Learn How to Optimise RF Measurements with National Instruments UK & Ireland Webcast Series

The rapid integration of wireless connectivity into existing products demands that today’s test engineers understand a breadth of RF & wireless test techniques from performing EVM and ACLR measurements to addressing complex MIMO applications. National Instruments provides a suite of test equipment and software to increase test reliability and accuracy, provide measurement flexibility, as well as reduce test times.

Each of the RF Measurements Webcasts will be broadcast twice each day, at 10am and 2pm, giving participants the opportunity to directly interact with presenters and fellow attendees. Webcasts will also be available on demand after the series is complete. The 7-part series is as follows:

Tuesday 6th March GPS Receiver Test: A Comprehensive, Hybrid Test Approach

The first webcast in the RF series introduces common GPS receiver tests including sensitivity, TTFF, position and tracking accuracy. It demonstrates an innovative way of bringing GPS signals into the lab for comprehensive GPS test using a hybrid of simulated signal generation as well as real-world signal record and playback. Watch hardware and software demonstrations of GPS receiver tests using both simulated and real-world signals in the lab.

Wednesday 7th March RF Measurement Speed Comparison: PXI vs. Rack-and-Stack

Optimising measurement speed is often one of the most important considerations when creating an automated RF test system, resulting in a growing trend for RF engineers to replace rack-and-stack RF measurement test benches with much faster PXI test equipment. This webcast explores the fundamental technologies that enable PXI test equipment to achieve measurement times 5-10X faster than traditional rack-and-stack instruments. In addition, see a measurement speed and performance comparison between the PXI RF signal analysers and the Agilent MXA and PXA RF signal analysers. Finally, this session explains tips to optimise measurement speed.

Thursday 8th March Advanced MIMO Testing for 802.11n

This session covers the advantages gained from using multiple antennas in a communications channel, using 802.11n as a real-world use case. Concepts such as OFDM, channel fading and spatial multiplexing are covered in their context of the 802.11n WLAN standard, as well as a general overview of phase-coherent measurement systems and how they relate to MIMO applications such as 802.11n. A general demonstration of a 2x2 Tx / Rx system is performed with phase-coherent signal generators and analysers, including a demonstration of actual multi-channel 802.11n measurements.

Monday 12th March Improving Automated Network Analysis

Making accurate, S-parameter measurements is challenging, even with modern test equipment and methods. The vector network analyser (VNA) has become the instrument of choice for many RF measurements due to its exceptional accuracy and flexibility. This webcast addresses important considerations regarding calibration, measurement speed and programming when adding network analysis to automated test systems. Several advanced topics including pulsed S-parameter measurements, time domain analysis and effective de-embedding techniques will also be introduced.

Tuesday 13th March Optimising Cellular PA Test

Testing cellular power amplifiers requires a suite of instrumentation and poses unique considerations. With over 1 billion mobile phones sold per year, many with multiple PAs per part, lowering test times to increase throughput is becoming increasingly critical. This webcast will provide an overview for both hardware and software solutions available from National Instruments to address cellular PA test. Several best practices to fully optimise GSM, EDGE and WCDMA measurements for PAs will also be demonstrated.

Wednesday 14th March Maximising RF Test Throughput with Real Time, FPGA-based Signal Processing

Learn how PXI express technology is used with RF instrumentation for high throughput data streaming to a host PC or to an FPGA for processing. This webcast also explores ways of reducing software dependencies for processing by streaming data to and from one or more FPGA modules embedded in the PXI chassis for real time processing and spectrum analysis.

Thursday 15th March Underneath the Hood of the LTE Physical Layer

The final webcast will introduce fundamental principles and concepts of the 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard. Explore the fundamentals of the LTE signal structure, introducing fundamental concepts such as orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA). This session will also address several of the nuances of physical layer measurements including error vector magnitude (EVM) and adjacent channel power (ACP) with demonstrations of the latest automated measurements systems available.

To register for one or all of the webcasts please go to http://uk.ni.com/webcasts/rfmeasurements