Although test companies have long been at the forefront of 5G work, the official advent of the 5G New Radio standard has meant that a number of vendors are reminding the industry of their 5G capabilities or launching new ones.
Just in time for the standard release, LitePoint launched a new fully integrated 5G millimeter wave test offering that covers frequencies including 28 GHz and 39 GHz for both over-the-air and conducted test. The IQgig-5G test system has multiple radio frequency ports; it supports pre-standard 5G modulation and is upgradeable to 5G NR standards as they are released, the company noted.
Keysight Technologies, meanwhile, held a 5G-focused event last week to demonstrate its 5G NR emulation capabilities for prototyping chipsets and devices as well as verifying features like beamforming across various spectrum bands around that world that will be utilized for 5G.
“We are pleased with our progress in the pre-standards phase of 5G and have built on that to offer solutions for New Radio,” said Kailash Narayanan, VP and GM for wireless device and operators at Keysight. “The early solution availability illustrates the benefits of our early collaborations with the market makers. Our end-to-end solutions, with support for sub-6GHz and mmWave testing, will help the development and deployment of 5G modems and devices to meet the challenge of varying global spectrum and interoperability requirements.”
Rohde & Schwarz joined 5Tonic, which is an open 5G lab initiative founded by Telefónica and Spain-based IMDEA Networks to focus on 5G-related collaboration with industry verticals. R&S joined as a collaborator to work with 5Tonic on 5G-related seminars, training and potential use of its test equipment, as well as particpating in the 5G Master program at University Carlos III of Madrid. 5Tonic members include Ericsson, Commscope and InterDigital.
High-profile 5G tests continue alongside the milestone of the 5G spec release, with Qualcomm and Ericsson greeting the new spec with news that they had already put together a demo of basic 5G NR connectivity at both 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz using an Ericsson base station and Qualcomm user equipment prototypes, in live lab settings in New Jersey and Sweden. Meanwhile, Vodafone UK and Ericsson forged ahead with the United Kingdom’s first pre-standard tests of standalone 5G NR, which is expected to be officially standardized in the summer of 2018.
In other test news:
-The Wireless Innovation Forum has chosen CTIA to manage WInnForum’s equipment certification program for Citizen’s Broadband Radio Service devices, and approved a device test specification. WInnForum said that it is also developing a software test harness to automate CBRS device testing and expects the first version to be available in early 2018.
–AT&T has a new 5G trial site in Waco, Tex. at Magnolia at the Silos, where it will focus on 5G fixed wireless service to the enterprise. Read the full story here.
–Anritsu’s Universal Wireless Test Set MT887A has been endorsed by vehicle-to-x chipmaker Autotalks for testing its 802.11p Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) chipsets. Anritsu said that the joint effort by the two companies to enable DSRC chipset testing “is part of the ecosystem preparation for the DSRC-based V2X deployment, ready for mass production in 2019.”
DSRC’s place in the U.S. automobile market is still up in the air. An expected rulemaking that would mandate the use of DSRC in vehicles in limbo under the Trump administration, which has focused on reducing and eliminating regulations including at the Department of Transportation.
–Tektronix ends the year with a few new awards in its holiday stocking, including a UBM honor for creativity in electronics for its mid-range 5 Series mixed-signal oscilloscope and seven mentions in EDN’s top 100 products of 2017 in test and measurement.
–Advantest said that a number of its research and manufacturing facilities in China and Singapore have received certification for ISO14001: 2015 environmental compliance, covering aspects such as energy and resource conservation and recycling. The company expects that its locations in the U.S., Europe, Korea and Taiwan will also gain the certification in the spring of 2018.
