Welcome to RCR’s weekly wrap-up of news in the network test and measurement space, including trends, analysis and product announcements.
Anritsu Co. landed a catch this week when AT4 wireless Group announced that it was investing in the company’s test equipment for 3G and LTE conformance and carrier testing in AT4’s laboratories.
According to the two companies, the agreement includes RF, Radio Resource Management (RRM) and protocol testing equipment from Anritsu to be used at locations in the U.S., Spain, Taiwan, and Japan; Anritsu will also provide coverage in worldwide Tier 1 network operator device acceptance test plans.
Fernando Hardasmal, deputy GM at the AT4 wireless Group, said that the new Anritsu equipment “will provide greater capacity and coverage, not only in terms of productivity and validated test cases … but also in terms of carrier’s acceptance test plans coverage,” which he said have become critical for the company’s customers.
Anritsu, by the way, also announced this week that it is the first test equipment manufacturer to exceed 10,000 validated protocol conformance test cases, across all work items and frequency bands for LTE and LTE Inter-RAT, on its ME7834 Mobile Device Test Platform.
LTE testing continues its momentum with news from Aeroflex. The company recently announced that its E500 LTE Capacity Test System is the industry’s first capacity tester to successfully hand over data services between LTE TDD (or TD-LTE) and FDD networks. The two flavors of LTE are being built out by various operators, with FD-LTE common in the U.S. market and TD-LTE being used by operators such as China Mobile and others overseas. Some operators are launching dual-standard networks, Aeroflex noted.
“Dual-standard TDD/FDD LTE networks are likely to grow in importance towards the end of this decade, as operators start running out of spectrum,” said Caroline Gabriel, research director with Maravedia Rethink. “They will need to make the best use of this scarce resource, and this will include utilizing bands of unpaired spectrum. Even networks that are currently FDD only may begin to use TDD for offloading.”
Meanwhile, Anite announced that it has signed Deutsche Telekom on for another three-year agreement, continuing the two companies’ long-term relationship for interoperability testing on device features prior to launch. DT has been using Anite’s SAS interoperability test solution for the last five years and said that it has seen reduced costs for customer support calls, and shorter time-to-launch for devices.
Allot Communications Ltd. and Tekelec said they have completed the first Interoperability Testing (IOT) for expanding policy control to Over-the-Top applications, which will be a boon to mobile operators seeking stronger policy controls. According to the two companies, the IOT was performed in support of a global Tier-1 mobile operator’s plans to implement application-specific policies.
The 3GPP Diameter Sd interface allows operators to expand policy control and enforcement more efficiently, so that they can dynamically manage OTT traffic based on network utilization, subscriber and device awareness. Allot and Tekelec noted that the long-term value of the Sd interface is that it can allow operators to create application-based service tiers and one-time offers through better application identification and control; extend policy intelligence and control to new traffic management functions; and enable unified traffic management for converged networks.
Also in LTE testing news, Rohde & Schwarz has upgraded its R&S CMW500 protocol tester by adding test scenarios for LTE-Advanced downlink carrier aggregation. Carrier aggregation is a widely-anticipated feature of LTE-Advanced which allows network operators to create flexible combinations of frequency bands of different bandwidths to improve efficient use of spectrum and provide even faster speeds. The new software options allow chipset developers to carry out tests for LTE-Advanced Release 10, Rohde & Schwarz said.
JDSU’s PacketPortal for network visibility is racking up accolades. The product won the 2012 Global New Product Innovation Aware from analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, and it also was named the 2012 Internet Telephony product of the year by TMC. The company announced some enhancements to the PacketPortal program this week as well, improving its offering for customers, application partners, and equipment suppliers.
Kaelus launched the next generation in its Passive Intermodulation (PIM) test equipment line, with the release of its iPA Series PIM Test Analyzer — which comes equipped with an iPad Mini for remote control, along with a built-in touch-screen. Kaelus, a Smiths Interconnect business, said that the iPA is the first battery-powered PIM test analyzer which can support multiple test scenarios including testing at the top of a tower, the base of a tower, rooftop and in-building for Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS). The iPA comes in four models addressing major frequency ranges, with more bands to follow.
