Keysight Technologies and Ericsson have collaborated to advance early validation of emerging 6G technologies by enabling interoperability testing between prototype devices and next-generation network infrastructure. The initiative focuses on validating communication between an Ericsson pre-6G base station (gNB) and prototype pre-6G user equipment, using Keysight’s advanced wireless analysis tools to identify and resolve integration challenges in early-stage 6G implementations.
The collaboration shows end, to, end interoperability testing in the telecom world, at the same time using real network infrastructure and experimental devices; in this way, the industry is being provided with an early framework of evaluating pre, standard 6G technologies that they will then be able to further develop in practical environments. The partners will demonstrate this work live at the 2026 edition of Mobile World Congress Barcelona where the contribution of network vendors and testing solution providers to accelerating the path toward future wireless standards will be the focus.
The whole telecommunications ecosystem is already laying down the technical 6G foundations while at the same time early validation of new architectures and protocols has become a must. Next, generation wireless research includes the exploration of next concepts like centimeter, wave spectrum usage, significantly wider channel bandwidths up to 400 MHz, enhanced massive MIMO performance, and improved protocol efficiency. However, keeping up with these innovations still presents a challenge to the R&D teams since the prototype base stations and devices do not always implement the draft standards in exactly the same way, hence, the importance of carrying out interoperability tests for early discovering performance problems and signaling discrepancies.
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Reflecting these issues, Keysight implemented its WaveJudge Wireless Analyzer Solutions as a separate test and analysis platform able to decode the signaling traffic of both the gNB and user equipment. The solution delivers very detailed multi, layer insights and key performance indicators (KPI) which help engineers to recognize the differences between the network behavior that is expected and that which actually occurs. By enabling better insight into network signaling and link performance at a granular level, the tool allows development teams to rapidly pinpoint the root cause of their issues, check advanced features, and even measure the potential impact of 6G innovation.
David Bjore, Vice President and Head of RAN Software & Compute Platforms, Business Area Networks, Ericsson, said: “Achieving interoperability is a key milestone for our 6G program. Our collaboration with Keysight has helped us resolve issues more efficiently and gain deeper insight into the performance of emerging 6G concepts.”
Lucas Hansen, Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Devices, and Operators at Keysight, said: “Early validation is critical to advancing next-generation wireless. By working closely with Ericsson, we are enabling early exploration of new ideas alongside the standards development process. Keysight’s WaveJudge solutions help identify issues quickly and accelerate our customers’ path from research to real-world deployment.”
The partnership is a strong evidence that ecosystem partnerships have become a very important factor as the telecommunications industry is making the move to defining the next generation of connectivity. The two companies combine Ericssons knowledge in network infrastructure with Keysights sophisticated test and measurement capabilities with the goal to speed up the development and ready, to, use phase of future 6G technologies.