Keithley and Azimuth Systems Collaborate to Create LTE, WiMAX RF Testing Solutions

The joint Keithley/Azimuth solution will consist of Keithley’s 4x4 MIMO RF Test System and Azimuth’s ACE 400WB channel emulator. Together, the solution ultimately will allow test engineers and designers to execute important tests, such as measuring resulting packet error rate (PER)/bit error rate (BER) under varying and worst case channel conditions. These tests are critical to ensure that 4G and WiMAX devices will deliver the high throughput that subscribers expect.

“The wireless industry is currently at an inflection point - as radio architectures are moving from SISO to MIMO - presenting engineers a new set of measurement challenges,” said Mark Hoersten, vice president of business development for Keithley. “The Keithley RF instrumentation has been designed from the ground up with MIMO measurement capability in mind to help facilitate the transition. Working with Azimuth allows us to provide customers a complete measurement solution.”

“Azimuth ACE is the only channel emulator designed for MIMO test and is part of our commitment to delivering the critical test solutions to make 4G a reality,” added Sudeep Gupta, vice president business development for Azimuth Systems. “Working with Keithley will help our customers accurately model how their equipment will function in the real world.”

Azimuth and Keithley are leading the industry with next-generation test capabilities. Keithley provides the industry’s most flexible MIMO-capable vector signal generators (VSG) and vector signal analyzers (VSA), while Azimuth is a leader in next-generation MIMO-capable channel emulators for carrier-grade wireless communication. Azimuth builds the industry’s only 4G channel emulator, which offers the best RF fidelity in the industry and is able to support the EVM and SNR requirements of 4G technology. It is also the only 4x4 bidirectional channel emulator able to support MIMO and beam-forming applications.

Keithley provides the only VSA/VSG MIMO-based solution with configurations of up to 8x8 channels. Keithley’s 4x4 RF Test System offers continuous frequency coverage from 400MHz to 6GHz and a standard 40MHz measurement bandwidth, covering WiMAX, LTE, and WLAN standards. The RF Test System is also the only complete beam-forming ready solution, with phase-locked instrumentation. Its coverage spans from SISO to easily upgradeable MIMO configurations up to 8x8.