5G innovation goes beyond design
Test and measurement solutions will become a key part of the product commercialization cycle
However, the test methods required by 5G are quite different from the previous wireless technologies.
Which technologies are gradually turning 5G into reality?
Ten years later, when we look back, we will definitely say that 5G is one of the most important technologies to date. It has achieved everything that is happening today, including self-driving cars that can communicate with each other, and the fastest video experience. —Patrick Moorhead, President and Chief Analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy
5G represents a new generation of changes that will profoundly affect companies and consumers around the world. It is expected to provide a revolutionary, unlimited experience with faster data, shorter network response time (lower latency), instant access anytime, anywhere, and the capacity of billions of devices. What we are saying here is more than just downloading video to mobile phones faster. Unlike 3G and 4G, 5G applications are much more than just mobile devices. It will extend to all aspects of our lives. From the realization of industrial Internet of Things to ensuring the safety of autonomous vehicles, 5G will change our lives in unimaginable ways.
The road to 5G
3GPP standards bodies are constantly defining 5G, but real work has only just begun. Companies in the semiconductor, network infrastructure, cloud, software, manufacturing, and test technologies must now design, develop, test, and deliver solutions that take advantage of these new wireless capabilities. This is not easy.
5G uses new technologies such as massive MIMO and millimeter wave. Both technologies use multiple antennas and beamforming technology, which is very different from current and past wireless architectures. 5G also includes a new wireless control mechanism that implements the concept of network slicing by dividing control and data to extend the service to a single user device.
In addition, the 5G standard is much more complex than the 3G and 4G standards. 5G will transform our network, so the industry must change the way these systems are designed, developed and tested. For algorithm design, if you want to transition from concept to production, it is not enough to model the system without real verification. For testing, traditional methods that target only a single component will not be able to explain the overall impact on the system.
Platform-based approach
Wireless researchers around the world soon discovered that the only way to succeed is to adopt a software-centric platform approach to 5G research.
- Nokia introduced the first 73GHz millimeter-wave 5G prototype and used millimeter-wave spectrum to break the record of mobile access data rate;
- Lund University developed the first massive MIMO prototype;
- Researchers at Bristol University and Facebook have expanded their massive MIMO prototypes to create an unprecedented milestone in spectrum efficiency.
These system prototypes have become an important part of the evolution of 5G technology. The platform design methodology used in these cases takes full advantage of Software Defined Radio (SDR) to address system challenges and reduce the time to obtain results. SDRs for design and prototyping will continue to evolve as the software changes. We can even anticipate more powerful SDRs, and the software will be extended to extend beyond the physical layer to take advantage of the huge open source software ecosystem. This will enable researchers to solve higher-level networks, further reduce adoption time, and break down isolated design methods.
5G innovation goes beyond design
Test and measurement solutions will be the key to the 5G commercialization cycle. Test systems must be extended to the physical layer to use controlled/steerable beams to quickly and cost-effectively test these new multi-antenna technologies. In addition, these systems must address new millimeter wave devices with extremely wide bandwidths. These test solutions not only need to be able to test the important parameters of the equipment, but also cost-effective, not only to fully realize the potential of 5G, but also to make it widely used.
Based on these characteristics, 5G requires different methods to test wireless devices and systems. For example, system-level over-the-air (OTA) testing will be one of the standard tests for the 5G ecosystem. OTA testing presents several challenges, but the most difficult part may be the environment in which the test equipment and the device under test coexist. Air is an unpredictable medium, and the channel itself changes with time and environmental conditions. Wireless test engineers must isolate the channels in an OTA scenario and use beams to control the devices one by one to effectively "test" the device.
In addition, Intel and other companies have introduced early phased array antenna modules that feature an antenna that is directly connected to the RF front end to minimize system losses. Because the access of the device may be limited, the frequency of the test device must be raised to the millimeter wave band, and then the main performance parameters are analyzed beam by beam.
Finally, although bandwidth is a common test challenge, the tested 5G bandwidth is expected to be 50 times wider than the standard LTE channel. Under these bandwidths, the test system must not only generate and acquire wider bandwidth waveforms, but also need to be able to process all data in real time.
Where is the next step?
Wireless researchers used SDR-based platform design methods to accelerate the early stages of 5G research and the results achieved. Now, test solution providers must do the same. 5G requires us to transform test methods in an unprecedented way, and a flexible and configurable platform approach is critical to the development of ecosystems.
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