Anritsu Corp. has announced that the company has received the world's first PTCRB approval for its ME7873L RF Conformance Test System meeting the LTE Rel-10 Carrier Aggregation Standard. The new 4G mobile LTE-Advanced standard supports the carrier aggregation function offering faster communication speeds than the LTE technology now being deployed worldwide. This carrier aggregation function uses multiple frequencies in one band to increase both the peak and average data speeds, reaching the 3GPP standards of 300 Mbps for downloads while targeting future speeds of 1 Gbps.
The recent explosive increase in mobile data transmissions, such as video streaming, is driving an urgent need to secure wider data bandwidths. The narrow frequency bands currently used for mobile communications are inadequate for streaming large volumes of data like video to many users, and mobile carriers are deploying carrier aggregation as one technology for solving their capacity problems.
Network Operators offering LTE services worldwide are now planning carrier aggregation rollout with the first North American services scheduled sometime this year. Development of commercial mobiles requires deployment of PTCRB and GCF approved test systems for assuring objective RF and Protocol Conformance Tests meeting the 3GPP standards for terminal quality.
With this new world-first PTCRB carrier aggregation test case approval, Anritsu's ME7873L RF Conformance Test System expands the company’s GCF/PTCRB-approved support for LTE into the LTE-Advanced test market. Anritsu's future plans include expansion of the number of GCF/PTCRB test case validations for LTE terminals supporting carrier aggregation.
