From radios to core networks, a consensus is forming that 6G needs to offer more focused technology than 5G, or is it more technology? Energy, spectrum, and AI top the list of what 6G needs. EE World spoke with four engineers who attended the March 3GPP meeting in Korea. Here’s what they had to say.…
Spirent adds Wi-Fi 6/7 automated tests to Octobox
The STA Automation Package automates testing that provides repeatability while minimizing manual intervention. The latest flavors of Wi-Fi bring a significant jump to performance over previous iterations. Testing, however, proves difficult because every Wi-Fi installation is different. Spirent Communications has introduced the Octobox STA Automation Package, which automates Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7 over-the-air (OTA) testing.…
5G development in 2025: halftime or still first quarter?
EE World spoke with Spirent’s Stephen Douglas about the company’s annual 5G report. 5G development continues, with AI showing its influence. Around 2014 or 2015, I first started hearing about 5G development, mainly in terms of 5G New Radio (5G NR). With the release of the first 5G standards in December 2018 and the start…
How IEEE 802.3df brings 800G Ethernet to life
By Steve Rumsby, Spirent Communications When is a standard not a standard? This is a technical rather than metaphysical question, though the answer has implications well beyond technology. In the communications business, waiting for a formal technical standard to publish can seem like forever. As a result, industry groups develop their own interim standards to…
Wi-Fi performance testing now has standards
By Leigh Chinitz, Spirent Communications Until recently, service providers were unable to predict in-home performance of Wi-Fi devices because they lacked standardized test cases. Now, industry groups have advanced three new standards, each geared toward different Wi-Fi use cases. The Wi-Fi industry has long had standardized conformance testing to confirm that a device meets standards…
Spirent completes Open RAN testing with three functions
The addition of a “wraparound” distributed unit test product for distributed units augments previous test suites for radio units and centralized units. Open radio-access networks (Open RAN) disaggregate a base station’s baseband unit (BBU) — the unit between the antenna and network core — into three parts: Radio unit, RU or O-RU; Distributed unit, DU…
Video: Wi-Fi 7 operates across frequency bands
In a video interview, Wi-Fi test veteran Fanny Mlinarsky updates us on Wi-Fi 7’s new features and how they work.
Test service brings confidence to Wi-Fi devices, or finds bugs
Spirent’s Wi-Fi test service lets you run a battery of performance and precertification tests for routers, access points, or IoT devices. I recently replaced a failed old dehumidifier. Like so many devices, the new unit has connectivity, which is great because now I don’t have to go downstairs to check if the bucket is full.…
5G and Wi-Fi: The hardware has already converged
In a video interview, 5G Technology World speaks with Fanny Mlinarsky, senor VP of Wi-Fi products at Spirent Communications on how 5G and Wi-Fi already use similar radio technologies.
Open RAN rewrites network-testing rules
Open radio access networks (Open RAN) bring new testing responsibilities that service providers haven’t had to contend with before. Learn why Open RAN changes the game for testing and validating network components, and how operators should approach these complex new requirements.