Rohde & Schwarz CMX500 5G radio communication tester platform

With support of Qualcomm Technologies, Rohde & Schwarz has validated 10 gigabits per second end-to-end (E2E) IP data performance using its R&S CMX500 5G radio communication tester platform. The set-up was powered by the Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System.

In the simulation, two cell groups were simultaneously connected, one using spectrum in frequency range 1 (FR1) and the other in frequency range 2 (FR2; mmWave). The FR1 carrier spans over full 100 MHz bandwidth using an antenna configuration of MIMO 4x4 and 256QAM modulation. Eight additional component carriers are combined in FR2, using MIMO 2x2 and 256QAM modulation.

The demonstration covered several test cases that verified high data throughput in downlink over IP layer, using different configuration modes of the 5G protocol stack’s lower layers such as Radio Link Control (RLC) in Unacknowledged Mode (UM) and Acknowledged Mode (AM). These configuration modes made it possible to push real IP data over the wireless communication link.

Previously, throughput had simply been verified on the modem’s lower layer 5G protocol stack. This opens up a new era of 5G data performance, which eventually will enable eMBB use cases like 4K and 8K video streaming or augmented reality applications.