Evaluation Engineering - 6

5G TECHNOLOGY

Sponsored by

SPECIAL REPORT

INNOVATIONS FROM SEMICONDUCTORS
TO DIGITAL TWINS DRIVE 5G
By Rick Nelson, Interim Chief Editor
	

5G research spans the gamut from
algorithm development to carrieracceptance test and has implications for
products ranging from integrated circuits
to test-and-measurement equipment,
manufacturing test, and modeling and
simulation. New products targeting 5G
appear frequently. As this article was going to press, for example, Anritsu was
announcing real-time spectrum analysis
(RTSA) tools for its Field Master Pro
MS2090A handheld spectrum analyzer,
which can serve aerospace/defense, satellite, radar, and 5G and mobile-backhaul
applications.
We asked 5G industry participants to
describe their approaches to the technology, the challenges facing their customers,
and solutions they offer. Read on to find
what they have to say. They also commented on topics such as compliance,
cooperative efforts with other organizations, and techniques such as OTA test.
You'll find discussion of those topics in a
subsequent article.

Key focus areas
On what 5G technology areas are you
focusing?
Roger Nichols, 5G program manager,
Keysight Technologies Inc.: The exciting
and sometimes overwhelming part about
5G for Keysight is that we are involved
in the entire development process-from
computer-aided electronic-design tools
to early design-validation test, conformance and carrier-acceptance test,

6

EVALUATION ENGINEERING DECEMBER 2019

Anritsu Field Master Pro MS2090A handheld spectrum analyzer.

manufacturing test, and system optimization. We are also now in a position to
provide design, measurement, and optimization aids for the entire stack-from
the physical layer up to the application
layer. With 5G in the early phases of commercialization, we are involved in everything from continued research in RF technology (channel sounding for IIIoT, FEMs,
antenna testing and validation, poweramplifier efficiency), air-interface testing (protocol-stack development, design
validation, conformance, and acceptance
testing of devices and base stations, core
and RAN-including fronthaul-network
testing, and drive-testing). An example
of the breadth of what we cover comes

from our UEE team who is now focused
on a SW stack implementation that covers the entire physical layer, supporting
multiple interfaces that span from radio/
RF to O-RAN with a unified approach.
Alejandro Buritica, senior marketing
manager, Semiconductor Solutions,
National Instruments: NI's wireless research team has been focusing on releasing fully 5G NR standards-compliant test
UE that can be used to validate 5G designs for hardware going into production
and can also be used as a starting point
for research in 5G verticals. NI also recognizes the importance of having accurate channel information and continues
http://www.rsleads.com/912ee-901 http://www.rsleads.com/912ee-188 http://www.rsleads.com/912ee-188
Evaluation Engineering

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Evaluation Engineering
