Anritsu Corporation has added two software options, extending the functions of the signalling tester MD8430A to measure faster long term evolution-Advanced Pro (LTE-A Pro) communication speeds. The added functions are the LTE DL 6 carrier aggre­­ga­tion option and LTE UL 256QAM option.

The MD8430A is an LTE-A Pro base station simulator for configuring a bench top pseudo network required to develop chip­sets and data terminals. With the addition of these software options, the MD8430A now supports world-first data throughput tests at up to 2 Gbps (DL) and up to 300 Mbps (UL) by using DL 6CA and UL 256 QAM at connections with LTE-A Pro terminals.

With the extended options, Anritsu has targeted these tests:

  • Tests in environments with more component carriers supporting higher throughputs.
  • Protocol tests using antenna channel modelling required to evaluate the LTE-A Pro terminal performance in actual usage en­­vironments.