Aeroflex has announced that it has achieved a world first with the addition of UE CAT3 and UE CAT4 support to its TM500 LTE Test Mobile. As implementation of the LTE specification progressively moves towards the delivery of bandwidth-hungry applications users demand, LTE CAT 3 and CAT 4 data channels support data rates of up to 150 Mbps on the downlink and 50 Mbps on the uplink. The UE CAT 3 and UE CAT 4 support on the TM500 LTE now enables infrastructure vendors to fully verify and validate the performance of their eNBs.

“With extensive operator interest in both LTE-FDD and TD-LTE, and their respective ongoing lab and field trials, the Aeroflex TM500 LTE test mobile is seen as the test tool of choice to support and accelerate the development and test of LTE deployment programs,” said Ross Broadhurst, product manager for the Aeroflex TM500 LTE test mobile. “The Aeroflex TM500 LTE test mobile provides the earliest access to the latest LTE functionality, even before the availability of real handsets, as well as layered operation and a high degree of control and logging.”

Infrastructure vendors have been successfully developing, testing and demonstrating LTE equipment using the TM500 LTE test mobile since 2007. With every major base station vendor in the world now using the Aeroflex TM500, it has become the telecommunications industry’s de-facto global test mobile standard for verifying, validating and optimizing base station performance. The addition of CAT3 and CAT4 support as well as handover, higher layer and multi-UE support to the TM500 LTE delivery roadmap further strengthens Aeroflex’s position as the leading supplier of LTE test mobiles.