Test solution targets 802.11ax Wi-Fi devices

20th February 2018

Mick Elliott

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Datasheet

Availability of test solutions for the Broadcom Max Wi-Fi chipset portfolio, a complete ecosystem of 802.11ax Wi-Fi devices has been announced by Rohde & Schwarz. In collaboration with Broadcom Limited, the test and measurement company has successfully verified its market-leading R&S CMW test platform for the IEEE 802.11ax ecosystem, enabling wireless OEMs and ODMs to use Broadcom Max Wi-Fi chipsets for R&D, quality control, and production prototyping.

Next generation Wi-Fi, based on the IEEE 802.11ax standard, offers speed, capacity, coverage and battery-life improvements in congested environments.

It uses technologies such as uplink/downlink orthogonal frequency division multiplexing access (UL/DL OFDMA), multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO) and target wake time (TWT). These technologies pose challenges for test and measurement equipment.

The T&M instruments from Rohde & Schwarz have been qualified for characterising Broadcom Max Wi-Fi chipsets, both at the RF level for tests such as error vector magnitude (EVM), timing measurements and spectrum emission compliance, and at the protocol level for testing features such as multi-user scheduling, application services and network management.

Through the Broadcom manufacturing test license program, Rohde & Schwarz is able to develop software for Broadcom Max Wi-Fi chipsets and provide full 802.11ax test solutions to OEMs and ODMs.

“OEM and ODM customers expect test equipment to be ready and able to meet their development and manufacturing needs,” says Anne Stephan, Senior Director of the Wireless Communications Market Segment at Rohde & Schwarz Munich. “This joint exercise with Broadcom gives our customers even greater confidence in the technical readiness of the testing solution.”

“We continue to collaborate with Rohde & Schwarz to bring fully compliant Max Wi-Fi test systems to market,” comments Gabriel Desjardins, Director of Product Marketing of the Wireless Communications & Connectivity Division at Broadcom Limited. “The availability of such test systems has enabled our customers to deploy Max Wi-Fi.”

The R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyser and R&S SMW200A vector signal generator allow EVM tests well below –50dB, providing the industry’s best performance for R&D testing.

The R&S CMW270 wireless connectivity tester is another instrument licensed for Max Wi-Fi testing based on its real WLAN network emulation for IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax. The tester can verify and debug devices from the physical to the application layer within the OSI model.

At this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (February 26-March 1, 2018), Rohde & Schwarz will showcase a production-ready solution featuring the R&S CMW100 and the Broadcom Max Wi-Fi device.