Radio Frequency (RF) and Wi-Fi Channel Emulation | Vertex

This blog takes a close look at the impairments that occur in communications transmissions and why accurate modeling is necessary to properly test performance.

With 5G Advanced Channel Modeling learn how developers can test how their solutions will behave in a variety of realistic RF environments under dynamic or static conditions.

Testing is, of course, an essential step in wireless product development, but the correct balance between field and lab testing can be difficult to discern. Field test plans cannot practically capture the wide range conditions that a product will operate in, yet creating realistic radio channel environments in the lab has typically required a high degree of time and skill. Both of these approaches have only gotten more complex with the introduction of 5G radio technologies.

Recent developments in 3GPP have brought the need to test satellites against fading conditions, as 5G NTN (non-terrestrial network) introduces a satellite component to traditional land mobile cellular 5G systems. The 3GPP specification TR 38.811 entitled, “Study on New Radio (NR) to support non-terrestrial networks,” details channel models used for large-scale parameters such as shadowing, outdoor-to-indoor (O2I) loss, clutter loss, path loss, and small-scale parameters specific to satellite applications. Even though these models represent the best understanding of radio propagation, there are a new set of challenges for satellite transceiver performance that must be examined methodically in line with the parameters that matter most for each application. In order to achieve the best outcomes, rather than just emulating channel models from the new 3GPP specifications, it is better to consider what might make a satellite transceiver fail and find models that stress those parameters in the lab. Read this white paper to learn how to develop the foundation for a recommended test matrix for systematic satellite communication testing, which can be further refined to the targeted NTN application.

Recent developments in 3GPP have introduced a satellite component to traditional terrestrial cellular 5G systems. The purpose of non-terrestrial network (NTN) access is to provide coverage to remote areas that are otherwise unreachable with a cellular network, especially in mission-critical environments. Standard land mobile communications have been tested against realistic propagation conditions for years; they are a fundamental design criterion of any wireless system and non-terrestrial networks are no exception.

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