Keysight Enables Aethertek to Validate Performance of 5G Millimeter Wave Open RAN Radio Units

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Keysight Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced that Aethertek selected the Keysight Open RAN Studio solution to validate the end-to-end performance of its 5G millimeter wave (mmWave) O-RAN Radio Units (O-RU).

Devices using 5G mmWave technology increase bandwidth and lower latency, which enable use cases such as mission critical communications and Industry 4.0 applications. To deliver optimum performance in real-world use cases, mmWave designs must be tested against realistic, challenging conditions.

Keysight’s Open RAN Studio overcomes the challenges of mmWave over-the-air (OTA) testing by providing a test environment that includes tools, in both radio frequency (RF) and protocol domains, to completely emulate the real-world traffic experienced by an O-RU. Open RAN Studio software leverages the same industry leading 5G signal generation and measurement science used in Keysight spectrum analyzers and signal sources.

Using Keysight’s Open RAN Studio, Aethertek was able to reliably validate the performance of its RF front-end modules and mmWave phase array antennas as critical components of its 5G mmWave O-RUs.

As an editor of the O-RAN fronthaul conformance test specification, Keysight is a significant contributor to the development of O-RAN standards. A growing ecosystem of O-RU vendors rely on Keysight's integrated hardware and software solutions, such as Open RAN Studio, to validate performance, establish interoperability between network elements, and ensure compliance to the latest O-RAN specifications. Keysight's wireless and wired expertise across the protocol stack, from the physical layer to the application layer, supports efficient testing of network elements in the RAN.

Harry Wu, Chief Operating Officer at Aethertek, said: “Keysight’s Open RAN Studio enables Aethertek to stay at the forefront of O-RAN technology development. mmWave RF front end module design is a critical task, and by validating the real-world performance in the R&D phase, we can ensure a positive user experience.”

Jeffrey Chen, General Manager of Greater China Wireless Solutions Engineering at Keysight, said: “Keysight is pleased to support Aethertek as a part of the growing O-RAN ecosystem. As the leading 5G test solution provider, we will continue to develop new solutions to our customers’ mmWave testing challenges.”