- Overview
- All Models
- Support
Bring drive-test realism into a controlled test environment
The Keysight cellular virtual drive test emulation toolset enables engineers to test base stations by emulating real-world RF propagation and mobility scenarios with lab-grade repeatability. Using channel models derived from actual drive test data, the toolset reproduces geographic and environmental conditions to assess how base stations perform. It supports FR1 and FR2, integrates with network emulators and channel emulators, and allows validation of beam management, handovers, and throughput across a range of mobility profiles. Request a quote for the Keysight cellular virtual drive test emulation toolset today. Want to learn more about this solution? Explore the resources below.
Drive test emulation
Recreate real-world mobility scenarios using drive test data to validate handovers, coverage, and user experience in the lab.
Channel modeling
Simulate complex RF conditions with correlated fading, multipath, Doppler, and mobility derived from geographic data.
Base station analysis
Assess performance across KPIs like throughput, signal quality, and handover efficiency under controlled dynamic conditions.
Multi-domain emulation
Combine radio, protocol, and physical layer emulation to evaluate base station behavior in end-to-end network scenarios.
-
Workflow stage
Development
-
Test domain
Performance
-
Technology
5G NR, LTE
-
Test types
Virtual Drive Test, High Speed Train, Urban City
Most popular configuration
5G Virtual Drive Test Toolset
Services and support
Innovate at speed with curated support plans and prioritized response and turn-around times.
Get predictable, lease-based subscriptions and full lifecycle management solutions—so you reach your business goals faster.
Experience elevated service as a KeysightCare subscriber to get committed technical response and more.
Ensure your test system performs to specification and meets local and global standards.
Make measurements quickly with in-house, instructor-led training, and eLearning.
Download Keysight software or update your software to the newest version.
Frequently asked questions
Virtual drive test emulation uses real-world drive test data to recreate mobility scenarios and radio frequency (RF) fading conditions in a lab environment. This allows network equipment manufacturers and operators to test and validate base station, radio unit (RU), and user equipment (UE) performance under realistic urban, rural, highway, and high-speed mobility scenarios, without physically conducting drive tests.
Unlike traditional field testing, which requires time-consuming and costly vehicle routes, virtual drive test emulation offers a repeatable, automated, and scalable approach. It eliminates environmental variability, accelerates regression testing, and enhances test coverage for mobility events, including handovers, coverage loss, Doppler shifts, and channel impairments. By bringing real-world testing into the lab, engineers can debug, optimize, and validate RAN performance earlier in the development cycle, ultimately reducing time to market and ensuring higher network reliability.
Virtual drive testing emulation supports an extensive set of real-world deployment scenarios, enabling engineers to validate network performance without the time and cost of field testing.
These scenarios include:
- Urban and suburban routes – Simulate varied traffic densities, tall building reflections, and interference patterns common in city and suburban environments.
- Highways and rural drive tests – Recreate long-distance mobility conditions, sparse coverage zones, and cell-to-cell transitions along major roads and remote areas.
- High-speed train profiles – Evaluate mobility and handover performance at velocities exceeding 300 km/h, where traditional field testing is difficult to conduct.
- Dense urban fading and handover scenarios – Model challenging multipath propagation, network congestion, and rapid handoffs between cells in crowded downtown areas.
- Sub-6 GHz (FR1) and mmWave (FR2) bands – Test coverage, latency, and throughput trade-offs across both lower-frequency wide-area bands and high-frequency bands used for ultra-high capacity.
- Indoor and in-building coverage – Assess network behavior in offices, shopping centers, stadiums, and transportation hubs where penetration loss and small-cell deployments dominate.
- Cross-border or roaming conditions – Emulate handover and authentication processes when moving between different operator networks or regulatory domains.
- Special event environments – Reproduce scenarios with temporary spikes in user density, such as concerts, sports venues, and festivals.
By covering this wide spectrum of deployment conditions, virtual drive testing provides a flexible, repeatable, and cost-effective method to ensure 5G networks deliver reliable performance under the most challenging real-world conditions.
To create a complete virtual drive test workflow, the emulator is typically combined with several complementary tools. Each plays a role in reproducing real-world conditions and enabling repeatable, lab-based validation:
- Field data collection tools – Used to capture real-world network logs from live drive tests or walk tests. These logs provide a baseline of radio conditions, mobility events, and user experience data that can be replayed in the lab.
- Channel emulators – Provide controlled and repeatable RF environments. They replicate multipath fading, interference, mobility effects, and other real-world conditions, allowing devices to be tested under realistic scenarios without leaving the lab.
- Network signaling platforms – Supply end-to-end connectivity for devices under test. These systems handle registration, mobility, bearer setup, and advanced 5G features so device behavior can be validated in a full-stack environment.
By integrating these tools, engineers can establish a field-to-lab workflow:
- Collect real-world data.
- Emulate realistic RF and network conditions in the lab.
- Validate device performance through signaling and traffic testing.
In summary, virtual drive test emulation becomes most effective when paired with field logging tools, channel emulation systems, and network signaling platforms, enabling a seamless and repeatable process for benchmarking device performance under real-world conditions.
Cellular virtual drive emulation enables mobile network operators to validate how devices perform under real-world mobility and RF conditions, without conducting repeated field tests. By emulating drive test scenarios in the lab, operators can:
- Verify device interoperability and performance on their networks before deployment.
- Ensure compliance with operator-specific requirements, including mobility, handover, and signal quality KPIs.
- Accelerate certification and acceptance testing with repeatable, controlled conditions.
- Reduce cost and time associated with field testing, while increasing test coverage.
This helps operators deliver a more reliable network, improve user experience, and minimize network issues caused by non-optimized devices.
Virtual drive testing is device-centric, while O-RAN and base station emulation are infrastructure-centric.
O-RAN and base station emulation focus on testing network elements, such as gNodeB behavior, open interfaces, protocol compliance, and features like RAN slicing or DU-CU interoperability. These tests validate how the network functions.
Virtual drive testing, by contrast, evaluates how mobile devices (smartphones, modems, IoT units) perform in real-world mobility, RF fading, and signaling scenarios—all recreated in a repeatable lab environment. It emphasizes:
- End-user experience.
- Signal quality and handovers.
- Service continuity under mobility stress.
- Operator-specific performance requirements.
In short: O-RAN and base station emulators test the network; virtual drive testing tests the device’s ability to operate on that network under real-world conditions.