ITT - IoT 5G devices Base Station Emulator

Tender description

The National Physical Laboratory [NPL] requirement is to have a fully functional internet of things (IoT) and fifth-generation mobile network (5G) new radio (NR) base station emulator (BSE) system forming part of NPL’s over-the-air (OTA) testing system. Such BSE system needs to be able to emulate base station’s function to communicate with IoT and 5G protocol enabled devices. It enables NPL to establish measurement capabilities for the advanced metrology R&D on novel multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) OTA measurement methods and for the performance testing & verification of 5G NR and IoT User equipment (UE) system functionalities. The BSE system must be able to mimic the behaviour of a real mobile network base station and can fully support the major latest protocol stacks (base station side), e.g., the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) 5G NR, emulate multiple independent cells, simulate a range of network conditions including signal fading, interference, and mobility scenarios, and support the typical operation scenarios for multiple 5G UE. Besides mobile device testing, they can also be used to test IoT devices and other wireless communication equipment with some extent of versatility. It is envisaged to play a pivotal role in enhancing NPL’s measurement capabilities on protocol-compliant RF testing for 5G and IoT devices and communication technologies and to enable NPL to further explore using it as a powerful R&D tool to evaluate some emergent technologies for future wireless communications, such as non-terrestrial networks (NTN) communications, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications in cooperative connected intelligent vehicles (CAV), etc. This capital purchase must meet all the requirements for sale into the EU and UK with appropriate UKCA/CE Marking and relevant declarations of conformity.