NI (National Instruments, referred to as NI), as a supplier dedicated to providing solutions for engineers and scientists to deal with the world’s most severe engineering challenges, recently launched a technical preview of a new 802.11ad or WiGig test solution. This solution has developed many new functions specifically for the emerging field of millimeter wave testing.
The new 802.11ad test solution is developed based on NI broadband millimeter wave transceiver technology, which is being used by leading researchers in the automotive and wireless infrastructure fields to prototype advanced radar and 5G systems. The solution consists of a vector signal generator and vector signal analyzer, with an operating frequency range of 55 ~ 68 GHz and an instantaneous bandwidth exceeding 2 GHz. The new 802.11ad test technology further completes the NI wireless test product series. There are now 802.11a/b/h/j/n/p/ac/ax, Bluetooth, GSM, UMTS, LTE/LTE-A, FM/RDS , GNSS and other test solutions.
"Given the proposed 5G frequency bands of 28, 38, and 73 GHz, WiGig frequency of 60 GHz, and automotive radar frequency of 77 GHz, millimeter wave will be the next frontier of broadband instrument technology," said Jin Bains, vice president of research and development at NI RF. With our latest 802.11ad test solution, we are pleased to be able to cooperate with leading chipset manufacturers to develop new next-generation wireless test solutions."
NI's millimeter wave transceiver technology introduces a new 802.11ad test method, providing customers with another option to replace slow-running, expensive, and low-performance instruments. To further improve the technology, NI is working with leading semiconductor suppliers as part of the lead user program.
"The 802.11ad standard is an important supplement to WiFi technology. It can achieve gigabytes of wireless throughput and is suitable for demanding consumer electronics and mobile applications such as UHD video streaming. It can also achieve high-bandwidth data transmission and is suitable for wireless infrastructure. Facilities, including base station backhaul and wireless access points," said Anand Iyer, director of millimeter wave product marketing for Broadcom Co., Ltd., "The millimeter wave test solution developed by NI enables us to solve various test challenges, such as reducing test costs and mass manufacturing. And wireless test function."
The 802.11ad test solution is an important part of the NI platform and ecosystem, which can help engineers build smarter test systems. These test systems will benefit from more than 600 PXI products in different operating frequency ranges from DC to millimeter wave. They use PCI Express third-generation bus interface, with high-throughput data movement, at the same time with sub-nanosecond synchronization and integrated timing and triggering. The efficiency of the LabVIEW and TestStand software environments and the ready-to-use experience of the interactive software front panel can help engineers perform basic measurements and debugging. The NI platform is supported by an ecosystem of partners, additional IP and application engineers, which can help engineers significantly reduce test costs, shorten time to market, and ensure that test devices can adapt to future needs and solve future challenges.
