Test platform for LTE is 'world's smallest'

MimoOn GmbH, a software-defined radio provider, and Cetecom GmbH, a mobile communications vendor, have come up with what they label as the "world's smallest mobile test implementation for 3GPP LTE."

The hardware is optimized for minimal footprint (13cm x 16cm x 2cm), as well as for processing power and power consumption, enabling the same mobile test platform design to evolve into a mobile handset platform when LTE becomes pervasive in the marketplace.

The baseband is implemented on the Sandbridge Technologies' SB3500 processor, a dynamically reprogrammable multimode SoC for handsets and data cards. The RF section of the SoC supports multiple bands through front-end upgrades.

Supported are channel bandwidths of 20MHz, multiple MIMO configurations, downlink data rates of 100Mbit/s, 50Mbit/s uplinks and high trace data rates.

The software solution can be customized after being deployed to reflect emerging standards for the protocol layers that will continue to be revised through 2009.

Cetecom said it validates and certifies LTE designs according to industry, regulatory and environmental standards. "Today's LTE prototypes are bulky and not suited for easy portability and testing in the field," said Thomas Kaiser, MimoOn's CEO. The new design "will expedite the rollout of LTE and bring the advantages of true mobile broadband to the consumer."

The LTE SDR Test-Mobile will be exhibited at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain on Feb. 16-19.

- Nicolas Mokhoff
EE Times