Analog Devices and National Instruments are delivering innovation in 5G design and test.

More Bandwidth. More Breakthroughs.

What will it mean to live in a 5G future? 5G performance will tell part of the story: Hundreds of times faster than 4G. Theoretical download speeds reaching 10 Gbps. Dramatically increased reliability and greatly reduced latency.

But the real story is the rise of 5G and how it will impact our lives. Imagine downloading a feature film, in 4K resolution, in seconds. Imagine virtual reality completely indistinguishable from actual reality. Imagine a stadium full of people using connected devices without compromising features, performance or reliability.

Moreover, imagine an always-on, always-connected world of 50 billion devices – all working to make your commute easier, your home smarter, your body healthier, your entertainment more immersive and our world safer.

That is our 5G future. Perhaps the best part is, that future is closer than ever, with 5G being designed and tested right now. Together, National Instruments and Analog Devices are working to develop 5G – with innovations, and a partnership, that are Ahead of What’s Possible.

Second-Generation Vector Signal Transceiver. Innovation from ADI.

National Instruments gives engineers and scientists the innovative tools they need today to create groundbreaking solutions that define tomorrow. NI’s design and test instruments, which enable the research and development of 5G, are another manifestation of this commitment.

One example is National Instruments’ family of second-generation Vector Signal Transceivers (VST). The RF VST combines multiple instruments – including an RF signal generator, RF signal analyzer and user-programmable FPGA – into a single 2-slot PXI module. Similarly, the baseband VST combines a baseband IQ signal generator, baseband IQ digitizer and user-programmable FPGA into a 2-slot module. The unique design of both instruments allows engineers to lower the price of testing by accelerating measurements and lowering the cost of capital equipment.

This performance and reprogrammability enables engineers to develop test and characterization programs for multiple cellular standards (including 3G, 4G, LTE and 5G, along with WiFi and Bluetooth) with a single, integrated solution. And because the second-generation VST can rapidly adapt to each new standard through software, it can significantly accelerate 5G prototyping and test development.

The resulting efficiencies and performance gains reduce test time and costs, and allow for increased speed to market for the most advanced designs. Evidence of this success can already be found in universities and corporate efforts around the world, where National Instruments’ reprogrammable instrumentation is currently enabling 5G NR (New Radio) prototyping in massive MIMO, mmWave, channel sounding and waveform development.

And as 5G continues to be developed, the second-generation VST’s performance and flexibility enable it to adapt to changing standards, making it an invaluable, future-proof tester for tomorrow’s demanding 5G challenges.

Performance. Partnership. Parts.

There are over 100 Analog Devices components fueling the second-generation VST’s vast performance improvement and reduced form factor. But just as important as these 100 optimized solutions is the one deep partnership shared between Analog Devices and National Instruments. It is through this partnership that ADI and NI could discuss how the second-generation VST could work at the performance levels needed by the industry – with ADI providing parts customized to NI’s exact specifications. Together, NI and ADI tested and optimized part performance in iterative fashion, giving NI the ideal solutions to integrate into the second-generation VST, and driving mutual insights into the performance needs of 5G.

Our deep collaboration also helped enable another core advantage of the second-generation VST – its greatly reduced size. By working together, ADI and NI could optimize part integration to help shape the final product, reducing its size by eliminating redundant parts and connectors.

Just as our relationship with National Instruments goes beyond silicon, so too do our mutual discussions go beyond individual end-products, as together we are driving the innovation, testing and performance requirements that will help define 5G.

5G Design and Test Tomorrow. Starting Today.

At National Instruments, they know that the systems used to design and test smart devices must be smarter than the devices themselves. The second-generation VST and NI’s industry-leading LabVIEW software deliver this vision, enabling solutions and standards that will help usher in 5G – and a world that is Ahead of What’s Possible.