TRADE NEWS: Agilent Technologies Announces Industry’s First Eight-Channel RF Measurement Solution Addressing LTE and Beamforming

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today introduced industry-leading enhancements to its N7109A multi-channel signal analyzer for emerging multichannel LTE, LTE-Advanced and MIMO RF measurement requirements, including LTE antenna beamforming and LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation.

Building on the N7109A’s strengths for WiMAX^TM and LTE MIMO measurements, these new enhancements enable designers to stay one step ahead of rapidly evolving LTE and LTE-Advanced communication standards.

“Our customers are driving the continuously evolving wireless communications technologies and standards,” said Mark Pierpoint, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Software and Modular Solutions Division. “The enhanced N7109A platform with up to eight measurement channels helps them achieve this, combining its multichannel capabilities with the 89600 VSA software’s new beamforming and carrier aggregation to deliver first-to-market capabilities, allowing LTE designers to fully analyze their next-generation antenna, base station and user equipment.”

Using the latest 89600 VSA software release 15, the Agilent N7109A signal analyzer delivers:

• Phase synchronous measurements with up to eight RF channels in a single mainframe.
  • Verification and visualization of TD-LTE base station RF antenna beamforming, including Transmission Mode 7 (8x1 single layer using Port 5) and Transmission Mode 8 (8x2 dual layer using Ports 7 and 8).
  • Cross-channel measurements, including frequency response, cross correlation, coherence and more.
  • Dense, modular architecture that scales from two to eight channels in one 4U mainframe.
• Independent center frequency tuning for each tuner module.
  • LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation measurements with each channel tuned to a different component carrier, or multiple channels tuned to each component carrier for MIMO signals.
  • Simultaneous uplink and downlink measurements.
• Correction wizard.
  • Integrated with Agilent’s 89600 VSA software, this step-by-step wizard provides accurate amplitude and phase measurements at the device under test.

Agilent’s 89600 VSA software is the industry’s premier vector signal analysis solution for R&D. Providing advanced general-purpose and standards-based tools for evaluating signal spectrum, modulation and time characteristics, the software enables engineers to successfully troubleshoot physical-layer signal problems. This advanced software is compatible with not just the N7109A multichannel signal analyzer, but with more than 30 other Agilent products, including signal analyzers, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers. It runs on Microsoft Windows®-based PCs or on PC-based instruments.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The new Agilent N7109A eight-channel configuration is orderable now, complementing the existing two- and four-channel configurations. A new option is available to upgrade existing N7109A systems to an eight-channel configuration.

• N7109A-C02, two-channel configuration, $84,900
• N7109A-C04, four-channel configuration, $105,500
• N7109A-C08, eight-channel configuration, $208,500
• N7109AF-4CH, two-channel to four-channel upgrade, $32,900
• N7109AF-8CH, four-channel to eight-channel upgrade, $104,500

An in-depth overview and demonstration of the Agilent N7109A/89600 VSA eight-channel LTE beamforming measurements is available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj58aSOZ1Kc.

Additional Information

Additional product information and demonstration videos featuring the Agilent N7109A multichannel signal analyzer are available at www.agilent.com/find/N7109A.

Additional information about Agilent’s 89600 VSA software is available at www.agilent.com/find/VSA.

Additional information about Agilent’s wide range of LTE measurement and analysis solutions is available at www.agilent.com/find/LTE.

Additional information about Agilent’s MIMO test solutions is available at www.agilent.com/find/MIMO.

High-resolution product images are available at www.agilent.com/find/N7109A_images.

Agilent Modular PXI and AXIe Products

Agilent offers a complete lineup of PXI and AXIe products, including digitizers, arbitrary waveform generators, digitizing oscilloscopes, digital multimeters and a range of switches.

Additional information about Agilent’s modular test solutions is available at www.agilent.com/find/modular.

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) is the world’s premier measurement company and a technology leader in chemical analysis, life sciences, electronics and communications. The company’s 18,700 employees serve customers in more than 100 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $6.6 billion in fiscal 2011. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

WiMAX is a U.S. trademark of the WiMAX Forum.

Microsoft and Windows are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

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