MediaTek and Anritsu achieve first dual active protocol

MediaTek inc. and Anritsu Corporation are pleased to announce that the first DAPS handover for 5G New Radio (NR) has been verified with a device containing the MediaTek M80 5G modem and Anritsu’s MT8000A Radio Communication Test Station with Rapid Test Designer (RTD) application software.

The 5G NR standard is evolving beyond the traditional Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) to support use cases for Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC). URLLC targets latency of 1ms or lower and reliability of over 99.999%, and these targets must be maintained during handover of mobile terminals across cells. The current Handover procedures have a Handover Interruption Time (HIT) of 30ms – 60ms during which a mobile terminal cannot transmit or receive user data. DAPS handover has been introduced in 3GPP Release 16 to shorten the HIT to as close to zero ms as possible. DAPS allows a mobile terminal to receive and transmit data simultaneously to source and target cells in a handover ensuring seamless data continuity.

“The ongoing collaboration of MediaTek and Anritsu continues to strengthen with this milestone achievement. Anritsu’s industry-leading test platforms directly benefit our R&D activities, enabling us to continue creating technology-leading 5G modems,” said JS Pan, General Manager of Wireless Communication Technology at MediaTek.

“We have achieved yet another important industry milestone and are looking forward to our continued partnership with MediaTek to bring advanced 5G use cases to market” said Takeshi Shima, President of Test & Measurement Company, Anritsu Corporation.

Product Outline

The Radio Communication Test Station MT8000A is an all-in-one platform supporting RF and protocol testing, functional and application operation testing, beam characteristics testing and more. As well as supporting both NSA and SA-mode base-station simulation functions required for development of 5G chipsets and terminals, it also covers FR1 frequency bands, including 600 MHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.5 GHz, 4.5 GHz, and 6-GHz unlicensed bands, as well as the FR2 24 GHz, 28 GHz, 39 GHz, and 43-GHz mmWave bands, to support all the main bands used by 5G services. Additionally, MT8000A supports the functions required for high-speed communications, such as 4x4 MIMO in FR1, 8CC and 256QAM in FR2 as well as supporting the latest 3GPP Release 16 features. Furthermore, the MT8000A provides a versatile and efficient test environment that is easily configured using a simple user interface and software to test device performance.