New challenges in over-the-air testing

Two OTA test methods from literature are selected as those most suited for testing future 5G equipment when assessing end-to-end performance: coherent wave-field synthesis and radiated two-stage or “Wireless Cable”. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Wave-field synthesis is transparent for antenna characteristics of Equipment-under-Test but not viable for large test objects. The Wireless Cable puts no direct size constraint on Equipment-under-Test but requires antenna pattern measurements beforehand and cannot cope with dynamically adaptive antenna patterns. Other methods from literature show deficits regarding real-time testing or accuracy of the angular distribution of emulated radio fields.