The R&S CMW500 in its R&S CMWflexx configuration.
Rohde & Schwarz and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. announced the successful demonstration of 1.2 Gbps LTE-A-Pro downlink throughput, using Huawei Kirin 970 SoC, the industry’s first smartphone SoC to support Category 18 (1.2 Gbps).
In the Rohde & Schwarz and Huawei lab, the 1.2 Gbps download speeds were achieved by using a combination of up to three downlink FDD carriers on which carriers can be received separately on four transmission layers (4x4 MIMO) and 256QAM data modulation. 3GPP 4x4 MIMO mandates four receive antennas on the device side, so four RF connections are needed. These are provided by the 4x4 MIMO functionality of the R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication tester.
“Both Huawei and Rohde & Schwarz are industry leaders in promoting the evolution of LTE-A-Pro technology. We are delighted to be working together to achieve this new milestone,” said Anton Messmer, Vice President Mobile Radio Testers at Rohde & Schwarz. “The R&S CMW500 is the ultimate test platform for simulating and verifying the combination of signaling and end-to-end data transmission on the involved carriers, regardless of the 3GPP defined band configuration to be tested.
“For testing LTE in unlicensed spectrum configurations, the downlink carriers could even be set up in the 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum. The R&S CMW500 in its R&S CMWflexx configuration is the first test platform that offers a downlink carrier aggregation solution for up to 5CC 4x4 MIMO, for protocol, RF and data performance verifications up to 2 Gbps throughput.”
“We are pleased that Huawei has completed the test with Rohde & Schwarz and witnessed together this performance breakthrough in the smartphone industry,” said Ai Wei, Fellow at Huawei. “The Kirin 970 has become the first SoC to support LTE Cat. 18 downlink and Cat. 13 uplink connectivity with a peak downlink speed at 1.2 Gbps. A new milestone has been achieved to show that Huawei Kirin SoC is once again in a leading position in the LTE-A-Pro wireless communications industry. As mobile Internet is driving the growth of the industry, operators worldwide are all utilizing their spectrum resources to provide the best user experience possible.
“The Kirin 970 can support 4x4 MIMO, 5CC CA, 256QAM and other advanced technologies, taking consumers to the stunning Gbps level of high-speed wireless networks. Featuring built-in AI acceleration, the Kirin 970 is Huawei’s first mobile AI computing platform that is able to provide innovative features such as image recognition, voice interactions and intelligent camera applications. With an industry-leading wireless communications capability, the Kirin 970 is expected to create a fresh mobile AI experience to consumers.”