Testing Telecom LTE
From EETimes
Long Term Evolution is the next big thing in mobile wireless broadband, but design engineers working on LTE, as well as the more mature WiMax, have their work cut out for them in testing devices and infrastructure. Indeed, if not for their shared use of certain core technologies, WiMax (driven mostly by computer industry players) and LTE (the leading-edge broadband technology of the cell phone service providers) would present even greater gap between design and test as the industry works to bring these sophisticated broadband approaches to market.
But the commonalities between these telecoms technologies have not led to a concerted effort by test equipment companies and test engineers to develop common design, development and test platforms for the standards. For example, a software-defined platform on which WiMax and LTE chips could be developed simultaneously, with optimisation for one standard or the other occurring during the last chip design steps, would save on development and testing costs in an era of limited resources.
