“With its 160 MHz bandwidth, the PXA enables the high-bandwidth signal analysis that engineers demand,” says Guy Séné, vice president and general manager of Agilent’s Microwave and Communications division. “Technologies like the emerging 802.11ac WLAN standard present new design and testing challenges for both developers and device manufacturers. Our response to these challenges is new signal analysis solutions that utilize the PXA and signal generation software for 802.11ac. They deliver high performance and features that allow engineers to quickly verify and troubleshoot their next-generation WLAN devices and improve time to market.”
Ability to analyze wide bandwidth signals
It is necessary to analyze high-bandwidth signals, up to 160 MHz, to cover all the bandwidths addressed by the 802.11ac standard. The Agilent PXA signal analyzer, with its 160 MHz bandwidth, meets this need, as well as any other application where engineers require high-bandwidth signal analysis. Its advanced performance provides valuable information that helps accelerate the design, verification, and troubleshooting of current and future 802.11ac devices. Furthermore, when combined with the 802.11ac modulation analysis of the 89600 VSA software, the PXA enables comprehensive, high-performance analysis of 802.11ac signals.
Ability to generate 802.11ac signals
A critical step in testing any 802.11 device is generating standards-compliant 802.11ac test signals. Agilent's Signal Studio for WLAN software assists in this task by enabling the creation of 802.11ac waveforms with BCC or LDPC channel encoding, all MCS codes, and MIMO for single or multiple users with up to four streams. Signals with bandwidths up to 80 MHz can be generated using Agilent's ESG, MXG, or PSG vector signal generators, the PXB baseband generator, and the channel emulator. Signal generation with a bandwidth of 160 MHz can be achieved using two Agilent vector signal generators.
