Rohde & Schwarz has enhanced its R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication tester with new options for RF tests and end-to-end testing of LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation. It is claimed to be the only one-box solution on the market that allows RF tests with two component carriers in the downlink, including 2x2 and 4x2 MIMO.
The new solution enables chipset manufacturers and developers of wireless devices to check their hardware’s RF performance. It is possible to carry out physical layer tests and data rate tests. Users can verify whether the receiver correctly acquires the LTE-Advanced signal from the two component carriers. For end-to-end testing, measurements can also be made in the data application mode in order to assess the wireless device’s overall performance. Options for fading tests on both component carriers are in the pipeline.
The options for LTE-Advanced downlink carrier aggregation, R&S CMW-KS502 for LTE FDD and R&S CMW-KS552 for LTE TDD, are now available from Rohde & Schwarz, while existing R&S CMW500 test platforms can be retrofitted. The company also offers options for LTE-Advanced downlink carrier aggregation test scenarios for the R&S CMW500 protocol tester.