Keysight Technologies Inc. announced that the company, together with Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Inc., has established the mobile industry's first announced 5G New Radio (NR) data call in the Frequency Division Duplexing (FDD) mode, accelerating global deployments in all major 3GPP frequency bands including Time Division Duplex (TDD) and FDD.
This industry milestone was achieved using Qualcomm Technologies' second-generation Snapdragon X55 5G modemwith integrated multi-mode support and Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions. Keysight enables device makers to validate 5G NR multi-mode (FDD and TDD) designs in both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) modes.
"Our close 5G collaboration with Keysight, initiated more than two years ago, has resulted in yet another great achievement. Such collaborations have accelerated our ability to power upcoming 5G launches in 2019 and enrich the lives of consumers," said Prashant Dogra, vice president, engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Keysight's end-to-end 5G solutions provide device makers the flexibility they need to rapidly validate multi-mode designs in nearly any form factor, accelerating their ability to address global requirements to deliver a new era of connected experiences. Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions–based on Keysight's UXM 5G Wireless Test Platform–uniquely enable device makers to validate 5G NR devices across protocol, RF and radio resource management (RRM) in both sub-6 GHz (FR1) and mmWave (FR2) spectrum for both 5G NR NSA and SA modes.
"Keysight's first-to-market 5G solutions enable OEMs using the Snapdragon X55 5G modem to speed validations of 5G devices that are used for a wide range of exciting use cases," stated Lucas Hansen, senior director in Keysight's wireless test group. "These use cases include smartphones with download speeds of up to 7 Gbps, as well as industrial IoT, always-connected PCs and fixed wireless access applications."
The two companies jointly showcased automotive and virtual reality (VR) application demonstrations at last month's MWC Barcelona (MWC19), bringing together many of the latest 5G innovations and leading-edge technology. Both applications require ultra-low latency to provide a truly immersive user experience. Automotive applications also depend on ultra-reliable communication to guarantee an immediate response to any hazard the vehicle may encounter.
Earlier this year, Keysight announced that a joint demonstration with Qualcomm Technologies at CES 2019 used the Snapdragon X50 5G modem and Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions to showcase an IIoT application. In December 2018, the two companies demonstrated a 3GPP 5G NR SA mode IP data transfer, accelerating mobile operators' ability to deploy 5G NR without using the LTE network as an anchor.