Agilent Technologies and Sequans Communications are extending their WiMAX™ collaboration to include Wave 2 Mobile WiMAX mobile station and base station protocol conformance testing, which is a vital part of the WiMAX certification process. The two companies believe that the availability of rigorous and efficient protocol test solutions is a must for ensuring that the latest WiMAX technologies are delivered with a high degree of device interoperability and that this level of assurance helps to create customer confidence and drive market growth.

They are committed to working in partnership to accurately implement their designs against the relevant standards and thereby bring robust solutions to market. Sequans is a leading supplier of chipsets for the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard on which WiMAX Forum® mobile profiles are based, as well as for the Fixed WiMAX IEEE 802.16-2004 standard. The Agilent N6430A WiMAX Protocol Conformance Test and Development Solution, based on Agilent's E6651A Mobile WiMAX Test Set, is undergoing pre-validation testing at a WiMAX Forum testing laboratory using mobile terminals that use Sequans' Mobile WiMAX chips.

"Our collaboration with Sequans for Wave 1 PCT testing has really accelerated our progress," said Niels Faché, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Mobile Broadband Division. "I am very excited about what we can achieve in extending this collaboration to support the latest WiMAX technologies. Sequans is forging ahead with MIMO and we see them as an excellent company with which to partner."

Bernard Aboussouan, Sequans’ vice president of Marketing and Business Development, added, "Our customers are keen to see PCT solutions come to market quickly, and they want us to play an active role in supporting this. Working with Agilent is important as they are leaders in the wireless test industry and offer a solution which covers a broad scope of tests and frequency bands up to 6 GHz."