The engineers used an MXA signal analyzer set-up to ensure that the tests of their reference design meet the requirements of the LTE standard.

The test solutions used included an Agilent MXA Signal Analyzer with the Agilent 89600 Series Vector Signal Analysis (VSA) software and its recently developed 3GPP LTE modulation analysis option.

The latter provides RF and baseband engineers working on early LTE devices with a comprehensive signal analysis solution for physical layer testing and troubleshooting. The set-up allows LTE signal analysis from the analog or digital baseband through to the RF antenna for Node B infrastructure as well as end-user equipment prototype designs.

Software Defined Radio specialist mimoOn (Duisberg, Germany) and femtocell processor developer picoChip (Bath, England) have been working on the reference design for most of the year. The companies recently announced the availability of what they suggest is the first LTE femtocell and picocell reference designs, the PC8608 Home eNodeB and PC8618 eNodeB respectively.

The companies first demonstrated the platform at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

The jointly developed reference design, which both picoChip and mimoOn will sell, supports the full range of eNodes from femtocells to multi-sector macrocells and is supported on the same common hardware platforms as picoChip's WiMAX products.

picoChip is currently the only company shipping femtocell silicon, with customers that include Ubiquisys, ipAccess and several Tier One OEMs.

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