South Korea's telecom service provider SK Telecom has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Rohde & Schwarz, a Germany-based manufacturer of test and measurement equipment for mobile radios and radio communications, on joint research and development of next-generation antenna technologies. 

Under the MOU, SK Telecom and Rohde & Schwarz will work together to create a testbed for Active Antenna System (AAS) for performance verification; and to conduct research and development activities for next-generation antenna system equipment. Rohde & Schwarz will provide SK Telecom with signal generator and radio network analyzer. 

SK Telecom has been currently focusing on promoting network evolution through small cell technologies. In particular, it has suggested a differentiated technology concept called ‘SUPER Cell’ to expand network capacity and improve data quality.  

 According to operator, in line with its SUPER Cell concept, SK Telecom has been focusing on research and development of next-generation antenna system since 2011 to dramatically improve data speeds. In particular, AAS is a comprehensive antenna technology that can be applied to all types of networks including LTE-Advanced. It is also capable of increasing the number of radio channels between a base station and handset by several times to tens of times.