Hi, my name is Kate Mueller, and I am a Product Marketing Engineer with Keysight Technologies,
and today I am going to be presenting a brief introduction of the 89600 VSA Software.
First, let’s start out with a brief overview of what is the 89600 VSA software.
At a basic level, the VSA software is a comprehensive toolset to allow you to demodulate and analyze
your signal.
It performs vector signal analysis which means you are able to analyze and view the signal
in the time, frequency, and modulation domains.
So the VSA Software starts out by acquiring a signal’s magnitude and phase information
in the time domain which enables you to analyze or view the signal versus time, and then FFTs
are performed on the data to provide frequency domain data for spectrum analysis.
And then lastly, based on the signal type or format that’s being used, the software
is able to demodulate the signal and provide modulation quality metrics like EVM, for example.
In terms of what types of signals the 89600 VSA software can demodulate, it actually supports
over seventy-five different signal standards and modulation types, but some of the key
ones are shown here at the bottom of the slide broken out by industry, and hopefully this
just gives you an idea of the shear breadth of the applications that this software can
cover.
So we are constantly working to update and enhance the software, and we’ve actually
been able to be first to market with some of the latest commercial wireless formats
like LTE-Advanced and 802.11ac.
On the aerospace and defense side, we also have custom options for proprietary or non-standard
signals as well as pulse analysis and FMCW radar analysis options.
In the commercial wireless industry in particular, the standards are continuing to evolve very
quickly.
Here we are showing some of the key features from two of the latest: 802.11ac, and LTE-Advanced.
The VSA Software has comprehensive coverage for both of these new evolving standard formats.
For 802.11ac, we cover all of the bandwidth options, all of the modulations formats, and
up to 8X8 MIMO and multi-user MIMO.
For LTE-Advanced, we cover the latest in carrier aggregation, contiguous and noncontiguous
spectrum allocations both uplink and downlink.
Also, we can analyze up to five component carriers simultaneously.
Also for LTE-Advanced, we have the enhanced uplink support so that’s the clustered SC-FDMA,
and the simultaneous PUSCH and PUCCH.
Those are just some key examples of the technology leadership in the 89600 VSA software.
We are also expanding the offering for aerospace and defense applications.
In particular we are offering new options for pulse analysis for radar and EW.
A new option for FMCW radar analysis for automotive radar.
Also channel quality measurements for multi-tone group delay specifically for satellite systems.
Of interest in particularly with these measurements is the support of the new UXA signal analyzer
from Keysight as a measurement front end for the VSA Software.
With the UXA, you can get up to 510 MHz of analysis bandwidth for these measurements.
For those of you who are using proprietary or non-standard signals, the 89600 VSA software
offers several different flexible customizable demodulators.
We have custom Amplitude Phase Shift Keying or APSK option which allows you to define
the number of rings for your constellation, and then the constellation points on those
rings.
So this can be used for higher order PSK constellations or on-off keying as well.
This has been used by several customers for satellite signals in particular.
We also have a Custom IQ option which has further flexibility.
Enables you to do asymmetric constellations or unique constellations with additional flexibility
over the custom APSK.
We have our custom OFDM option which enables you to define your OFDM signal, all of the
subcarriers, the modulation formats, the pilots, the preambles.
Also supports MIMO configurations and multiple users if you need to add those to the OFDM
signal you are trying to demodulate.
In all of these cases, you are able to define your signal constellation and then in the
VSA software get the results for constellation diagram, aero factor magnitude.
You are able to look at your EVM versus subcarrier for OFDM signals.
So a lot of results and flexibility are provided for these custom signals.
With the 89600 VSA software you have a whole variety of options in terms of the hardware
or the measurement front-end that you are going to use to provide the data to the VSA
Software.
The 89600 VSA software supports over forty different Keysight management platforms, some
of which are shown here.
Depending on where you are in the design process, you can select the measurement front-end that
best fits your needs.
For example, all the way on the left here very early on in your product design life
cycle, you can use the VSA software directly with things like MATLAB or ADS and system
view just in a co-simulation mode.
And then as you move along through your design process, through the initial testing and turn-on
to the design validation and production, you can select the hardware front-end that best
meets your needs.
For example, you can use oscilloscope or logic analyzer for the base band design.
You can then use a bench top signal analyzer to do the system verification.
Then you could move to a high-speed signal analysis platform for your production needs.
Through this capability you are able to minimize a lot of the risk in terms of switching between
your measurement solutions, and you are able to optimize for the tasks that you are performing.
So this can help cut down product development time and get your solution to market faster.
Here in this diagram we can see how the hardware front-end and the 89600 VSA software are working
together.
In the orange rectangle on the left we have our representation of the acquisition being
made by the hardware, which is then passed to the 89600 VSA software, and all of the
operations being done in the software are contained within that blue rectangle on the
right.
The 89600 VSA software gets the time domain data from the hardware front-end, and then
performs the FFT, demodulation, various transforms to provide different formats for the data,
and is then able to display all the items that are shown on the right in the frequency
domain, modulation domain, and the code domain if appropriate, as well as the time domain.
The 89600 VSA software can also be used to measure an analyze multiple signals at one
time.
One example of this: these complex stimulus response measurements that we are showing
here.
What this lets you do is measure the input of your device or the stimulus, and then measure
the output of the device or the response signal and analyze those together and make comparative
measurements.
For instance, you can use any test stimulus that you want.
You can use wide demodulation bandwidth, complex modulation like OFDM, or you can use something
that is a realistic type of signal that your device is going to see while it is operating
in the real world rather than some traditional test methods which only allow for CW tones.
Some of the measurements that you can get from the stimulus response results are things
like AM/AM, AM/PM, gain compression.
Also what we call differential EVM or this Delta EVM and that result versus time as well,
and what that is showing you is a vector error comparison without any demodulation.
It can also be used to align signals in time and measure propagation delay, and determine
the best fit curve for some of these results.
With the increasing complexity of today’s signals and devices, the 89600 VSA software
provides a critical tool for troubleshooting.
In addition to the numerous traces and summary tables, it also allows you to use an unlimited
number of markers to determine values or pick out specific points in your signal.
It also allows for coupling of these markers between traces so that you can find the exact
same sample point or symbol between multiple different views.
Also, the addition of color coding across multiple traces allows you to view data by
channel or by user very quickly and intuitively.
Another powerful feature of the 89600 VSA software is multi-measurements.
This capability allows you to make multiple measurements at one time and then display
all of the results together.
Depending on what hardware you are using, there are different ways to configure this.
You can either use a single wide-bandwidth front-end so an oscilloscope to capture a
large chunk of spectrum with multiple signals in it, or you could control several different
analyzers to obtain and measure several different signals at the same time.
Multi-measurements could be used to demodulate different signals together, analyze signals
at different frequencies.
You can check for interactions between signals because you have a known timing relationship
between these acquisitions.
You can also measure signals at different physical test points.
So if you have two points on your board that you want to measure with two different analyzers
for example, you can control those both at the same time with the VSA software, and then
compare them in the software.
Also useful for measuring uplink and downlink signals if you want to see what the timing
is between those, or just analyze them both together.
Also, you can vary the parameters of your analysis between the measurements that you
have configured so you can set different spans, different demodulation types, different frequency.
All of those parameters can be set independently.
This slide summarizes the different modes that can be used for multi-measurements.
The first acquisition style, which is the simultaneous or shared acquisition, uses the
analysis bandwidth of a single analyzer to capture all of the signals within that bandwidth
and then perform all of the measurements.
Those are truly simultaneous acquisitions because all the measurements are done on one
set of data.
However, you are limited to the span of the measurement front-end that you are using.
The second acquisition style allows you to use multiple independent analyzers which are
all triggered together to capture different signals.
These could be spaced anywhere in frequency, but there is going to be some triggering uncertainty
between those two.
The last configuration here where you use a single analyzer or front-end, and you just
sequence very quickly between the signals that you want to measure.
In that case, the acquisitions are not going to be happening at the same time, but you
still will get all of the results displayed together in the 89600 VSA software.
In addition to acquiring these signals for live measurements, the 89600 VSA software
can also be used to record signals for playback later, or to troubleshoot a signal.
There is a player that can be used to easily record and then play back the signals.
There is also triggering which you can set up to define when you would like to start
the acquisition, and this can be very helpful to catch illusive signals or to make sure
you catch the event that you would like to analyze.
Playback of the signals is then gap-free.
So you have a recording that does not have any gaps between the acquisitions, and you
can play that back and modify parameters like overlap processing essentially that can either
slow down the playback or speed it up.
You can utilize persistence displays or spectrogram displays to get more information about the
signal as you analyze it.
You can also use source control which enables you to take that recorded file and then play
it back out through a signal generator.
To help you get the most out of all of the information and traces and results that the
89600 VSA software provides, the GUI has a number of flexible features that enable you
to maximize the insight that you are able to get from the information.
You can set an unlimited number of traces within your window.
You can also have multiple windows to display your trace results.
You can optimize or customize the arrangement of your trace results within the windows.
And you can also change the shapes to view more information more effectively.
You can set the trace format from log, magnitude, linear, real, imaginary, all of these different
options for how you would like to view that information.
Also there are hotspots.
If you hover your mouse over the settings on the trace windows, it will give you a tool
tip to tell you what that will set.
You can set the trace data directly from the tab of each trace to select what results you
want to view in that window.
To summarize some of the key capabilities we talked about today in the 89600 VSA software,
we talked about the broad format and standard coverage for applications like cellular, wireless
connectivity, and aerospace and defense.
We talked about the multiple simultaneous views.
So unlimited number of traces and multi-measurements to measure and analyze signals at the same
time.
We also talked about the advanced troubleshooting tools.
Like the unlimited markers, the capture and playback capability, and the color coded traces.
And then lastly we touched on the ability to connect the 89600 VSA software to a variety
of different hardware front-ends to make your measurement acquisition.
So that allows you to pick the platform that works best for you depending on where you
are in your product development life cycle, and what you have available.
And then one last note on this slide.
We talked about how quickly standards are changing and how we are working to constantly
enhance and update the software.
And we have an update subscription service that allows you to keep the software up to
date, and upgrade as we release new versions.
This slide shows all of the optional capability that can be purchased with the 89600 VSA Software,
depending on your application or the types of signals that you are measuring.
The base configuration is an Option 200 and 300 which gives you a basic VSA capability
and connectivity to Keysight hardware.
And then depending on the signal formats that you are using, you can configure the other
modulation-specific options that meet your needs.
Also shown here are the update subscription services that can be purchased for 12 months
or 24 month periods.
We also offer both a floating as well as a transportable license option where the floating
license is a server-based license that can be shared by multiple users, and the transportable
license resides on a single instrument or PC, but then can be moved around as needed.
If you are interested in learning more about the 89600 VSA software and trying it out,
we offer a free 30-day trial license.
So you can go onto the Keysight website shown here and download the software for free, along
with a 30-day trial license to try it out yourself, make live measurements with any
of the Keysight hardware that is supported, and analyze any signal you want for 30-days
for free.
Also included in the software download are demo signals which you can recall to learn
more about a specific signal format, or see a demo signal for a given modulation type.
So you have over 110 of these demo signals available within the software.
Also another helpful feature for learning more about the software is the dynamic help
capability.
Once you pull up the dynamic help in the software, as you click through menus or different settings,
the dynamic help will update with a help text for that parameter or feature.
So you can visit this URL shown here on the slide if you would like to download the software
and try it out for free.
Lastly we have some additional resources if you are interested in learning more, and we
have the website shown here for the 89600 VSA software.
We also have an application note, a brochure configuration guide, and we have a face-to-face
hands-on workshop that is available.
Please contact your Keysight representative for more details on that.
Thanks for joining the web seminar on the 89600 VSA software, and I hope this has proven
to be a very helpful and informative introduction