Agilent Technologies Announces HSPA+, E-EDGE Test Capability for R&D Designers Testing 3GPP Mobile Devices

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced new 21Mbps HSPA+ and E-EDGE test capabilities for its 8960 wireless communications test set platform. The addition of these UMTS system technologies signifies Agilent’s ongoing commitment to provide leading-edge test capability on its 8960 test set platform to meet evolving 3GPP mobile test needs.

HSPA+ and Evolved-EDGE or EDGE Evolution are the next major enhancements to the 3GPP system. Both of these wireless standards offer numerous improvements designed to increase user data rates, improve network utilization, and reduce latency. With HSPA+, higher data rates come from the use of 64QAM modulation on the downlink and 4-PAM on the uplink plus 2x2 MIMO. Reduced latency is realized through continuous packet connectivity. Network utilization is improved with discontinuous reception and transmission. The newest enhancements to the E6703E W-CDMA/HSPA Lab Application add HSPA+ with 64QAM in the downlink, Fixed Reference Channel H-Set 8, and MAC-ehs, in addition to 21Mbps test mode data rate support.

Likewise, the E-EDGE test capability delivers a host of improvements to the E6701F/E6704A Lab Application. E-EDGE Dual Carrier Downlink enables UEs to receive on two radio channels -- effectively doubling the EGPRS downlink data rate. Latency reduction is achieved through reduced transmission time interval that halves the current EGPRS radio block transmission time interval from 20 to 10 ms. Fast ACK/NACK reporting provides both latency improvements and enhanced network utilization.

The functionality offered by the HSPA+ and E-EDGE test capabilities allows R&D designers working on high data rate applications to test the new signaling and transmission challenges created by the standards’ higher data rates, dual receiver operation and improved latency.

“The new HSPA+ and E-EDGE capabilities are the latest in a series of enhancements to the 8960 that provide industry-leading data rate performance coupled with the most standards-compliant RF measurements,” said Niels Faché, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Mobile Broadband Division. “These test capabilities not only address the current test needs of 3GPP mobile device designers, but also show our long-term commitment to enhancing the 8960 platform with the features designers need for ongoing development of the most competitive UMTS devices.”

Agilent’s 8960 test set is suited for wireless device development, manufacturing and repair of all major 2G, 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G wireless technologies. It provides test solutions for mobile devices across the entire lifecycle on a single platform -- including test systems for RF, protocol and application conformance, as well as manufacturing test. For R&D designers in particular, the 8960 bench-top test set provides a unique combination of automated standards-compliant RF measurements, high data-rate applications test and test solutions such as mobile battery drain, UMA/GAN and others.