Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) and Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA are to establish a joint operator test laboratory in China as part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The two companies will focus on wireless communications and test concepts to better serve their common customers, including the three Chinese network operators and other global operators that Rohde & Schwarz has been serving for many years. In the test lab, Rohde & Schwarz will provide technical consultancy and product support. Rohde & Schwarz and Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA will do the collaboration testing for the requirements of network operators around the world. The common goal is to enable chipset solutions that better fit global operators’ requirements.

Unigroup Spreadtrum & RDA had already selected Rohde & Schwarz for 2G, 3G and 4G, and now the two companies are continuing their collaboration on current key technologies. Rohde & Schwarz will support Spreadtrum in 5G sub-6 GHz and mmWave chipset design and development. As a world-leading test instrument provider with advanced technology in mobile communications, Rohde & Schwarz can provide a wide variety of products, including early stage simulation software, test modules, instruments and test systems. This will speed up the development of the 5G test platform–from algorithms, ESL, physical layer design and FPGA simulation to protocol stack. For 5G mobile phone R&D, DUTs from Spreadtrum will be tested for mutual verification using the radio communications tester from Rohde & Schwarz. This will accelerate 5G chip prototyping. Moreover, based on earlier projects on 2G, 3G, 4G and non-cellular technologies, the two companies will further optimize the 5G manufacturing test solution to cut down customers’ manufacturing costs and to hasten the 5G industry’s time to market.

Additional parts of the MoU include testing in the broadcasting field, where Rohde & Schwarz has nearly 80 years of experience serving TV stations and manufacturers. Rohde & Schwarz can provide TV transmitters, stream and signal generators and analyzers. Further cooperation between the two companies will look at automotive electronics and cellular and non-cellular IoT applications.