Rohde & Schwarz(R&S) has enhanced its test solution platforms to include advanced capabilities to support testing of 5G technologies.
To implement 5G, new areas are being investigated including Massive MIMO, millimeter wave communications and complex channel models. To meet the 1000x improvements in capacity and to achieve ever higher data rates, Massive MIMO antenna systems that use hundreds of antenna elements, are being planned for 5G. In these systems, the radio is combined with the antenna resulting in few or no RF test ports, thus requiring over-the-air (OTA) measurements to characterize the systems.
To expedite these tests, R&S has developed a flexible near field measurement technique that allows continuous sampling on arbitrary grids thus decreasing the measurement time in the near field by a factor of 40 compared to stepped measurements. In addition, R&S offers bench top and production far field measurement systems for devices being investigated between 28 GHz and 90 GHz.
The R&S NBT 24-port vector network analyzer is being used to measure the mutual coupling between antenna elements, which reduces overall system capacity, so that 5G antenna engineers can determine the optimal distance between antenna elements in Massive MIMO systems. This solution can be extended up to 288 ports using the 2x24 R&S®ZN-Z84 switch matrix.
Lifang Kirchgessner, Vice President, Wireless Communications Market Segment
Currently, many researchers are focused on developing new antenna technologies for Massive MIMO systems, studying channel characteristics, and characterizing components up to millimeter wave, all of which will require high performance and flexible test and measurement solutions to advance 5G technologies.
