about CableLabs’ processes for objective and subjective video quality testing. Objective testing involves a computer assessing video quality, but for the subjective testing they bring in actual people to watch hours and hours of 10-second video clips that are either uncompressed or that utilize various compression technologies and have them rate how watchable the clips are. Now that CableLabs has this new set-up, one of their first areas of focus is on uniformity in radiated power level and sensitivity among APs and UEs.
Look for a full multimedia story on that early next week.
Follow me on Twitter: @khillrcr – where you can see a pic of me trying out “immersive television”, i.e. virtual reality, at the CableLabs site.
