cetecom advanced › Product Testing › Cellular / 5G Testing

Cellular Testing / 5G Testing

From legacy technologies to 5G

Cellular technologies have been an integral part of wireless technologies for many years and continue to be widely used in a wide variety of industries and products.

Depending on the field of application, the 2G/3G/4G technologies that have been established for years are also used. Currently, the latest generation of cellular technologies – 5G – is also gaining ground.

We use cellular testing to test mobile devices according to this latest standard as well as all other standards in use today.

The advantages of 5G technology

5G offers various advantages in use compared to previous generations:

5G for ultra-fast mobile broadband
5G offers data rates in the range of up to 10 gigabits per second
5G for communication between machines (M2M)
A wide-area network for processing small amounts of data while providing wide spatial coverage
5G as a high reliability network
Short latency of only one millisecond in the 5G network

5G technology also promises far greater efficiency in the use of the relevant frequencies:

Carrier Aggregation
Carrier aggregation ensures the necessary high bandwidth for 5G.
Small Cells
Small cells supplement conventional mobile communications antennas and ensure network densification at locations with particularly high demand.
Massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)
These multi-antenna systems enable the use of multiple simultaneous transmit and receive antennas for wireless communication.
Beamforming
Another advantage of 5G technology is targeted coverage of individual devices. In this context, the antenna transmission direction is adjusted so that a maximum signal or maximum bandwidth can be received at the desired end device.
Virtually split network through network slicing
This feature allows a network to be split for different needs – e.g. data rate or latency.

Our cellular testing experts take these special characteristics of 5G into account when testing your devices.

Testing and certification requirements for products with 5G technology

As for all products with wireless technologies, products with cellular technology also have to be approved by the regulatory authorities for the respective countries. Compared to other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and WLAN, devices with cellular technology must also meet the requirements of network operators.

The new 5G technology in particular therefore presents manufacturers with new challenges in terms of the testing requirements for their devices.

Regulatory product testing for 5G
and all other cellular technologies

For 5G and all other cellular technologies (2G/3G/4G), all requirements – regulatory and those of the network operators – are now defined down to the last detail. Comprehensive cellular testing in our laboratories, which incorporates our experience of over 25 years, can therefore enable you to obtain efficient and rapid approval for your products with cellular technology.

In addition to relevant network operator testing and approvals, we have equipped our laboratories to offer our customers regulatory 5G testing according to the most common standards.
These include, among others:

Europe according to RED

Radio tests according to ETSI EN 301 908-1
Radio tests according to ETSI EN 301 908-25
EMC tests according to ETSI EN 301 489-52

USA according to FCC specifications

47 CFR Part 27 (600 MHz und 700 MHz)
47 CFR Part 22 (850 MHz)
47 CFR Part 24 (1900 MHz)
47 CFR Part 27 (1.7 – 2.1 GHz)
47 CFR Part 27 (2.5 GHz)
47 CFR Part 96 (3.55 GHz – 3.7 GHz)

Canada according to ISED specifications

RSS-130 (600 MHz und 700 MHz)
RSS-132 (850 MHz)
RSS-133 (1900 MHz)
RSS-139 (1,7 – 2,1 GHz)
RSS-192 (3,45 GHz – 3,9 GHz)
RSS-199 (2,5 GHz)

Cellular tests according to the specifications of the network operators

In January 2020, cetecom advanced became the first laboratory in Europe to be accredited for conducting line-based tests. The underlying standards – defined by ETSI and 3GPP, among others – are mainly used for network operator approvals (GCF and PTCRB certifications), which are necessary when using cellular technology.

We can therefore perform the tests for the network operator approvals in our laboratories and are accredited for the following standards:

5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 1: Common test environment
- 3GPP TS 38.508-1 V16.1.1 (2019-10)
- ETSI TS 138 508-1 V15.4.0 (2019-07)
5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 2: Common Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) proforma
- 3GPP TS 38.508-2 V16.1.0 (2019-10)
- ETSI TS 138 508-2 V15.4.0 (2019-07)
5GS; Special conformance testing functions for User Equipment (UE)
- 3GPP TS 38.509 V15.5.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 509 V15.4.0 (2019-07)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio transmission and reception; Part 1: Range 1 Standalone
- 3GPP TS 38.521-1 V16.1.1 (2019-10)
- ETSI TS 138 521-1 V15.3.0 (2019-07)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio transmission and reception; Part 2: Range 2 Standalone
- 3GPP TS 38.521-2 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 521-2 V15.3.0 (2019-07)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio transmission and reception; Part 3: Range 1 and Range 2 Interworking operation with other radios
- 3GPP TS 38.521-3 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 521-3 V15.3.0 (2019-07)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio transmission and reception; Part 4: Performance requirements
- 3GPP TS 38.521-4 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 521-4 V15.1.0 (2019-07)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Applicability of radio transmission, radio reception and radio resource management test cases
- 3GPP TS 38.522 V16.1.1 (2019-10)
- ETSI TS 138 522 V15.3.0 (2019-07)
5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 1: Protocol
- 3GPP TS 38.523-1 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 523-1 V15.4.0 (2019-07)
5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 2: Applicability of protocol test cases
- 3GPP TS 38.523-2 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 523-2 V15.4.0 (2019-07)
5GS; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Part 3: Protocol Test Suites
- 3GPP TS 38.523-3 V15.5.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 523-3 V15.5.0 (2019-10)
NR; User Equipment (UE) conformance specification; Radio Resource Management (RRM)
- 3GPP TS 38.533 V16.1.0 (2019-09)
- ETSI TS 138 533 V15.1.0 (2019-07)

These test specifications form the basis for the necessary network operator approvals, which are bundled in GCF certification for the European region and PTCRB certification for the US region.