US : Tektronix and LitePoint Corporation announced their collaborative solution to LTE product development.

LitePoint’s RSALTE software is designed to run on Tektronix RSA3000A/B and RSA6100A real-time spectrum analyzers, and offers 3.9G compliance support for designers of UMTS-Long-Term Evolution (LTE) systems. “This software enables our customers to analyze the latest LTE signals with both our mid-range and high-performance RTSAs,” explained Elaine May, Tektronix marketing director.

“The RSALTE-based solution with breakthrough real-time technologies like DPX and Frequency Mask Trigger also captures intermittent or random events that other solutions may miss,” added Onno Harms, LitePoint RSALTE product manager. “That helps engineering teams detect, diagnose and resolve design errors more quickly.” In addition, R&D and production teams can share common test algorithms and data formats, reducing production ramp-up time in manufacturing.

Bolsters LTE Development

In the battle to provide broadband wireless connectivity that supports voice, data and multimedia, WiMAX and LTE are the prime contenders. The WiMAX standard is further along than LTE, but infrastructure delays have hampered strong market entry.

LTE, slated for market entry in 2009, is favored by most cellular operators. The LTE standard is still evolving but the latest version – RP-39, version 8.20, 3/20/2008 – is advanced enough to enable system development to progress. The LitePoint/Tektronix solution is a major step forward in bolstering that early LTE development.

Covering all bases

LitePoint is an early provider of WiMAX development and product assurance test systems. With RSALTE, LitePoint is clearly an early provider of LTE development-test capabilities. “From our perspective, WiMAX and LTE will play major roles in wireless broadband. We are continuing to add new capabilities to our WiMAX test solutions, and intend to do the same for LTE,” said Benny Madsen, LitePoint chief executive officer.

“We continue to hear how our customers have greatly improved their R&D efficiency by taking advantage of the unique capabilities of our real-time spectrum analyzers. By teaming with LitePoint we are able to add leading-edge LTE standards support to our broad solutions capability,” said Rick King, VP and General Manager of Tektronix real-time spectrum analyzer products.

Price and Availability

The new RSALTE software is now available from both Tektronix and LitePoint. It is priced at $9,000 MSRP.