5G, IoT pose new challenges to testing
eeNews Europe: Which are currently the hottest technology trends in RF for your business?
Jonathan Borrill: There are two important trends. In the mobile phone communications business we see that handsets and networks are having more and more radio bands. This raises the requirements to RF technology and components in terms of bandwidth, efficiency, multiband designs, antennas, multiband amplifiers – you name it. In this context, the use of MIMO is going to spread – all LTE handsets today are using MIMO, and we think that about 70% of all new smartphones are LTE-enabled. These handsets transmit and receive in some 14, 15 different radio bands – plus Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, FM radio and NFC. This leads to very complex RF designs in a handset. We have to test all the bands and their combinations and which is the real challenge – the interferences between the different bands. Testing each band individually is a very straightforward approach; it is the interactions between the different bands that make the whole thing complex.
Another challenge is the testing efforts. For the design engineer this can mean weeks of testing – he needs to know with effects like intermodulation between adjacent frequency bands and similar things come into effect. Testing up to 14 frequency bands plus their interaction takes more time than just testing 14 frequency bands. And yes, there are physical limits – it takes a certain time to sweep across the spectrum. But our customers can’t afford to increase the testing time so much. It has to be faster, cheaper. Nevertheless, it can take maybe two weeks to put a handset through the entire certification.
eeNews Europe: Two weeks for every single mobile phone?
Borrill: No, this is refers to the design testing. On the production line it is different. There you only test the actual manufacturing process. On the production line the test takes 20 seconds.
eeNews Europe: How does the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) wave affect testing and measuring?
Borrill: One part of the IoT is the concept of having wireless communication modules in every thing. To connect to the Internet, one needs an RF module in every device at really low cost. The challenge we have then is to enable also testing at low cost – but imagine the huge volume of testing. So on one side, the volume of test – which means the cost of test – goes up and up, but there is a need to bring the cost down. So the challenge is to keep the test good enough and keeping the price adequate for low cost modules.
eeNews Europe: These considerations seriously limit the price for test equipment? After all, there are billions of IoT nodes to be tested.
Borrill: It is not a limitation but a challenge for us. The pressure is on to bring the cost of test down.
eeNews Europe: Is test automation something that helps to reduce these costs?
Borrill: Absolutely. Today, for communications devices we can fully automate the test process. But it is still the sheer volume of testing. We do apply smart algorithms to schedule testing – the sequence in which you do the tests can affect the test time. There is actually a major technology change in the work with the designers of the chipsets. For instance, if you test a handset and you want to see if you can make a call, you set up the call, you make your measurement and then release the call. This all takes time. We have examples where the test itself runs for tens of milliseconds but it takes ten seconds to put the mobile phone in the right condition to get those milliseconds of data. So there are new algorithms where we can talk directly to the chipset and tell it to just transmit what we need. Thus, those ten seconds of setup time can be reduced to milliseconds of setup time – which makes a massive improvement in test time. Thus, you can cut down a mobile phone production test from three minutes down to 20, 30 seconds.
eeNews Europe: Is 5G communications technology already something that affects your developments?
Borrill: We are starting to see the first requirements and basic technical directions of 5G. We see that millimetre wave backhaul is requiring more advanced high-performance testing, we expect wider bandwidth modulation schemes, wider bandwidth for signal generators or for signal analysers.
eeNews Europe: are there different modulation schemes compared to current-generation mobiles?
Borrill: At the moment there are several different schemes being evaluated by different companies and being proposed. But even the standards body for 5G has not selected a waveform yet, and part of that is that even the operators haven’t set the requirements yet. We don’t even have a requirements document for 5G. We certainly don’t have a standard of what waveform will be used. Many universities and research institutions are investigating different waveforms. There are several waveform candidates that seem very popular at the moment. We also don’t know exactly which ones will be chosen in the end but there are some clear candidates which we are looking at. One of them is called FBMC – Filter Bank Multi-Carrier. This is probably the top technology that has been discussed as a waveform, and then there are some variations on that as well.
eeNews Europe: Does the 5G development already has an influence to your business?
Borrill: We are certainly excepting the business to start this year. If we look at the research projects in the industry, it is starting from now. The fundamental research in terms of waveforms, modulation, devices, wider bandwidth of device, higher sensitivity devices – all this fundamental research takes place now.
eeNews Europe: Are there any flagship projects or institutions that are leading the pack?
Borrill: There is one project that is called the 5G innovation centre, 5GIC, led by the university of Surrey in England, and there are many industrial participants. There the METIS project, an industry collaboration, and there are some EU-driven projects.
eeNews Europe: How would you assess the role of Europe in this technology – will the business be driven more by Asian companies as this is the case in 3G and 4G?
Borrill: It seems that the reason for the EU funding is that the EU governments want to try to recover the business back to Europe. For mobile phones, in GSM, 3G and Wideband CDMA Europe really led the world in the technology. In LTE Europe lost this leading position. There are governments that seem determined to bring that technology back to Europe; in particular the British and German governments who signed an agreement to do joint developments so we can rebuild our expertise, build the telecommunications industry. We regard this as very positive.
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
