National Instruments WLAN Measurement Suite 2.0

The WLAN Measurement Suite 2.0, a solution for IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN (WLAN) testing, includes enhanced software toolkits for IEEE 802.11n WLAN signal generation and analysis.

The suite integrates with NI 6.6 GHz PXI Express multichannel RF signal generators and analysers to deliver true, phase-coherent multiple-input, multiple-output RF measurements required for IEEE 802.11n WLAN testing.

The suite also delivers what is claimed to be the fastest measurement speed for those including error vector magnitude and spectrum mask and provides a high class of measurement accuracy for IEEE 802.11n and a/b/g WLAN test.

Using a software-defined architecture based on PXI and LabVIEW graphical system development software, engineers can lower their cost of test and reduce the size of their test systems by testing multiple wireless standards, such as IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth, GSM/EDGE, WCDMA, WiMAX and others, using the same PXI test system.

The suite adds IEEE 802.11n support to the generation and analysis toolkits to facilitate MIMO testing with true port-to-port phase coherency.

For measurements, the toolkit integrates with PXIe-5663E 6.6 GHz two-, three- and four-channel vector signal analysers to provide accurate multistream MIMO measurements.

For signal generation, the toolkit integrates with PXIe-5673E 6.6 GHz two-, three- and four-channel vector signal generators to generate true phase-coherent, multistream RF signals.

In addition to 802.11n MIMO support, the suite improves on the previous version with faster measurement time. When combined with the latest PXIe-8133 quad-core embedded controller, the system can perform composite EVM and power measurements in 7.0 ms.

The suite also adds a variety of software features to improve measurement performance and ease of use. Engineers can software-enable its resolution bandwidth filter feature to remove broadband noise and increase EVM measurement accuracy.

It includes soft front panels for signal generation and analysis to support a wide range of WLAN IEEE 802.11n configurations, including 4x4 MIMO, and to report measurement results and traces.