Spirent and ETS-Lindgren Join Forces on 5G R&D

ETS-Lindgren and Spirent Communications announced a new 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.

“Spirent’s research team has designed the channel processing required to model the real-world signals and provide the spatial resolution required to effectively evaluate the performance of UE beamforming systems.” says Spirent Senior Director, Dave Garrison. “ETS-Lindgren will leverage their world-recognized radiated environment experience to validate the concepts. Together ETS-Lindgren and Spirent will bring a flexible UE performance solution to market this year.”

“We are very pleased to continue our years of co-operation with Spirent Communications,” says ETS-Lindgren’s Director of Technology Development, Dr. Michael D. Foegelle. “ETS-Lindgren has years of experience in very high frequency test and measurement, which is a valuable asset in the 5G market, especially when the launching of 5G services is coming up quickly,” Dr. Foegelle continues.

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.