Mobile Devices

New cellular reference platforms for researchers, developers, network engineers

24 May 2019
Cellular reference platforms and graphical management tool from CommAgility. Source: Business Wire

A new reference platform for LTE UEs (mobile devices), enhancements to the existing LTE eNodeB (base station) reference platform and a new graphical LTE Management Tool have been announced by CommAgility, a Wireless Telecom Group company exhibiting at the International Microwave Symposium (IMS). The 2019 edition of the trade show runs June 2-7 in Boston.

According to a press release, the reference platforms provide an integrated, fully tested solution combining CommAgility processing hardware and 3GPP Rel 10 LTE software to deliver a low-cost starting point to accelerate system development and deployment for 4G/5G researchers, product developers and LTE network engineers. CommAgility’s roadmap to 5G solutions offers a path for systems built with these reference platforms to progress beyond today’s LTE. In addition, the graphical management tool offers an easy-to-use GUI that enables straightforward system evaluation, configuration and monitoring.

“For customers building LTE solutions, and in particular private and customized networks, the new platforms and LTE Management Tool will help reduce time to market and development costs,” said Edward Young, vice president and general manager at CommAgility. “When customers are ready to move on to deployment, CommAgility can provide fully customized hardware and software optimized for their particular LTE application and beyond that to 5G.”

The CA-D8A4-RF4 user equipment (UE) reference platform, based on the Texas Instruments TCI6638K2K SoC and a Kintex-7 FPGA, is designed to provide a high-performance LTE UE with up to 300 Mbps download. Four integrated wideband RF transceiver channels support any frequency between 410 MHz and 6 GHz. Highlighting the platform’s flexibility is the ability to 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.

Both reference platforms and the LTE Management Tool include CommAgility’s LTE PHY and Stack software provided in binary format.



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