The Azimuth Channel Emulator ACE™400WB is an industry leading test platform that accurately emulates over the air multipath and fading characteristics, enabling real-time performance testing of MIMO devices. The ACE 400 WB combines dynamic channel modeling techniques, RF control with intuitive device configuration and test automation to enable efficient and repeatable in lab testing.

Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technology is the foundation of the next generation of 4G mobile products like WiMAX, LTE, UMB and 802.16m. By leveraging multiple transmit and receive antennas to employ spatial multiplexing, adaptive antenna processing, and space time coding, MIMO products deliver greater wireless throughput and range enabling ubiquitous high-speed voice, video and data services. Channel emulation is required to accurately characterize the effect of multi-channel RF interactions on the conformance, performance and interoperability of MIMO systems. The ACE 400WB is a fully featured channel emulator designed for ease of test, that can accurately create complex fading channels to test the most advanced MIMO technology

The ACE™400WB is a fully bi-directional channel emulator supporting SISO up to 4x4 MIMO systems and features built-in real time fading like the ITU M.1225 Pedestrian B and Vehicular A channel model profiles that allow users to recreate a variety of typical WiMAX scenarios for accurate performance and interoperability testing. This real-world emulation in a lab environment replaces traditional wireless field tests that are time consuming and lack repeatability.

The ACE™400WB enables users to:

Reliably and accurately test performance of MIMO-based WiMAX systems over range and in motion in impaired environments
Quickly analyze test data enabling faster identification and resolution of all system design elements that reduce performance
Streamline device testing by providing direct connections to WiMAX devices and eliminating external RF devices
Test MIMO algorithms and debug errors .

Using Azimuth's DIRECTOR™ II Test Executive software, tests run on the ACE™400WB Channel Emulator can be fully managed and automated reducing time to market.

Key Attributes of the ACE 400WB

Scalable Architecture
The architecture and packaging of the ACE 400WB allows the unit to be set up in a variety of configurations allowing the user to build a configuration ideally matched to the testing requirements. From SISO or 2x2 through to full 4x4, and uni-directional or bi-directional, the embedded capabilities of the ACE 400WB fulfill all test needs.
To address the most critical benefits of the mobile communications, the ACE also is easily configured for point to multipoint topologies with different channel modeling and velocities for different devices, making this the ideal platform testing of features like handoff and collaborative uplink.

Real Time Channel Fading
Using state-of-the-art digital signal processing technology, the channel emulator recreates up to 4x4, bi-directional channel fading and antenna correlation in a real time engine, offering dynamic and statistically reliable channel emulation with virtually endless repeat times for a range of industry standard models. In addition the model builder capability provides the user with the ability to program multiple customized models of a complex nature for any type of specialized test cases.

MIMO and OFDM Optimized
One of the key benefits OFDM and MIMO bring to the user is the higher performance of the solution. To achieve this, the RF performance is greater than legacy technologies and this places a burden on the test equipment to have an RF fidelity greater than before. The ACE 400WB is designed from the ground up to meet the stringent 4G requirements and provides RF characteristics like EVM and Noise Figure superior to any other tool in the industry.

ACE 400WB Models
ACE-400WB/Wi-Fi	Azimuth ACE Wi-Fi Channel Emulator * Up to 4x4 MIMO * Bi-directional Operation * Full Reciprocal Channel * Including TGn Chanel Model Pack * Support for 2.5 and 5GHz Wi-Fi bands
ACE-400WB/2x2/B	Azimuth ACE WiMAX Channel Emulator * Up to 2x2 MIMO * Bi-directional Operation * Full Reciprocal Channel * Including ITU M.1225 Chanel Model Pack * Support for 2.5/3.5 and 5GHz bands
ACE-400WB/4x4/U	Azimuth ACE WiMAX Channel Emulator * Up to 4x4 MIMO * Uni-directional Operation * Including ITU M.1225 Chanel Model Pack * Support for 2.5/3.5 and 5GHz bands
ACE-400WB-2.5/3.5/5	Azimuth ACE WiMAX Channel Emulator * Up to 4x4 MIMO * Bi-directional Operation * Full Reciprocal Channel * Including ITU M.1225 Chanel Model Pack * Support for 2.5/3.5 and 5GHz bands

ACE™400WB MIMO Channel Emulator

Key Attributes of the ACE 400WB