ETS-Lindgren and Spirent Communications have entered into a partnership to pursue joint research and development (R&D) on a complete radiated test system to evaluate the over-the-air (OTA) performance of 5G devices. The test system will evaluate the OTA performance of 5G New Radio (NR) user equipment (UE) using Spirent Communications' 5G radio channel emulator, Vertex, to create challenging radio propagation environments compliant with the latest 3GPP standards.
5G NR brings sophisticated new radio technologies to the cellular world, such as Massive MIMO (multiple input and output antennas), radio frequency (RF) beamforming, and high frequency millimeter wave (mmWave) signals at 28 GHz and higher. The test techniques used for 4G are incapable of supporting the chipset and device manufacturers who are developing new 5G devices such as 5G smartphones, IoT devices and data modems.
With multiple antennas and higher frequencies, over-the-air tests using chambers will be required to test most applications. The companies' joint R&D efforts will result in a complete system for 5G UE millimeter wave radiated performance test.
