Keysight Technologies, Inc. announced PathWave System Design (SystemVue) 2023 software to speed the design process for 5G non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and other wireless systems. The latest improvements to PathWave System Design empower RF system designers to create digital twins of their architectures and transform from a hardware-centric to a simulation-centric design flow.

New 5G NTN systems have challenging complexity, which is stressing development lifecycles. Engineers are looking to commercial software solutions that connect with their existing environments and drive virtual prototyping of their systems in application-specific environments. Simulations that use measurement-derived models deliver higher fidelity in mission-critical applications such as satellite communications and aerospace defense. System architects want to explore real-world “what if” scenarios prior to building hardware to reduce technical risk and minimize time-to-market.

PathWave System Design 2023 software supports engineers working in RFIC, sub-assembly and mission or system-of-systems applications by connecting system, baseband and hardware verification tools in a complete RF system modeling workflow. Engineers can perform industry-leading phased array analysis that captures all non-ideal effects across channels and between amplifiers and antennas. New tool capabilities also enable frequency domain nonlinear system modeling to predict application-specific system behavior.

“5G applications are evolving towards 6G, requiring the need for tools that address the entire digital engineering design and validation workflow,” said Peter Blood, Director of Product Management for PathWave System Design at Keysight. “Organizations are demanding that systems are virtually prototyped in their target scenario, so system and mission engineers are turning to simulation, virtual prototyping and digital twins. These techniques shift the development process left in time and remove the need for multiple physical prototypes. PathWave System Design blends simulation with measurement-derived models and offers a complete RF system workflow to rapidly architect, design and verify these complex NTN systems with updated 5G libraries.”

PathWave System Design 2023 software key features and benefits include:

• An updated 5G transceiver to support NTN in conjunction with PathWave Vector Signal Analysis (89600 VSA) 2023. Enhancements include a full-featured channel model, which natively supports all the propagation characteristics for low, medium, and geostationary earth orbits, including large path delay and large-frequency Doppler Shift with trajectory visualization.
• Two new simulation user interfaces: the Digital Predistortion (DPD) Explorer for circuit level designers in PathWave Advanced Design System and the DPD Designer for architects in PathWave System Design. These enhancements deliver unprecedented efficiency, flexibility, speed and fidelity enabled by Keysight’s compact waveforms and new graphical user interfaces. The new dynamic gain model delivers unrivaled power amplifier modeling with memory effects and supports workflow with other Keysight software and instrumentation for extraction.
• New load-pull modeling that creates the ultimate phased array digital twin with power amplifier models derived from Keysight instrumentation or circuit level simulation. Phased array architects can be confident that their system simulation delivers the highest accuracy due to Keysight’s expertise in RF measurement science.
• Connectivity with Keysight’s EXata software and PROPSIM Channel Studio software that enables mission engineers to create a 5G network-level digital twin. High fidelity physical layer analysis from PathWave System Design and PROPSIM channel models enhance a unique blend of statistical simulation from EXata. Designers can evaluate network-level performance of NTN communications systems without compromising on fidelity, complexity or simulation speed.