Best NTN Emulator Manufacturers | Test 5G NTN Systems

Introduction : Emulating 5G Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) in controlled environments is essential to validate payloads, test UE behavior, and optimize system performance before field deployment. Leading NTN emulator manufacturers such as Gatehouse Satcom, Keysight, ALifecom Technology, VIAVI and others offer full stack or physical layer emulators tailored for satellite link delay, Doppler shift, beamforming and fading models.

Application Note : ALifecom Technology NTN Emulator

The product is compact in size to be used by customers for lab testing. It houses built-in LEO, MEO and GEO satellite communication. It also has built-in protocol analyzer. It supports 3GPP Release 17 specification. It supports IoT over NTN.

It can be used for various RF measurements as required such as EVM, Rx sensitivity, spectrum emission mask, transmit power etc. The test cases which can be executed at lower layers include IP throughput, MAC throughput/BER, attach/detach, multi-PDN functional tests etc.

ALifecom NTN channel emulator supports L/S band. The key specifications supported by IoT-NTN Emulator are as follows.

• Frequency Band/Range : B255, B256 (400 to 3800 MHz)
• Frequency step size : 0.1 MHz
• Output level range : -100 to -35 dBm
• Fading Profile : AWGN, Pure Doppler, Rayleigh, Rician
• Channel Profile : NTN TDL-C, NTN TDL-D

As shown in the figure-1, NTN channel emulator often includes many of the functionalities of eNB/gNB (or NodeB), gateway / core, channel emulator and satellite behaviour emulated or synthesized. Visit website : alifecom.com for more information.

NTN Emulator Manufacturers

Conclusion: NTN emulators are indispensable tools for validating satellite augmented networks in a controlled environment; emulating delays, Doppler effects, beam switching and channel impairments. As NTN deployments scale, emulator makers become key infrastructure providers for the industry’s lab to orbit journey.