Evaluation Engineering - 7

to offer a channel-sounding solution for
mmWave and sub-THz frequencies.
Brian Walker, senior RF design engineer,
Copper Mountain Technologies: We focus on the precision measurement of the
S-parameters which characterize the
media over which 5G signals propagate.
This is important for understanding RF
phase and amplitude in a MIMO antenna
array or the loss and gain through an RF
front-end.
Jon Semancik, director of marketing,
Marvin Test Solutions: Marvin Test
Solutions is focusing on production test
equipment for beamforming applications
in the 28- to 44-GHz range. The recently
released TS-960e-5G turnkey test system
supports up to 24 ports for true multisite test capabilities, and it includes DC,
parametric, and RF test capabilities. The
system integrates laboratory-grade RF
performance directly to the mmWave
DUT for multisite production test or
device characterization of mmWave devices. In addition, MTS offers a full suite
of digital and parametric testing and SPI/
I2C interface support to functionally control and monitor the device under test.
The ATEasy test executive and integrated
test environment (IDE) is utilized for all
test sequencing, control, timing, and
documentation. ATEasy also incorporates
advanced cybersecurity features, such as
data and driver encryption and multilevel
access control.
Stephen Douglas, head of 5G practice,
Spirent: Spirent's 5G focus is in solutions
around network emulation, Dev to Ops
automation, and active assurance to provide a safe pathway across the new 5G
lifecycle, helping our customers manage
the complexity and challenges as they look
to develop, launch, and operationalize 5G.
In network emulation we have a portfolio of solutions which emulate all major
parts of the 5G network including the New
Radio base stations (gNBs), channel models (sub-6-GHz and mmWave), 5G New
Core (Service Based Architecture), UE and
traffic emulation (eMBB, uRRLC, mMTC
including NB-IoT and CAT-M, 4G, Wi-Fi
6.0, security), and impairment emulation

Spirent 5G network digital twin.

(latency, packet loss). Combined, these
emulators create a digital twin, which
emulates the 5G networks, traffic, and
services.
Twins (emulators) can be used to
test the performance of a real network
or emulate network functions and services which are physically unavailable,
complex, or costly to configure, providing a simple, repeatable, and predictable
way to test and prototype, reducing the
complexity and economics of testing and
validating 5G. The twins are being used
today by OEMs to validate 5G UEs, by
NEMs to validate 5G network equipment
such as new gNBs and the 5G Core, by
CSPs to prototype new capabilities such
as network slicing, and by universities to
research future use cases in the automotive and Industry 4.0 space.
In Dev to Ops automation we have a
portfolio of automated-test solutions
which streamline continuous deployment
processes such as 5G cell-site turn-ups,
validating and activating new 5G Core
networks and functions, or evaluating
perceived user experience of the new 5G
services including data, video, and voice.
In active assurance, we have solutions
which continuously (24/7) actively test the
operational network and services using
synthetic traffic generation via softwaredefined test agents for a proactive way to
monitor and assess performance, quickly
isolate issues, continuously validate network and service continuity (for example,
after change-management events), and
assess security effectiveness for critical
risks such as data breaches.

Andreas Roessler, technology manager,
Rohde & Schwarz USA: From our perspective, the research community has already
moved on or is at least in a transition
phase. While 5G is being commercialized, 6G research is taking off. Topics are
manifold and among others they include
the reach towards sub-THz and THz frequencies, with even wider bandwidths
than currently possible in 5G. Potential
applications target chip-to-chip, boardto-board, or rack-to-rack communication.
However, these ultrahigh frequencies and
bandwidths add another dimension to
wireless communication: active sensing.
From that perspective, 6G research may
pave the way further to the holographic
society-"your" digital twin-and Rohde
& Schwarz is actively contributing to this
research with our test-and-measurement
tools and software solutions.
Karim Hamed, GM, Microwave Communications Group, Analog Devices: We are
engaged across the entire scope of 5G phenomenon including enabling the equipment
testing the network, as a core component
integrated into the first 5G radios launched,
and providing key technology for many of
the 5G applications coming in the future.
In the sub-6-GHz space with wider bandwidths and more stringent performance requirements, we continue to believe that the
delivery of wideband DPD and GaN power
amp (PA) charge-trap correction is essential. As for mmW, our investments are centered around delivering ever higher linear
output power while meeting the customer
EVM specs with a more highly integrated
beamformer front-end.
DECEMBER 2019 EVALUATIONENGINEERING.COM

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Evaluation Engineering

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