Littleton, MA (PRWEB). octoScope has announced the introduction of its new octoBox OBS-15 high-gain log-periodic test antennas, which are optimized for use in the 5 GHz band. Their reduced formfactor allows for the testing of the latest generation of wireless technologies such as 802.11ax and LTE-Advanced, both of which support 8×8 MIMO. The solution also allows for the testing of beamforming when the number of receiving antennas is fewer than the number of transmitting antennas.
The latest wireless technologies such as 802.11p/n/ac/ax and cellular (LTE and LTE-Advanced, including LAA and MulteFire) use a variety of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques. As MIMO systems grow in complexity, testing becomes more challenging. Both LTE-Advanced and 802.11ax incorporate 8-antenna technologies to get higher performance gains. The new, smaller 5-GHz antennas developed by octoScope are needed to create the high-capacity MIMO testbeds required to test these advanced technologies.
The octoBox personal testbed product line by octoScope supports operating frequencies from 700 MHz to 6 GHz, allowing for testing in all the essential frequency bands, including cellular/LTE, CBRS, and Wi-Fi bands. The testbeds range in size from desktop/benchtop models to refrigerator-sized configurations on wheels. Their compact size enables wireless test and development engineers to perform fast, comprehensive, and repeatable testing in their offices rather than inside large isolation chambers or in test houses. When configured with the OBS-15 antennas, the testbeds offer suitable conditions for testing multistream MIMO throughput and beamforming.
The octoScope personal testbeds, STACK-BENCHTOP, STACK-16, and STACK-SNB, are configured with the octoBox high-gain antennas. The STACK-16 testbed is primarily a throughput testbed optimized to achieve high MIMO-OTA throughput. To achieve maximum throughput and over-the-air stability for high order MIMO systems capable of up to eight spatial streams, the STACK-16 testbed with 16 MIMO paths provides a rich, uncorrelated path MIMO environment.
The compact STACK-BENCHTOP and comprehensive STACK-SNB perform a thorough list of automated tests including MIMO-OTA throughput vs. range, rate adaptation, band steering, roaming, expert monitoring, interference avoidance, and packet capture.
“The octoBox HG antennas are optimized for high-order MIMO testing in the 5-GHz bands, which are seeing increased activity with not only Wi-Fi 802.11n/ac/ax, but also with the cellular technologies such as LTE-U, LAA, and MulteFire that are targeting this spectrum,” explained Leigh Chinitz, CTO of octoScope, “octoScope’s customers have been buying our HG antennas for all environments, including for use in the octoBox itself, or in open air or in large chamber testing environments.”
As the number of wireless devices developed for the 5 GHz bands continues to grow, and IoT becomes a reality, engineers need cost-effective, personal testbeds in which they can rapidly test those designs. The new smaller octoScope 5-GHz antennas give them the option to construct very high capacity MIMO testbeds, including for mesh topologies to help ensure accurate and repeatable automatic wireless testing.
The octoBox personal testbed is being used by wireless operators, device manufacturers, and chipset vendors to test Wi-Fi, LTE, ZigBee, Bluetooth, and other wireless technologies. The octoBox is an accurate and automated testbed for validating wireless devices and systems.
Watch a new octoBox personal testbed video to see how customers use the testbed.