Keysight Collaborates with CAICT to Accelerate 5G Base Station Performance

Keysight Technologies announced that the company’s collaboration with CAICT (China Academy of Information and Communications Technology) has accelerated the 5G new radio (NR) base station performance test plan endorsed by the IMT-2020 (5G) Promotional Group, the principal platform that brings together leading operators, vendors, universities, and research institutes in China, to promote 5G.

As a result of the collaboration, base station manufacturers can easily and confidently validate the massive MIMO1 performance of their designs in accordance with the IMT-2020 test plan. Keysight’s PROPSIM F64 5G channel emulation solution, which emulates real-life radio conditions, supports the test plan to speed performance validation of new 5G mobile devices and base stations for deployment in China.

Keysight’s PROPSIM F64 is a versatile channel emulation and modeling tool for verifying end-to-end performance of 5G NR massive MIMO base stations and mobile devices using uncompromised and coherent complex 3D propagation channel models.

CAICT, a scientific research institute directly under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China, is involved in defining 5G tests that form part of the IMT-2020 test plan. Massive MIMO technology uses antenna arrays with a large number of steerable ports to create reliable connections, which results in superior end-user performance. PROPSIM F64 supports up to 64 radio frequency (RF) ports to address these ultra-high fading capacity needs. Keysight’s 5G channel emulator creates a repeatable and reliable test method for validating end-to-end data throughput, beam handling, mobility, and handover scenarios.

“Keysight’s collaboration with CAICT, initiated more than ten years ago, is instrumental to the commercialization of 5G in China,” said Cao Peng, senior director of the Commercial Communications group at Keysight Technologies. “We’re pleased to forge strong bonds with innovative organizations that share our passion for 5G and other technologies that will support a connected and informed society.”

The collaboration between Keysight and CAICT resulted in the industry’s first verification of channel models that comply to both 3GPP 5G NR specifications and the IMT-2020 test plan using an end-to-end test set-up consisting of PROPSIM F64, a 5G base station (gNodeB) and a 5G mobile device.

“We’re delighted to continue our long-term collaboration with Keysight using their industry-leading 5G solutions to develop effective 5G NR Massive MIMO tests under complex 3D spatial fading channel conditions,” said Dr. Zhang, director engineer at CAICT.