In another sign of the ramp-up of 5G ecosystem ramp-up, Anritsu has partnered with ETS-Lindgren on a new over-the-air testing system for 5G devices. The system integrates Anritsu’s Radio Communications Test Station MT8000A with ETS-Lindgren’s EMQuest EMQ-100 antenna measurement software for characterizing and validating 5G antenna designs.
The two companies, which had a previous working relationship, said that they have already delivered several of the 5G OTA testing systems; Anritsu started shipping its MT8000A last year, and it has both sub-6 GHz and millimeter wave capabilities.
Also this week, Anritsu touted the number of 5G test cases that it has submitted to the Global Certification Forum’s conformance group and 3GPP’s RAN-5 for Non-Standalone 5G in Frequency Range 1 (sub-6 GHz). It said that it submitted the highest number of 5G New Radio protocol conformance tests to this month’s GCF Conformance Agreement Group meeting, as well as the most test case submissions to the RAN-5 NSA FR1 group.
In other test news:
-A new report from IMARC Group projects that the global signal generator market will reach a value of $1.5 billion by 2024, up from $974 million in 2018. That reflects a compound annual growth rate of about 8%, the analyst firm noted, which it said is driven by “escalating sales of mobile devices and electronics, along with … advancements in the wireless, processor and signal transferring technologies.”
–Keysight Technologies’ Ixia Solutions Group launched a benchmarking solution for virtualized network function infrastructure. Cloud Peak focuses on helping operators “understand the capabilities and performance of an infrastructure under varied conditions, to evaluate design tradeoffs, upgrades and component swaps, and to identify performance bottlenecks” in NFV infrastructure (NFVi), Ixia said.
“NFVi adds a new layer of complexity, yet it enables service providers to accelerate NFV deployment and realize its business benefits,” said Sunil Kalidindi, vice president of product management for Keysight’s Ixia Solutions Group, in a statement. “With NFVi, the burden of system-level testing shifts from the network equipment provider to the service provider who needs to integrate the virtual network functions with their own customized server infrastructure. Cloud Peak enables the service provider to characterize the infrastructure to understand what it can handle, how to improve it, and if it is reaching its capacity.”
Ixia also this week announced a multi-year strategic collaboration with electronic design company Synopsys focused on system validation for complex networking system-on-chips. Synopsys’ ZeBu Virtual Network Tester Solution integrates Synopsys’ ZeBu emulation capabilities with Ixia’s IxVerify virtual network tester. The two companies said that the new offering is a “faster, more effective alternative to traditional in-circuit emulation, which no longer scales for the port density and software complexity of next-generation networking SoCs.”
–Keysight Technologies said that its test solutions are being leveraged by Chinese wireless module provider Fibocom to produce 5G modules for PCs. Fibocom is using Keysight’s 5G RF DVT Toolset, which is part of the company’s 5G network emulation solutions.
-Device maker Oppo has broken ground on a new research and development center in China, saying that it will spend about $1.46 billion this year to boost its R&D capabilities. The new center, in China’s Chang’an Town, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, is expected to house 5,000 R&D personnel when it is complete, and the location will be responsible for R&D, design and testing of Oppo smart devices ranging from smartphones to IoT products, the company said.
–NSS Labs found that next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) don’t always live up to expectations, in its latest round of group testing. NSS tested a dozen NGFWs across multiple use cases, assessing them for security effectiveness, total cost of ownership and performance. Although NSS has tested firewalls for nine years, it upped the ante this year by conducting what it described as “a significantly harder test for security effectiveness” — and it said that that testing “exposed weaknesses not seen previously.” Block rates for simple clear-text attacks and known exploits were strong, but NSS said that “test engineers were able to bypass protection in all devices” with just with minor modifications to known and blocked exploits. NSS Labs noted that “scripting evasions are challenging for NGFWs since they require real-time code analysis in order to determine whether a function is legitimate or obfuscating an attack.”
“While it is tempting to draw conclusions from one test, NSS Labs recommends enterprises favor vendors that consistently engage and improve over time,” the lab concluded. “Test results found all products had room for improvement when confronted with unknown variants of known exploits.”
–MicroLab, which is part of Wireless Telecom Group, is now a preferred OEM partner for network planning company Ranplan‘s Wireless Precision Design Initiative, so that companies which use Ranplan’s network planning tools can specify components from MicroLab in their network designs for in-buildings commercial wireless networks, public safety distributed antenna systems, or small cell networks.
“As dense 4G communication networks evolve to ultra-dense 5G networks, designers will need accurate models that represent the complexities of layered in-building and outdoor networks,” said Luke Getto, director of product management at Microlab, in a statement. “Inclusion of Microlab products in the Ranplan software suite will allow system designers to be confident that the real-world performance will match the simulations for coverage and capacity for both commercial wireless and public safety systems.”
