Rohde & Schwarz supports 5G with innovative test setups for the mobile network of the future

03/04/2016

The services and applications that 5G will provide as well as the technologies will that make them possible have not yet been defined. However, even today, it is clear that it will be necessary to transmit extremely broadband signals up into the millimeter wave range. Rohde & Schwarz supports the many research activities to make this spectrum usable for 5G.

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the electronics group demonstrated generation and analysis for broadband applications in the millimeter wave range. The R&S SMW200A is the first vector signal generator capable of producing an internal modulation bandwidth of 2 GHz in the frequency range up to 40 GHz and can therefore implement a basic test setup without additional baseband sources. The R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer and the R&S RTO oscilloscope make it possible to achieve a 2 GHz analysis bandwidth with a frequency range up to 85 GHz. The combination of 85 GHz and 2 GHz is unique on the market.

Another test setup can generate and analyze 5G air interface candidates. While orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) is currently used to modulate LTE downlink signals, this air interface is not capable of meeting all the demands of 5G. Possible 5G signal formats include: universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC), generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), filter bank multicarrier (FBMC) and filtered OFDM (f OFDM). All of these options improve the form of the signal in terms of interference in the adjacent spectrum. Additionally, modified parameterization, such as a higher subcarrier offset, enables optimal exploitation of frequencies in the millimeter wave range. The R&S SMW200A vector signal generator from Rohde & Schwarz allows users to easily generate these 5G air interface candidates. R&S FS-K196 vector signal analysis software expands the capabilities of spectrum and signal analyzers by adding modulation measurements for UFMC, GFDM and f OFDM waveforms.

The introduction of 5G will extend the bandwidth of the wanted signal. These new wireless communications channels will need to be comprehensively analyzed to ensure optimal utilization. Channel sounding is the primary analysis method. Rohde & Schwarz offers a test solution for this as well. The R&S TS-5GCS test setup combines the new R&S TS-5GCS channel sounding software with the R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer and R&S SMW200A vector signal generator. This setup lets users conveniently measure channels in the new frequency bands in the centimeter and millimeter ranges. Users can select the analyzer and generator based on their channel frequency and bandwidth requirements.