CommAgility enhances tools for 5G development and deployment
Enhancements to CommAgility’s LTE eNodeB (basestation) reference platform, a new LTE UEs (mobile devices) reference platform and a new graphical LTE management tool are designed to accelerate the development of mobile devices and basestations for 4G, 5G and private networks.
The reference platforms combine CommAgility processing hardware and 3GPP Rel 10 LTE software to provide a low-cost starting point to accelerate system development and deployment for 4G/5G researchers, product developers and LTE network engineers, says the company.
The LTE management tool provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for system evaluation, configuration, and monitoring. CommAgility has issued a roadmap to 5G solutions, and says that systems built with these reference platforms have the ability to progress beyond today’s LTE.
The LTE management tool can reduce time to market and development costs for customers building LTE solutions, and in particular private and customised networks. CommAgility supports customers when they are ready for the deployment phase, with customised hardware and software optimised for a particular LTE application and to 5G.
The CA-D8A4-RF4 UE reference platform is based on the Texas Instruments TCI6638K2K SoC and a Kintex-7 FPGA. It provides a high-performance LTE UE with up to 300Mbits per second download. Four integrated wideband RF transceiver channels support any frequency between 410MHz and 6GHz. It can alternatively function as an LTE eNodeB with different software and FPGA firmware loads.
The eNodeB platform is based on CommAgility’s CA-K2L-RF2, a high-performance ARM/DSP-based processing/RF card which includes two integrated wideband RF transceiver channels. The CA-K2L-RF2 uses the Texas Instruments TCI6630K2L SoC and AFE7503 integrated RF transceiver. Variants with integrated TX power amplifiers are available for almost all LTE bands.
The LTE management tool and both reference platforms include CommAgility’s LTE PHY and Stack software which is provided in binary format.
