5G toolkit incorporating demands for radio base station testing

The first release of the toolkit has been delivered to the customer’s existing GTT hardware platform with roll-out scheduled for completion by year-end to Europe, the Americas and Asia. The new toolkit complements current test standards at the customer premises and strengthens a long-time cooperation for employing leading technology and services from GTT.

Implementing the toolkit's unique 5G compliant software components at the customer's RBS (radio base station) can be used to transform the previous investment into 5G equipment and supports the new generation of analysers with wide bandwidth and mmWave functionality.

The 5G NR DL Toolkit includes BER/BLER functionality (Bit Error Rate/Block Error Rate) with support for decoding and BER/BLER measurements, as well as speedy test times and compact footprint – a standard key for most operations. The combined solution is positioned to support the production ramp up of network providers and 5G NR base stations. GTT professionals are providing analysis of standard and custom-designed signals and provide extensive competence in the field.

Daniel Holback, Product and Engineering Director at GTT, stated: “In this first global customer deployment for 5G support, we are pleased to furnish the added-value tools and expert guidance in implementing 5G test standards as instrument manufacturers grapple with the challenges of how to administer the standard. GTT is providing our customer with the know-how and competitive edge in delivering on go-to-market strategies.

“GTT is supplying telecom manufacturers with unparallelled solutions for base station testing that focus on optimised test speed, cost per test station, reduced footprint, flexibility and ease of use. GTT provides both ready, out of the box and customer solutions built according to latest 3GPP standards and compliance with the PXI hardware platform."

The 5G NR Toolkit features include the same core features in all GTT toolkits and is based on National Instruments PXI platform. The toolkit enables a multitude of customer benefits including minimal footprint, reusable hardware to test a variety of products, flexibility based on open FPGA to enable custom features, and a modular design allowing easy replacement of individual parts and implementation of new software modules. The National Instruments LabVIEW API furnishes quick integration and automated testing in the customer's environment.

In addition, the GTT 5G toolkit has been proven with the OTA (over-the-air) environment of the Bluetest RTS85HP reverberation test chamber, thereby supporting both conducted and OTA measurements, extending its customer offering.