Rohde & Schwarz has successfully verified combining various frequency bands in mixed-mode TDD and FDD mixed carrier aggregation. During the test, the R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication tester simulated an LTE network with simultaneous time division duplex (TDD) and frequency division duplex (FDD). The data was successfully transferred to the DUT on multiple aggregated carriers in different duplex modes.
This makes the R&S CMW500 the only test platform to support RF and protocol tests for carrier aggregation in line with 3GPP Rel. 12 for TDD/FDD joint operation. With this test result, Rohde & Schwarz has paved the way for the entire wireless ecosystem, effectively driving the development of future wireless devices for mixed carrier aggregation.
Network operators often have spectra in various frequency bands, which they exploit in TDD or FDD mode depending on conditions. Mixed-mode TDD/FDD will now enable them to use carrier aggregation to combine FDD and TDD cells. This not only gives network operators more flexibility in band and spectrum selection, they can also offer higher data rates to subscribers. Carrier aggregation was previously used to combine multicarrier signals with the same mode (FDD or TDD).
The TDD/FDD joint operation test functionality is now available for the R&S CMW500 RF and protocol testers and Rohde & Schwarz will display the setup at Mobile World Congress, booth C40 in Hall 6.