Elektrobit has released what it claimed as the industry's first radio channel emulator aimed at makers of base stations and subscriber devices using WiMAX, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and other 4G wireless network standards.

"Radio channel emulators let designers of handsets, base stations, chipsets or other carrier equipment to test user terminals or network elements using a real-world radio channel, along with complete interference, noise and channel fading," said Jouni Saastamoinen, director of business development for wireless communication tools, Elektrobit.

"OEMs that test new wireless devices for WiMAX and LTE needed an emulator that can simulate these and other new 4G technologies, which coexist with current wireless technologies," he added.

Radio channel emulators develop the environment and how it will appear when user terminals are communicating with base stations. All other channel attributes are simulated such as multipath interference and signal fading as users move relative to stationary base station transmitters.

"We emulate all the real-world situations in a lab environment so OEMs can test their devices under real-field conditions, such as multipath fading caused by artifacts and reflections as subscribers move in cars or commuter trains of up to 350km/hr (217mi/hr)," said Antti Sivula, senior VP for wireless communications tools, Elektrobit. "We emulate all the existing wireless standards, along with satellite links to space and all the emerging 4G technologies for high-end research and development," he noted.

Elektrobit's Propsim F8 radio channel emulator is believed to handle bandwidths of up to 125MHz with the use of smart antennas for MIMO capabilities. It also has two to eight physical channels that can be divided into four to 32 logical channels.

The company said the emulator also backs 3GPP/3GPP2 WCDMA, GSM, TD-SCDMA, EV-DO/ CDMA2000, 3GPP LTE, WiMAX, Wi-Fi and future wireless system air interfaces as they emerge.