Since the commercialization of 5G, 5G base stations, network coverage, and terminals have ushered in substantial growth. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of February this year, the total number of domestic 5G base stations has exceeded 1.5 million units. Third-party statistics show that the proportion of 5G smartphones in the world has exceeded half, and 5G vertical applications such as autonomous driving and telemedicine are booming.
Like 5G, new generation wireless communication systems such as satellites and Wi-Fi require higher frequencies, greater bandwidth, more complex modulation schemes and multi-antenna designs, which pose more challenges to the design and testing of communication equipment.
Three major challenges for communications equipment manufacturers
Bai Ying, Wireless Marketing Manager at Keysight Greater China, pointed out that how to meet the requirements of new communication standards, how to provide better performance, and how to bring products to the market faster in a competitive market are the three major challenges faced by enterprises.
In particular, the ever-changing communication standards in the field of wireless communications are an important part of the need for enterprises to closely follow up when launching new products. The rapidly growing market demand for high-data rate applications has led to an urgent need for new technologies that provide greater signal bandwidth. Various spectrum allocations at high frequencies support large bandwidths. For example, 5G New Air Interface (NR) specifies a maximum channel bandwidth of 400 MHz for frequency range 2 (FR2), and this spectrum range will also be extended up to 71 GHz. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has allocated 71-76 GHz / 81-86 GHz segments in the W-band to satellite services. These new standards and constantly upgraded new technologies create design and test challenges such as path loss, noise figure, phase noise, and frequency response.
On the other hand, today's wireless devices are more powerful and more versatile, and devices that support multiple frequency bands, multiple wireless formats, and use multiple antennas abound. Such a complex device complicates the process of designing, testing, and isolating system problems. For example, 5G base station performance testing requires the use of signal generators to simulate MIMO fading signals with the desired signal-to-noise ratio. RF engineers need to integrate and connect multiple instruments and then calibrate the entire system to get accurate, repeatable measurements. This makes design and validation testing more complex, time-consuming, and costly.
The new signal generator helps enable the next technological breakthrough
To enable faster, more responsive, and more reliable connectivity, and to introduce more revolutionary communications products, RF engineers need a test solution that can quickly and easily validate the device under test and ensure that the design meets the latest standards and test requirements.
Keysight's new Keysight M9484C VXG microwave vector signal generator can help RF engineers better meet these challenges.
The Keysight M9484C VXG is a four-channel vector signal generator with up to 54 GHz frequency range and 2.5 GHz modulation bandwidth that is compact and easily scalable, helping users simplify test system setup for accurate, repeatable multichannel measurements.
According to Bai Ying, the Keysight M9484C VXG microwave vector signal generator adopts an extensible architecture, and with the help of the filtered V3080A vector signal generator spreader, the frequency range can be extended to 110 GHz, so as to meet the needs of new communication standards. With bandwidths up to 2.5 GHz, VXGs can support advanced 5G testing such as digital predistortion (DPD) characterization of power amplifiers and carrier aggregation between bands. In addition, with a combined configuration, the VXG can play waveform files with bandwidths up to 5 GHz for satellite component verification and millimeter wave WLAN testing.
Unlike other single-channel devices, the Keysight M9484C VXG features a modern direct digital synthesis (DDS) design that supports up to four phase-coherent channels in a single instrument, with controllable phase relationships between channels. Engineers can combine multiple VXGs to increase the number of channels and leverage Keysight's advanced synchronization technology to meet the needs of multi-antenna test applications, such as multiple input multiple outputs (MIMO) and beamforming.
Talking about the development of 5G in a timely manner, Bai Ying pointed out that although 5G is developing rapidly in China, it still has a lot of room for development in the vertical industry field. Whether it is the government, enterprises, or manufacturers, the promotion of 5G private networks is very strong, and it is hoped that 5G private networks can change society from many aspects. Bai Ying said: "We believe that 5G has a lot of room and application in vertical industries, such as automatic mining, automatic ports, autonomous driving, intelligent factories, telemedicine, etc. In addition, 5G continues to evolve to B5G and 6G, and we are pleased to see that this is accelerating within the industry recently. ”
Bai Ying believes that this is also the original intention of Keysight M9484C VXG, a high-performance signal generator. With the M9484C VXG, Keysight hopes to help more users succeed in the 5G space, while simplifying their testing process and helping them prepare for future 5G vertical applications and pre-research testing of 6G, clearing the way for the next technology breakthrough. (Proofreading/No Sword Core)