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A Platform Purposefully Built for the New RF Architecture 

Blog

A Platform Purposefully Built for the New RF Architecture

In Part 1 of our conversation with XRComm CTO Kodanda Engala, we covered calibration strategy, Doppler, PIM cancellation, and the shift to system testing. Now, let’s dive into Part 2.
A conversation with Kodanda R. Engala, CTO and Co-founder of XRComm – Part 2

From 2G to 6G: How RF Architecture Has Evolved 

Interviewer:
You’ve worked on systems from 2G to 5G. What fundamentally changes in RF architecture as we move toward 6G and NTN? What new challenges arise for RF front-end design and measurement accuracy? 
Kodanda R. Engala:

From 2G to 5G, signaling has evolved significantly — different modulation forms, much higher sensitivity requirements. Other key milestones along the way: 4G introduced multi-carrier; 5G brought beamforming; and 6G will add ISAC and AI as headline features, along with NTN. The SAT 100T is well-positioned for this evolution because it doesn’t carry the burden of testing legacy generations. For a Greenfield prototyping company, or a company building hardware for 5G and 6G, having all the tools in one box accelerates the design lifecycle: you can test components, the radio, and the whole system, take it to the field, and then come back and replay the same signals in the lab to study how the hardware really behaved. 

Interviewer:
What about the RF front-end design challenges for ISAC and NTN? What measurement accuracy is needed to deliver 6G products with the required sensitivity? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
One of the key features for ISAC is managing self-interference. The SAT 100T helps you measure and prototype that. The platform has an interface to control the phased array. For ISAC antenna array design, your beamforming algorithm has two simultaneous constraints: reach the intended user, and create nulls toward the sensing portion of the radio so you don’t interfere with it. Because the SAT 100T can control the antennas — both for phased array and for massive MIMO — it lets you optimize for beamforming and for self-interference reduction at the same time. That directly supports ISAC performance and helps you develop and evaluate the system algorithms. 

What “Field-Ready” Really Means 

Interviewer:
Can you describe the essential characteristics of a hardware platform that’s truly field-test-ready, not just lab-ready, for advanced wireless experimentation? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
For me, the most important characteristic is real-time. When you’re in the field, you don’t want to lose any data, and you don’t want to skip analyzing any data that’s being received. The SAT 100T analyzes every sample in real time. You can’t predict when an anomaly will happen, and because we don’t miss a beat — every sample is analyzed — we’re at the forefront of catching every anomaly. Then you can take that data back to the lab. It’s a true closed loop, and it gives you equipment that genuinely represents both the lab design environment and the actual field environment, because you’ve captured everything that happened — not just snapshots. 
Interviewer:
So a field-ready test platform should continuously monitor the field signal and capture any anomaly during a satellite overpass? 
Kodanda R. Engala:

Yes — and one important point I should add: the SAT 100T has a built-in GPS, so it’s also geo- and time-sensitive. As you capture signals in the field, each is labeled with where and when it happened. So if there was a weather event, lightning, or solar flares at that moment, you can link the anomaly back to exact time and location. That dramatically increases your chances of identifying the root cause rather than speculating. 

With time, location, and speed all logged, our platform is also fully mobile. When the SAT 100T is on a moving truck or vehicle, the Doppler we measure is the relative Doppler — between the satellite and the vehicle — not just the satellite’s. Everything is documented, so back in the lab you immediately have just the failures or anomalies — no need to dig through hard disks. 

Interviewer:
So a field-ready platform should continuously measure in real time, time- and geo-tag every point, and identify and analyze anomalies in real time? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Yes — and there’s another benefit. If you want to feed data into AI/ML training, you don’t have to push terabytes or petabytes of data through the algorithm — most of which is normal traffic with nothing to learn from. The SAT 100T’s data set is just the anomalies. Training time can shrink by a factor of 10 or 100, with much higher success rates because the training is reinforced — you’re training on real problem scenarios, not generic data. 

Training time can shrink by a factor of 10 or 100, because you're training on real problem scenarios, not generic data.

Kodanda R. Engala:
Interviewer:
So you accelerate development by detecting RF anomalies at the edge — and you also accelerate AI model development for your customers. What about calibration and environmental changes? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Absolutely. As mentioned earlier, the SAT 100T has three calibration stages — factory, startup, and runtime. Runtime is what comes into play in the truck or in the field, when the environment is changing but you still need accurate measurements. The runtime calibration compensates for changes in the hardware — temperature and other environmental factors — so the measurements remain trustworthy. 

The XRComm Difference 

Interviewer:
Today’s market is dominated by large established T&M players. Where do you see XRComm’s unique advantages, technically and strategically? 
Kodanda R. Engala:

When we founded XRComm, we didn’t have the burden of an existing platform we had to tweak, or backwards compatibility we had to preserve. That’s why the SAT 100T’s DSP, RF, and Flex Compute solutions are tailor-made for the next generations of communication. We started with a clean slate and asked: what problems are we trying to solve? What were the limitations of the equipment we used in our previous lives, where we wished it could do more? We made a list, and then we asked how to bring it to market in a way that’s future-proof — flexible, the same hardware from lab to field, with minimum variation between the two. 

All of those thoughts went into the design at the drawing-board stage. As newer chipsets and technologies become available, our hardware is well-equipped to absorb them. We’re not burdened by legacy. 

Interviewer:
Today’s market is dominated by large established T&M players. Where do you see XRComm’s unique advantages, technically and strategically? 
Kodanda R. Engala:

When we founded XRComm, we didn’t have the burden of an existing platform we had to tweak, or backwards compatibility we had to preserve. That’s why the SAT 100T’s DSP, RF, and Flex Compute solutions are tailor-made for the next generations of communication. We started with a clean slate and asked: what problems are we trying to solve? What were the limitations of the equipment we used in our previous lives, where we wished it could do more? We made a list, and then we asked how to bring it to market in a way that’s future-proof — flexible, the same hardware from lab to field, with minimum variation between the two. 

All of those thoughts went into the design at the drawing-board stage. As newer chipsets and technologies become available, our hardware is well-equipped to absorb them. We’re not burdened by legacy. 

We didn't have the burden of an existing platform we had to tweak, or backwards compatibility we had to preserve. We started with a clean slate."

Kodanda R. Engala:
Interviewer:
So a key advantage is that the instruments were purposefully designed from the ground up to address 6G, next-generation networks, and the integration of NTN with TN. By not carrying instrument history, you can innovate freely and build a future-proof design — which protects the customer’s investment. 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Absolutely. The SAT 100T as a prototyping platform could realistically last until 7G — it has all the key components of the radio you’d want to prototype, and it’s flexible enough to test 5G, 6G, NTN, NTL, D2D, and advanced 6G features like ISAC and DPDs. That’s why we placed so much emphasis on calibration, real-time operation, and multiple channels — so you can test phased array and massive MIMO. With added HFC components, the same SAT 100T can be extended up to 40 GHz while preserving the calibration plane. I don’t know of any other platform that integrates all of these capabilities — same hardware, take it to the field for any test you need, then come back to the lab and prototype again. 

Built to Scale, Built to Last 

Interviewer:
The True Systems platform — of which the SAT 100T is one personality — is a compact modular system. As needs change, components can be upgraded while preserving the customer’s investment in IP, prototyping, and software. 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Yes. The modularity of Flex Compute lets us move to next-generation components very easily, with minimal architectural disruption — and that makes our roadmap very strong. 
Interviewer:
So upgradability also extends to software: on the same hardware, you continuously improve capability by upgrading the software and creating multiple personalities. Can you expand on that? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Yes. The Flex Compute SDR and the Flex Compute server are even more easily upgradable than the hardware itself. Building a new use case, or a new application, is straightforward on the SAT 100T because you have a Flex Compute server — you can write the code in C, it’s easy to maintain, and if a scenario is timing-critical, you can move that IP into the Flex Compute FPGA.  There’s another aspect we haven’t really discussed: scalability. The SAT 100T is highly scalable — currently an 8×8 setup, but it can scale up to 256×256. And the whole system is optimized for very low latency. So scalability and upgradability are built in: from 8×8 up to 256×256, by adding multiple Flex Computes and Flex Compute FPGAs, with software and use cases easily switched on the server side. 
Interviewer:
So the SAT 100T isn’t only a T&M instrument that delivers precision measurements in the lab and the field — it’s also a design platform for prototyping and characterizing systems and components, scalable in both performance and channel count, and upgradeable in both hardware and software while preserving customer investment. A truly future-proof platform. 
Kodanda R. Engala:
Strategically, that’s exactly the goal: to continuously deliver cutting-edge technology and open platforms that meet the evolving needs of our customers in time, instead of forcing them to use older equipment designed for older generations — and to protect their investment in their in-field testing, modeling, and prototyping work. 

The Story Behind XRComm 

Interviewer:
Finally — what drove you to co-found XRComm? 
Kodanda R. Engala:
I started off as an RF microwave engineer. After my master’s, while working at Nokia, I saw the shortcomings of being on the engineering side, the hardware-builder side: what were the missing pieces that would have let me design better, or that would have let a company get the design right the first time? That was one side of the thinking. The other side was the urge to work on innovative things. In big companies, you don’t always get to work on the most interesting problems. Later, at Meta, Hassan and I were colleagues. He was on the system side, and before that he had worked at NI, a test-and-measurement company. I came from Nokia, where we deployed radios at massive scale. Each of us understood — from our respective industries — where the big shortages and missing pieces were for the next generation of telecom equipment, where innovation was needed but couldn’t go through the old, slow cycle.

Our frequencies matched — and when the opportunity came to take the risk and form XRComm, we did."

Kodanda R. Engala:

But there was also a personal note: Hassan and I worked very well together at Meta, and when this opportunity came along, we both knew that whatever we built, we wanted to build it with people we enjoyed working with. We also shared a vision for a company culture built around innovation. So our frequencies matched, in a sense — and when the opportunity came to take the risk and form XRComm, we did. It’s the combination of all those small things that, together, become very meaningful and define you as a person.