Agilent Technologies to Demonstrate Industry-First Design and Test Solutions for 3G/4G and LTE-Advanced at Mobile World Congress

Agilent is committed to providing premier test solutions for the highly competitive mobile communications development lifecycle, said Ron Nersesian, president of Agilent's Electronic Measurement Group. Our new measurement products, including the first LTE-Advanced design and test solutions, give engineers greater insight and confidence into their designs and keep them at the forefront of the complex and fast- moving industry.

Agilent will demonstrate the following at Mobile World Congress, Hall 1, Stand A46:

* The industry's first commercial design support for the physical layer of 3GPP Release 10. The Agilent W1918 LTE-Advanced library enables system and algorithm developers to explore working 8x8 MIMO LTE-Advanced reference designs, built from a comprehensive library of over 170 Agilent baseband models and testbenches. Users compare their Release 10 algorithms in a variety of formats, such as C++, .m, or VHDL/Verilog, to Agilent's W1918 reference library. They can directly download test vectors to instruments for early and continuous hardware validation, accelerating design maturity. Now the W1715 MIMO Channel Builder and W1716 Digital Pre-distortion applications also support Release 10.
* LTE-Advanced signal generation and analysis tools, enabling design engineers to start testing LTE-Advanced physical layer implementations today. Another first to market, Agilent's flexible and easy-to-use Signal Studio and 89600B vector signal analysis (VSA) software will be shown performing both user equipment and eNB RF measurements.
* DigRF testing and characterization using the Agilent RDX (Radio Digital Cross-Domain) Solution. The RDX provides a single test environment that helps engineers validate DigRF v4 protocols under real-world conditions. The protocol generation and analysis software interoperates with industry-leading Agilent Signal Studio software and 89600B VSA software to enable RF physical domain stimulus and analysis across an RF-IC chip.
* MIMO handset antenna design and MIMO handset verification for MIMO handset acceptance testing using over-the-air test methods based on the Agilent PXB baseband generator and channel emulator. The PXB gives engineers MIMO test performance in real-world conditions and closely characterizes end-user environments.
* Performance and conformance test of LTE user equipment using the Agilent PXT wireless communications test set. A targeted solution optimized for development phase testing, the PXT is designed for radio frequency characterization, protocol test and functional test of LTE user equipment. The solution is highly scalable from a single PXT on the developer's bench to a full conformance test system. Agilent's latest feature release supports testing user equipment performance during handover between LTE and legacy technologies. Test automation tools are also available enabling efficient, repeatable evaluation of user equipment and speeding time to market.
* High-volume, automated mobile phone manufacturing test. Agilent's proven 8960 test applications were developed for speed, accuracy, repeatability, and ease of programming - all on the format-flexible E5515C architecture. For the mobile manufacturer, this translates into lower test costs and higher production to help meet customer demand for phones now and into the future.
* Network simulation and software verification tools using Agilent's E5515C 8960 Series 10 Wireless Communications Test Set. Designed specifically for the needs of wireless developers doing software design verification and integration, the Agilent E5515C one-box test set provides test solutions for realistic network simulation and gives engineers Internet connectivity with real data traffic flows. Additional tools are available for extensive real-time protocol logging and analysis.
* Installation, maintenance and spectrum monitoring of RF systems in the field using Agilent's powerful N9342C handheld spectrum analyzer and flexible N9912A and N9923A FieldFox RF analyzers. These products are designed to help RF technicians and engineers do more in the field. The handheld spectrum analyzer makes field testing easier by providing faster, more precise measurements, ease of use, and a range of user customization and ergonomic features. FieldFox offers seven instruments in one, including the newly released handheld signal generator used for wireless applications.