How to Emulate Non-Terrestrial Networks in the Lab

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Wireless Test Platform
+ Wireless Test Platform

Emulating the essential components of a 5G NTN in the lab

5G non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) test requires laboratory reconstruction of all possible NTN scenario permutations involving user equipment (UE) and network emulation, satellites, orbital models, and channel models. The testing scenarios extend across physical, protocol, and application layers. They include emulating physical propagation conditions, such as large distances and speeds, delay and Doppler effect compensation, and atmospheric / weather effects. Ensuring that gNBs and UE comply with 3GPP standards, interoperate, and achieve seamless coexistence with terrestrial networks, as well as benchmarking key performance indicators like latency, throughput, and quality of service, is necessary.

Non-terrestrial network end-to-end testing requires emulating all the essential components of an NTN. Test engineers need an end-to-end solution to cover all phases in the testing workflow, including modeling, physical channel impairments, and protocol and application-level testing. The solution must measure application-level performance (energy consumption, protocol, RF, throughput, and latency) and integrate automation software to enable engineers to replicate scenarios and perform measurements.

NTN sky-to-lab emulation solution

Testing NTN in the lab requires emulation of all possible network scenario permutations. The Keysight end-to-end NTN test bed solution incorporates all the essential emulation components of an NTN, making it well-suited for a wide array of research and development applications. The Keysight UXM 5G wireless test platform enables engineers to emulate multiple terrestrial and non-terrestrial cells across a broad spectrum of NTN frequencies. This platform supports various cellular technologies and facilitates the re-creation of realistic scenarios, simulating base stations with diverse protocol parameters. Complementing the UXM, the Keysight Channel Studio geometric channel modeling tool supports modeling and creating parameterized orbits for various orbit types, such as geosynchronous orbit and non-geostationary orbit (GSO, NGSO), and incorporates multipath fading channel models. The software enables engineers to load the models into Keysight PROPSIM for end-to-end emulation. Keysight UeSIM and Keysight WaveJudge are necessary to validate end-to-end radio access network performance and ensure effective system development and troubleshooting.
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