Agilent Wireless Test and Measurement Solutions
Advertisement
Agilent Technologies is a leader in the RF and wireless test and measurement industry.
Nowadays, products are becoming very complex due to the support of complex modulation schemes such as 256QAM, OFDM, OFDMA, and the support of multiple standards (GSM, WCDMA, and LTE) in a mobile phone device. This requires testing of all the standards, including IRAT (Inter Radio Access Technology) testing, in mobile devices at various stages of development.
Agilent provides a one-box solution to meet this demand from the industry, right from conceptualization to the manufacturing of wireless devices. These products from Agilent provide mobile phone designers and phone manufacturers with increased measurement speed and improved accuracy of results for testing mobile devices.
A one-box test and measurement solution from Agilent supports various wireless standards which include GSM, GPRS, EGPRS, WCDMA, HSPA, CDMA2000, EVDO, IS-95, AMPS, Bluetooth, Zigbee, WLAN (11a/11b/11g/11n), WiMAX (Fixed-16d, Mobile-16e), LTE, and LTE-Advanced. As mentioned, Agilent’s solutions cover both IEEE, 3GPP, and other evolving wireless standards. Agilent products can test both PHY and MAC layers of devices. There are products by which even upper-layer functionality can also be verified.
Typical measurements supported by Agilent’s test and measurement products cover power spectrum mask, transmit power versus time curve, CCDF, EVM, channel response, spectral flatness, frequency error, timing error, DC offset, PAPR, and more. This helps designers identify any problems at the design/development stage itself.
Agilent Wireless Test Sets for Test and Measurement
The models E6640A EXM, E6621A PXT, and E6607A EXT are referred to as wireless communications test sets. They are designed for manufacturing testing and are used for testing multiple devices in parallel.
Another product from Agilent, model N9912A FieldFox, is used as an antenna analyzer, scalar network analyzer and includes power meter, signal generation, and signal analysis functionalities too.
Handheld Model N934X is a spectrum analyzer ideal for RF/wireless engineers for frequency domain spectrum analysis.
Another model N9330B is a handy cable and antenna tester.
8960 Series 10 Wireless Communication Test Set
Model no. E5515C series is a wireless communication test set used for wireless device manufacturing tests and for RF design and verification tests. This instrument is ideal for GSM, WCDMA, GPRS, and LTE device testing.
Very Portable Equipment
N4010A is a wireless test set, which can be configured for Bluetooth, Zigbee, WLAN-11a, 11b, 11g, and 11n device testing at various stages of the development cycle.
Agilent PXI Signal Generator
The PXI solution from Agilent includes a signal generator which can be used for receiver testing of wireless devices.
Agilent is continuously working on providing test and measurement solutions to address emerging wireless technologies/standards such as Dual carrier and MIMO versions of HSDPA, LTE Advanced, and WiGig-WLAN 11ad. This is required for test and measurement to address conformance requirements viz. RCT, PCT, and RRM to be met by device manufacturers.
Keysight Technologies Wireless Test and Measurement Products
Agilent Technologies was a major provider of RF, wireless and electronic test and measurement equipment. After Agilent’s electronic measurement business became part of Keysight Technologies, the company continued and significantly expanded its wireless test portfolio. Today, Keysight provides solutions for wireless device design, RF validation, protocol testing, performance testing, conformance, interoperability, OTA testing and high-volume manufacturing.
Modern wireless products are considerably more complex than earlier generations. Smartphones, IoT devices, connected vehicles and wireless infrastructure can combine multiple technologies such as 5G NR, LTE, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth Low Energy, GNSS, NB-IoT, LTE-M and C-V2X. They also employ advanced technologies including OFDM/OFDMA, carrier aggregation, MIMO, beamforming, multi-link operation and high-order QAM. As a result, engineers need test solutions that can verify RF performance, protocol behavior and real-world device performance throughout the product development lifecycle.
Keysight Wireless Products and Test Solutions
| Product / Model | Product type | Major wireless technologies | Typical applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| E7515B UXM 5G Wireless Test Platform | 5G wireless network emulator / signaling test platform | 5G NR, LTE, RedCap, NB-IoT, Cat-M, W-CDMA, GSM, C-V2X, WLAN | 5G device R&D, RF, protocol, functional and performance testing |
| E7515R UXM 5G Wireless Test Platform | Reduced-capability 5G test platform | 5G RedCap, NB-IoT, Cat-M, LTE, NB-NTN | RedCap and cellular IoT device testing |
| E6640A EXM Wireless Test Set | Multi-device manufacturing test set | 5G NR, LTE, HSPA+, W-CDMA, GSM/EDGE, WLAN, Bluetooth, GNSS, Zigbee and others | High-volume wireless device manufacturing |
| IOT8700 Series | IoT wireless test solution | Bluetooth LE, WLAN | IoT device R&D, validation and manufacturing |
| IOT8720A | IoT wireless test solution | Bluetooth LE, WLAN | Conducted and OTA functional testing |
| IOT8740A | Multi-device IoT wireless test solution | Bluetooth LE, WLAN | Parallel testing of up to four devices |
| P8700S IxVeriWave | WLAN performance test system | Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7 | Access-point benchmarking, load, soak and performance testing |
| S8715A WLAN Access Point Load Test Toolset | WLAN system/performance test | Wi-Fi 5/6/6E/7 | AP load, stability, functional and performance testing |
| S8815A WLAN RF and Data Performance Toolset | WLAN RF/data performance test | Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 7 | MIMO, fading, RF and data-performance testing |
| IOT0047A | Wireless regulatory compliance test solution | WLAN and other unlicensed wireless technologies | FCC, ETSI and international regulatory testing |
| X8750A 4-Channel MIMO Power Test Set | MIMO power measurement system | WLAN/unlicensed wireless | Synchronous MIMO transmitter power measurements |
| S8800A PROPSIM F64 Channel Emulation Toolset | RF channel emulator | 5G, LTE, WLAN and other wireless systems | MIMO, massive MIMO, OTA and real-world channel testing |
| S8820A PROPSIM FS16 Channel Emulation Toolset | Compact RF channel emulator | 5G, LTE, WLAN and other wireless applications | Device, base-station and MIMO performance testing |
| PROPSIM F8/F32/FS8 platforms | RF channel emulators | LTE, WLAN, 5G and other wireless systems | MIMO, fading and performance testing |
| S8811A Device Real Networks Performance Toolset | Real-network device performance system | Cellular wireless | Testing devices with real network infrastructure |
| S8812A mmWave Device Real Networks Performance Toolset | mmWave real-network performance system | 5G NR mmWave | Smartphone, modem and tablet testing with real infrastructure |
| N9340-series Handheld Spectrum Analyzers | Handheld spectrum analyzer | RF/wireless | Field spectrum measurements and interference analysis |
| FieldFox handheld analyzers | Handheld RF analyzer | Cellular, WLAN, microwave and RF | Cable/antenna testing, spectrum analysis and field RF measurements |
| PathWave wireless measurement software | Wireless measurement/automation software | 5G NR, LTE, WLAN, Bluetooth and other formats | Automated RF and wireless measurements |
| X-Series measurement applications | Signal analysis software | 5G NR, LTE, WLAN and other formats | EVM, spectrum, modulation and transmitter measurements |
Summary
Keysight Technologies has evolved considerably from the former Agilent Technologies wireless test portfolio. While older Agilent instruments supported technologies such as GSM, W-CDMA, CDMA2000, HSPA, LTE, Bluetooth, Zigbee and early WLAN standards, today’s Keysight portfolio addresses much more advanced wireless technologies.
Current solutions cover 5G NR, 5G RedCap, NB-IoT, LTE, C-V2X, Wi-Fi 6/6E, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth Low Energy, IoT, MIMO, massive MIMO, mmWave, NTN and real-world channel emulation.