Keysight's Spirent Unit Aims to Remake GNSS Testing with SimXTRACT

PAIGNTON, UK – March 05, 2026 – Spirent Communications, now a key part of Keysight Technologies, today unveiled a new solution poised to reshape the development of navigation technology. The company announced the launch of SimXTRACT, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) test tool described as an industry-first for its ability to seamlessly bridge real-world signal environments with the controlled, repeatable conditions of a laboratory. This innovation directly targets a long-standing compromise that has defined positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) testing for decades, promising to accelerate development for critical industries from autonomous vehicles to national defense.

Solving the PNT Testing Dilemma

For years, engineers developing PNT systems have faced a fundamental dilemma: test in the real world for authentic signal complexity, or test in the lab for control and repeatability. Field testing, which involves driving or flying with RF recording equipment, captures the unpredictable richness of live-sky signals—including signal blockages in urban canyons and complex multipath reflections. However, these tests are expensive, time-consuming, and nearly impossible to reproduce, making it incredibly difficult to debug specific failures or run regression tests. Conversely, lab-based simulators provide a perfectly controlled and repeatable environment but have traditionally relied on synthetic models that can struggle to fully replicate the chaotic nuances of reality.

Spirent's SimXTRACT directly addresses this gap. The tool works by taking RF signal data captured by a record-and-playback system in the field and performing a sophisticated decomposition. It meticulously breaks down the raw, complex signal environment into its constituent parts: individual line-of-sight satellite signals, multipath ray paths, and associated metadata like Doppler shift, signal power, and angle of arrival. This decomposed data is then automatically converted into a dynamic, fully controllable scenario that can be run on a Spirent GNSS simulator in the lab.

“SimXTRACT revolutionizes how you can test positioning solutions. By combining real-world insights with lab-based control and repeatability, our customers will no longer have to compromise on how they test in this fast-moving technology area,” said Peter Terry-Brown, Divisional CEO of Spirent’s Positioning business. “SimXTRACT ensures customers get the best of both worlds, with enhanced realism delivering more accurate results, quicker issue resolution, and faster time to market.”

This 'field-to-lab' workflow means an engineer can capture a problematic ten-second event from a real-world drive test—such as a signal dropout under a bridge—and replay that exact scenario hundreds of times in the lab, tweaking parameters with each run to isolate the root cause. This capability transforms debugging from a costly guessing game into a precise, efficient scientific process.

A Booming Market Demanding Better Tools

The launch of SimXTRACT is timed perfectly to meet the demands of a rapidly expanding PNT market. Industry analysts project the global assured PNT market to skyrocket from approximately $870 million in 2025 to over $8.4 billion by 2034, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 29%. This explosive growth is fueled by an insatiable demand for reliable and resilient positioning across several key sectors.

The defense and military segment remains the dominant force, driven by modernization initiatives and the critical need for navigation systems that can withstand jamming and spoofing. However, the fastest-growing demand comes from the commercial sector. The automotive industry, racing towards fully autonomous vehicles, requires PNT solutions with decimeter- to centimeter-level accuracy that can perform flawlessly in challenging urban environments. Likewise, critical infrastructure—including 5G telecommunication networks, energy grids, and financial transaction systems—relies on hyper-precise timing signals from GNSS, making robust testing a matter of national importance.

These high-stakes applications are precisely where traditional testing methods fall short. The vulnerabilities of GNSS to both accidental interference and malicious attacks are well-documented, and the cost of failure is astronomical. SimXTRACT enables developers to capture these real-world threats and challenges, analyze them, and build more resilient systems without the prohibitive cost and logistical nightmares of constant field testing.

Redefining the Competitive Landscape

While the GNSS testing market includes established players like Rohde & Schwarz and Orolia, who offer powerful and sophisticated lab simulators, SimXTRACT carves out a unique and strategic niche. Competitors have focused on creating highly realistic synthetic scenarios, allowing users to model everything from atmospheric effects to multi-constellation satellite configurations. These tools are essential for baseline testing and development.

Spirent's solution, however, does not replace synthetic simulation but rather enhances it with captured reality. Its key differentiator is the ability to deconstruct and re-constitute actual field recordings. This is a crucial distinction for validating performance in edge cases and complex environments that are difficult to model synthetically. By allowing developers to essentially 'bottle' a piece of the real world and bring it back to the bench, Spirent provides a tool for a deeper level of analysis and performance characterization that was previously unattainable.

A Strategic Play for Keysight

The launch of SimXTRACT is also one of the first major product unveilings for Spirent's positioning division since the company's acquisition by Keysight Technologies was finalized. Keysight won a competitive bidding war for Spirent, ultimately paying approximately $1.5 billion in a move to significantly bolster its portfolio in communications, network assurance, and positioning test solutions. The acquisition was a clear bet on a software-centric strategy aimed at providing end-to-end solutions for high-growth technology megatrends.

SimXTRACT perfectly embodies this strategy. It is a sophisticated software tool that integrates tightly with Spirent's existing hardware simulators, creating a high-value, differentiated solution that strengthens Keysight's overall market position. By enabling more efficient and accurate testing for the automotive, defense, and aerospace industries, it directly aligns with Keysight’s goal of embedding its solutions deeper into the design and validation lifecycle of its key customers.

By empowering developers to move beyond the traditional trade-offs of PNT testing, this new capability promises not only to improve product quality but also to fundamentally accelerate the pace of innovation in a world that is increasingly dependent on knowing exactly where it is and what time it is.

“In today’s high-precision PNT ecosystem, SimXTRACT redefines how you can develop, test, and debug PNT-enabled systems,” Terry-Brown added. “You can now bring the real-world environment into every stage of your product realization process, saving you time and money, while also improving product quality.”