Popular 5G Test Tools

The key difference between 4G and 5G is the changes to the radio technology. 5G radio has to scale to higher bandwidth and lower latency requirements. 5G standards are defined by the 3GPP standards group. 5G NR (New Radio) specification includes lower frequencies, from 600 MHz to 6 GHz and speeds higher than 4G systems, estimated at 15% to 50% faster. Test solutions are available in the market to test 5G's signalling and protocol compliance. 

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1. Anritsu Radio Communication Test Station (MT8000A) measurement solution supports world-leading 5G chipset vendors. MT8000A is for evaluating the RF TRx characteristics at development of 5G NR chipsets, communications modules, smartphones, and other radio equipment. It is also for researching new applications using 5G NR. It supports wavebands from sub-6GHz to mmWave used by 5G for mmWave TRP/EIRP measurements in combination with RF converters, OTA chamber, etc., as well as RF Protocol tests such as Beam Management tests.
2. Spirent Vertex Channel Emulator is a versatile platform that offers unprecedented scalability while supporting emulation of many channel models. The simple plug-and-play design is built to test a broad number of applications that require varying channel densities. Supported applications range from basic two-channel SISO to complex, high-density scenarios needed to prepare for 5G, such as 3- and 4-component carrier aggregation, higher order MIMO OTA, and 3D bidirectional beamforming.
3. Viavi TeraVM Core Network Emulator - One of the biggest challenges facing NEMs and mobile operators as they launch 5G is developing products against constantly changing and maturing 3GPP specs. TeraVM Core Emulator can remove the pain of Core Network dependencies by giving RAN engineers a controllable and repeatable test environment that helps implement 3GPP standards rapidly and simplify the development lifecycle of 5G gNBs and the introduction of 5G services to the market. TeraVM is an application emulation and security performance solution, delivering comprehensive test coverage for application services, wired and wireless networks. 
4. Keysight provides comprehensive 5G test solutions that cover Layer 1-7, and across multiple segments from chipset to devices to networks. Keysight test solutions provide testing capabilities across multiple RF channels, multiple carrier mechanisms, and multiple data protocols.