NI launches 3GPP compliant Sub-6GHz 5G New air port reference test solution

     NI, a provider of platform-based system solutions for engineers and scientists addressing the world's toughest engineering challenges, today announced the availability of a Sub-6GHz 5G test reference solution that complies with the 3GPP Release 15 specification for 5G New Air Interface (NR).

     With commercial 5G NR deployments below 6GHz on the horizon, engineers are actively developing Sub-6GHz 5G RF devices and devices. The accelerating pace of 5G standardization is forcing vendors to bring products to market as quickly as possible. NI's Sub-6GHz 5G NR reference solution is a cost-effective and high-performance test option that helps engineers quickly characterize their designs and more easily transition from R&D to production test environments.

     NI's new reference test solution is ideal for testing new broadband RFics, particularly those operating in the 3.3-4.2GHz and 4.4-5.0GHz bands. Engineers can use the PXIe-5840 Vector Signal Transceiver (VST) to test devices with continuous signal bandwidths of more than 400MHz, with instantaneous signal transceiver capabilities of 1GHz bandwidth up to 6GHz. With the NI VST, the solution delivers better than 0.32% (-50dB) residual EVM performance for 100MHz NR signals, while providing faster measurement speeds.

     A key part of the solution is the NI-RFmx NR measurement software, which has evolved at the pace of the 3GPP specification. The latest version of the NI-RFmx NR measurement software provides 5G NR waveform generation and measurement capabilities, conforming to the 3GPP R15 official specification for non-stand-alone networking NR, enabling engineers to test OFDMA and DFT-s-OFDM carrier aggregation waveforms with flexible variations in subcarrier intervals between 15kHz and 120kHz.

     Jason White, Director of RF and Wireless Testing at NI, said: "Our new 5G testing product is just the latest in NI's innovative pipeline designed to help engineers bring 5G technology to market faster. By combining high-performance RF measurement equipment with extremely fast and flexible measurement software, we can reuse the same instruments and measurement equipment at multiple stages of product development, helping engineers reduce time to market and time to measurement data association."

     NI's new 5G test technology also offers a comprehensive portfolio of products for RF and semiconductor testing, including measurement software for 2G, 3G, LTE-AdvancedPro, WiFi 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5 and more. In addition, engineers can use the NI VST and more than 600 modular PXI products, ranging in frequency from DC to millimeter wave, to develop comprehensive semiconductor characteristic analysis and production test systems.