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802.11ad Waveform Generation and Analysis Testbed, Reference Solution

Brochures

Keysight Technologies

802.11ad Waveform Generation & Analysis

Testbed, Reference Solution

Solution Brochure

Flexible and Comprehensive Solution for Generation and Analysis of 802.11ad Signals

Introduction

Early standards for wireless LAN - IEEE 802.11a and b - were designed to link a wired broadband connection to PC for web browsing and email in the home or office. 802.11b supported up to 11 Mb/s at 2.4 GHz while 802.11a supported up to 54 Mb/s at 5 GHz, both in unlicensed spectrum. A later revision, 802.11g, consolidated the two standards in the 2.4 GHz band but maintained the maximum data rate at 54 Mb/s. It was soon recognized that new usage models with data sharing amongst connected devices required more bandwidth than the original standards could support. 802.11n was introduced to provide up to 600 Mb/s and utilized new techniques like MIMO. IEEE project groups researched ways to provide very high throughput (VHT) to meet ever increasing bandwidth requirements for applications such as wireless display, distribution of HDTV and rapid upload/download of files. The 802.11ac specification added support for up to a theoretical 6.93 Gb/s using 160 MHz of bandwidth, 8 spatial streams, an 256QAM, although the practical data rate for consumer devices was typically 1.56 Gb/s using 80 MHz of bandwidth and 4 spatial streams.

The 802.11ad offers up to 6.75 Gb/s of throughput using approximately 2 GHz of spectrum in the unlicensed 60 GHz band and maintains backward compatibility with legacy 802.11 devices. The 802.11ad standard adds significant capability, but also presents new test challenges for engineers developing and designing to this standard.

802.11ad Generation and Analysis Test Challenges

Component and system design and test at 60 GHz is an established, well understood science. Tools for mmWave circuit design and simulation, network analysis, signal analysis and power measurement have been used for a number of years in applications such as short-range radar and military communications. However, the new commercial 60 GHz applications require much wider modulation bandwidth, and hence different test solutions are needed.

Creating and analyzing signals with 2 GHz of bandwidth at mmWave frequencies, which is many times greater than other wireless communication systems, is one of the biggest challenges. There is often a need for testing the IF and baseband sections of a device or system, so a flexible test system architecture is desired. Additionally, capturing IQ samples for demodulation is needed to compute metrics like EVM to assess in-channel performance, and traditional swept-tuned analysis is needed to measure out of channel and out of band harmonic and spurious performance.

802.11ad Waveform Generation and Analysis Testbed Reference Solution

To help address these test challenges, the 802.11ad waveform generation and analysis testbed, reference solution provides a combination of hardware, software, and measurement expertise, the essential components of a flexible 802.11ad generation and analysis test platform. The reference solution enables engineers and researchers to generate and analyze 802.11ad signals at baseband, IF, RF, and mmWave frequencies.

The reference solution includes the 81199A Wideband Waveform Center software from Keysight Technologies, Inc. for creating and analyzing waveforms with two pieces of hardware – a precision AWG and a vector signal generator with wideband I/Q inputs. The combination of hardware and software enables generation of wideband test signals with up to 2 GHz of modulation bandwidth at frequencies up to 44 GHz to support a wide range of possible IF frequencies. Frequency coverage in V-Band is obtained through the use of an upconverter. A wide bandwidth oscilloscope performs signal demodulation at IF frequencies by digitizing the signals and passing them to the software for analysis. A downconverter can be used to translate 60 GHz signals into an IF usable by an oscilloscope.

Reference Solution Configuration

Signal creation configuration

The testbed signal generation hardware includes the M8190A AXIe AWG installed in an AXIe chassis that also contains an embedded controller. The 81199A software runs on the embedded controller, which creates waveforms that are loaded in the AWG installed in the same chassis. The 2-channel precision AWG can operate with 14-bit resolution at up to 8 GSa/s or 12-bit resolution up to 12 GSa/s. It offers 5 GHz of analog bandwidth and 2 GSa of memory per channel.

As part of the reference solution, the AWG is used to drive a PSG vector signal generator equipped with wideband differential external I/Q inputs (option 016). The wideband inputs can produce modulation bandwidths of up to 2 GHz on carrier signals up to 44 GHz. Depending on your application and performance requirements, a choice of upconverters is available to generate signals in V-Band. The Keysight N5152A offers a frequency range of 57 to 66 GHz, and Virginia Diodes, Inc. has a number of different upconverters available in V-Band (50 to 75 GHz), E-Band (60 - 90 GHz), and beyond. MXG or PSG microwave analog signal generators provide the LOs for the millimeter-wave upconverters.

The creation of 802.11ad waveforms is controlled by the 81199A software, which provides fully coded and modulated PHY signal generation. The software provides a library of individually-configurable waveform segments. Assembling a desired signal is a simple matter of dragging and dropping waveform segments and then assigning essential attributes to them. Before downloading to the arbitrary waveform generator at an appropriate sample rate, you can also add Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and other impairments.

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