With 5G, base stations and Remote Radio Units (RRUs) are moving toward integrated antenna and radio designs and Massive MIMO (64+ elements). As the number of ports increase or antenna connectors disappear, traditional conducted, per-port measurements of metrics such as output power, ACLR, and spurious emissions are increasingly unsustainable or technically impossible. RTS85HP shifts RF power measurements from the conducted domain to OTA, delivering a cost-efficient, rapid test approach with measurement times in the tens-of-seconds to minutes range for R&D, production, and operator use cases.

The reverberation chamber method is included in the 3GPP NR base station radiated conformance specification TS 38.141-2, and RTS85HP supports TRP-based RF metrics aligned with that standard. Key capabilities include: easy expandability for future needs, support for base stations generating up to 200 W, and a fully customized, low-maintenance, robust, cost-efficient setup for daily operations. It also provides a wide frequency range up to 67 GHz using only two measurement antennas (see the spec table below for the exact antenna ranges and test zone dimensions). Bluetest developed RTS85HP for world-leading base station manufacturers with emphasis on safety, efficiency, and performance, while helping to ensure deployed products meet operators’ criteria.

Data handling, reporting, and analysis: raw test data is automatically saved to a server for review anytime (on-site or via remote login), enabling report generation and the use of custom scripts for analysis.

Installation & operation: designed to be easy to install, practical to operate, and not sensitive to temperature/humidity. A practical chamber height suits most indoor conditions. A comprehensive GUI including Flow Analyzer and Flow Manager supports efficient workflows and can save considerable time versus other methods, enabling on-premises evaluation of 5G base station properties.

Complementary technologies: Bluetest pairs the OTA Flow/RTS85HP environment with the Bluetest RBS Toolkit for conducted 4G/5G base station R&D/production use cases that demand optimized test times. The toolkit leverages modern IQ-capturing instrumentation (e.g., PXI RF instrumentation from National Instruments) and emphasizes flexibility, configurability, small footprint, quick integration, hardware reuse, and modular upgrades. For a chamber configuration more suitable for lower power device measurements, RTS85 is recommended.