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Keysight Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company that delivers advanced design and validation solutions to help accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, has enabled the Global Certification Forum (GCF) to activate certification of 5G devices in accordance with 5G new radio (NR) 3GPP release 16 (Rel-16) specifications using Keysight’s protocol and radio frequency (RF) demodulation and radio resource management (RRM) conformance toolsets.

3GPP Rel-16 signals the advent of a second wave of 5G technology rollout by mobile operators and enterprises targeting improved levels of reliability, security, privacy, capacity and customisation. The industry milestone achieved by Keysight was confirmed at the conformance agreement group (CAG) 71 meeting held from the 26th to the 29th of July. As a result, device vendors can now certify devices for GCF test cases covering high-speed train (HST) scenarios. These test cases ensure 5G devices provide consistent end-user experiences and critical communication reliability with high mobility for passengers on high-speed trains travelling at up to 500 kilometres per hour.

At the CAG meeting, it was also confirmed that Keysight was first to validate 5G new radio (NR) protocol conformance test cases which enable device vendors to verify compliance to 3GPP Rel-16 specifications related to nonpublic network (NPN) deployments. These test cases support 5G NR standalone (SA) mode, which requires a 5G Core (5GC) to deliver cloud-native applications, low latencies, high data rate speeds and end-to-end service orchestration, as well as enhanced capacity and coverage.

“Keysight is accelerating the market introduction of devices that support advanced 5G consumer-focused use cases, as well as 5G private network deployments,” said Muthu Kumaran, General Manager at Keysight’s Device Validation Solutions Business. “Since the completion of 3GPP Rel-16 in 2020, Keysight has collaborated with leading modem makers to speed the adoption of the latest standards. This enables a growing device ecosystem to capture early revenue opportunities associated with advanced 5G use cases.”

More than 100 mobile operators are investing in 5G NR SA underpinning many 5G advanced use cases. The CAG meeting confirmed that Keysight first and only test platform to validate RF demodulation and RRM test cases for 5G SA devices in frequency range 2 (FR2) covering RF transceiver (TRX), demodulation and RRM validation. It was also confirmed that Keysight was first to activate certification of 5G devices for inter radio access technology (iRAT) technical enhancements and improvements (TEI16), ensuring 5G SA devices perform smooth handovers between 5G NR and 4G LTE networks.

Keysight continues to enable chipset and device makers to verify conformance to the highest number of GCF validated protocol and RF/RRM test cases using the company’s 5G network emulation solutions. Keysight’s S8704A Protocol Conformance Toolset and S8705A RF/RRM DVT and Conformance Toolset leverage common software and hardware platforms to provide access to a comprehensive range of GCF test cases, accelerating conformance validation.

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