R&S CMW500 from Rohde & Schwarz supports higher-order modulation modes for more data rate in LTE and LTE-A

Modulation methods such as 256QAM and 64QAM in LTE and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) increase data rates in both the downlink and uplink. Rohde & Schwarz now offers these innovative steps on the R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication tester.

At Mobile World Congress, Rohde & Schwarz demonstrates RF tests for LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation with four component carriers in the downlink. The solution consists of the R&S CMWflexx setup, containing two R&S CMW500 and one R&S CMWC controller. Each R&S CMW500 generates two component carriers with 2×2 MIMO using the 256QAM modulation method. The entire R&S CMWflexx setup can achieve a high data throughput of up to 800 Mbps in the downlink.

Thanks to the R&S CMWC controller, the R&S CMWflexx is as easy to operate as an R&S CMW500. Users have a lot of flexibility, since both R&S CMW500 testers can also be used separately. A number of other test functions are also available, such as uplink carrier aggregation, FDD/TDD joint operation and LTE 4CC up to 8×2 MIMO.

Additionally, Rohde & Schwarz demonstrates RF tests on the R&S CMW500 with 64QAM modulation in the uplink. These modulation methods increase the data rate in the uplink for LTE. The test setup from Rohde & Schwarz reaches a data throughput of 75 Mbps on a single carrier or 150 Mbps in combination with LTE-Advanced uplink carrier aggregation.

These and other Rohde & Schwarz LTE/LTE-Advanced solutions can be seen at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at booth C40, hall 6.