Rohde & Schwarz has announced a wideband-radio-test system that the company based on its 6-GHz CMW500 radio-test set. The new system will provide a single platform for both development and production-test environments, and it spans all significant cellular and noncellular standards. The company aims to provide wireless-devices makers, baseband- and RF-chip-set providers, and network operators with a stable test system that will operate over many years.

As a wideband-radio tester, the single-chassis unit tests all layers from RF parametric measurements to protocols and applications. The CMW500 is a modular instrument, and the new platform will be modular in both hardware and software.

The unit combines RF-generator and RF-analyzer functions. It supports GSM (global-system-for-mobile)-communications Europe/GPRS (general-packet-radio-service), WCDMA (wideband-code-division/multiple-access)/HSPA (high-speed-packet-access), LTE (long-term-evolution), TD-SCDMA (time-division-synchronous-code-division-multiple-access), CDMA2000 1×RTT (one-times-radio-transmission-technology), CDMA2000 1×EVDO (one-times-evolution-data-optimized), Mobile WiMax (worldwide-interoperability-for-microwave-access), WLAN (wireless-local-area-network), Bluetooth, DVB-T (digital-video-broadcasting-terrestrial), and GPS (global-positioning-system) standards. Multitechnology support handles test cases, such as handover and cell-selection procedures, in which multiple standards are in play.

In contrast to such layered development-test scenarios, in production test, you can configure the same basic platform to optimize it for minimum test time and, hence, cost. The company’s Smart Alignment concept cuts alignment times by as much as 90%, and the unit’s two complete channels allow parallel measurements to take place on two products—which need not employ the same standard. Using a single platform means that you can easily transfer to production test scripts you create in development.

Sending high data rates over nonideal radio channels involves complex protocol-layer processes; the mobile must correct data packets with errors and handle multiple data streams in parallel. These fast processes, such as HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) and MIMO (multiple input/multiple output), run at layers 1 and 2 and require a tester that simultaneously performs protocol analysis and hardware-oriented RF measurements.

According to Anton Messmer, director of the company’s mobile-radio-tester subdivision, in the early stages of working with a standard, you would have previously required a protocol tester and RF parametric measurements. Now, he says, one unit provides all the data and performs end-to-end testing of the complete communications link in realistic signal environments. Despite the economic downturn, cellular operators are still pressuring the company’s leading customers to have LTE products ready for a 2010 rollout, Messmer adds. Increasingly, testing will encompass end-to-end systems measurements, such as real data rate and even battery life.