Design and Verification Challenges

This chapter describes the development of the DigRF standard for interconnecting baseband and radio frequency (RF) subsystems within the user equipment (UE). It talks about design and measurement challenges of LTE transmitters and receivers. The chapter presents the open and closed‐loop behaviors of the physical layer using the demodulation capabilities of the Agilent 89600 vector signal analyzer (VSA) software. It focuses on the RF challenges presented by multi‐antenna systems including multiple input multiple output (MIMO) and investigates MIMO beamforming from the perspective of the eNB. The radiated “over‐the‐air” (OTA) performance of the UE, covers existing single input single output (SISO) test methods and the ongoing developments in the area of MIMO OTA. The chapter focuses on the challenges of signaling protocol development. It discusses UE functional testing, battery drain testing, drive testing, and UE manufacturing testing.