Keysight Technologies and Qualcomm Deepen 5G Collaboration to Accelerate Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Technology

Keysight Technologies, Inc., a leading technology company that helps enterprises, service providers and governments accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world, announced today that it has expanded its collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, to accelerate the commercialization of DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing) technology, enabling mobile operators to cost-effectively and quickly launch 5G New Radio (NR) services.

Under the collaboration, Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions will be used to accelerate the development of Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 5G modem-RF systems to support DSS. DSS is an emerging technology included in 3GPP Release 15. By 2020, mobile operators are expected to implement DSS on existing 4G LTE base stations, accelerating the deployment of 5G services nationwide. DSS allows mobile operators to transform LTE base stations into 4G/5G hybrid base stations through software upgrades, allowing users in urban and rural areas to access 5G services using 5G NR devices with DSS capabilities.

"Our ongoing collaboration with Keysight on 5G technology since 2015 has enabled us to accelerate the implementation of DSS and help mobile operators quickly migrate to 5G," said Jon Detra, vice president of engineering at Qualcomm Technologies. "Keysight has helped us steadily develop and validate the Snapdragon 5G modem and RF system design, fueling the commercialization of 5G."

DSS enables mobile operators to dynamically switch between LTE and 5G NR coverage based on traffic demand, flexibly using existing spectrum allocations on low-, mid- and high-frequency bands. With DSS technology, mobile operators can provide optimal performance and coverage for both 4G and 5G devices.

"Our expanded collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies on 5G technology will help equipment manufacturers and mobile operators to cost-effectively roll out 5G services," said Kailash Narayanan, vice president and general manager of Keysight's wireless test group.

Keysight's 5G network emulation solutions have been widely adopted throughout the mobile ecosystem, enabling users to cost-effectively verify multiple radio access technology (RAT) designs on a single platform. Earlier this year, Keysight announced that its collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies in the 5G field had achieved major industry breakthroughs, including: the first to launch 5G NR conformance test cases for radio frequency (RF) demodulation and radio resource management (RRM), which were successfully verified by the Global Certification Forum (GCF); and the industry's first 5G NR data call in frequency division duplex (FDD) mode.