S8802A mmWave Base Station Fading Performance Toolset

Introduction

5G base station products support several access technologies, are flexible to deploy and reconfigure, and most importantly, can deliver a huge capacity to end users. However, the increasingly complex technology that enables these new capabilities, is more vulnerable for distortions. Typically, the performance challenges of 5G links and networks are related to beam management procedures and interoperability issues between user equipment (UE) and the network. 

The key challenge of 5G arises from the above 24GHz millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies introduced in 5G new radio (NR). Millimeter wave propagation in the medium is different compared to traditional radio signal frequencies. Millimeter waves propagate in the same way as visible light and therefore obstacles block and scatter the signal instead of letting an attenuated signal travel through the medium

The industry has been lacking a fully automated turnkey solution for testing and optimizing 5G mmWave base station performance in realistic conditions. Keysight’s S8802A mmWave Base Station Fading Performance Toolset solves this challenge by enabling you to reliably and cost effectively test your designs in a laboratory environment. By bringing the field conditions to the lab, the S8802A toolset allows you to assess the performance of your designs in real-world fading and interference RF conditions.

Validate and optimize your base station designs before launch with the S8802A toolset:

•Emulate up- and downlink FR2 MIMO channels OverThe-Air in real time

The toolset is extendable to:

•Measure SU/MU downlink RF beams with an embedded multi-port signal analyzer

• Test SU/MU uplink RF beams with an embedded  multi-port signal generator 

•Analyze and debug up- and downlink SU/MU L1/L3 signaling with an integrated RF sniffer

• Test key performance indicators, such as multi-user data throughput, in an instant

What is the S8802A mmWave Base Station Fading Performance Toolset?

Keysight’s S8802A mmWave Base Station Fading Performance Toolset provides a fully integrated and automated turnkey testing solution for optimizing, stress testing, and benchmarking mmWave base stations. Testing can be replayed in an automated 24/7 controlled laboratory environment with all testing tools.

S8802A mmWave Base Station Fading Performance Toolset enables users to overcome one of the biggest real-world testing challenges – repeatability. It provides an environment to stress test software stack and verify performance with mobile operator specific signaling. The ready-made and validated test case packages are based on 3GPP-defined conditions for fading testing of 5G.

Who benefits from using the S8802A toolset?

Network Equipment Manufacturers (NEMs) including ORAN radio unit manufacturers to

• Test and validate new 5G features and bug fixes

• Test, validate, and optimize base station performance in fading RF channel conditions

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to

• Validate and optimize NEMs’ base station functionality and performance parameters in fading RF channel conditions

• Benchmark base station manufacturers’ product performance

• Verify new network radio units before launch and assure radio units’ interoperability with the local network configuration

Related ecosystems (test houses and system integrators) to

• Verify new network radio units before launch and assure radio units’ interoperability with the local network configuration 

• Test, optimize, and benchmark base station manufacturers’ product performance and interoperability

• Verify new network radio units before launch and assure the interoperability of radio units with the local network configuration