Spirent, China Mobile Collaborate to Create 5G Over-the-Air Device Evaluation System

Spirent Communications, a provider of test, assurance and analytics solutions for next-generation devices and networks, today announced the successful outcome of its collaboration with China Mobile to create a realistic 5G device test system.

The YuHeng evaluation system incorporates Spirent’s radio frequency (RF) channel emulation technology and has been developed by China Mobile to help compare the performance of new 5G chipsets and consumer smartphones from leading global manufacturers.

As 5G progresses beyond initial rollouts, the number of end-user handsets, broadband modems and other devices coming into the market is increasing rapidly.

The new YuHeng system allows operators and device manufacturers to test their RF solutions in the lab with the latest 5G base stations (gNodeB) that employ sophisticated new radio technologies such as massive MIMO beamforming. Devices under test are positioned within an RF anechoic chamber and are driven by a commercial base station, allowing the system to evaluate the performance of the device’s antenna configuration, baseband algorithms, hardware and software design.

Spirent’s Vertex RF Channel Emulator is used to replicate real-world indoor and outdoor effects that can influence radio efficiency, such as multi-path loss, reflections, absorption, delay, doppler frequency shift and antenna polarization. Both downlink and uplink propagation channels are modeled by the system, and multiple types of device-in-motion simulations can be created to replicate real-world scenarios such as walking in an urban environment or traveling in a vehicle on a highway.

“We are delighted to have had the opportunity to collaborate with the China Mobile Group Device Company team on the YuHeng project,” said Peter Tan, Spirent’s VP for Greater China & East Asia. “This innovative solution is the first of its kind and enables China Mobile to thoroughly assess and benchmark the growing number of new 5G smartphones, devices and chipsets for performance in test environments that realistically replicate a wide variety of authentic radio and motion conditions.”