The network test and measurement space is busily supporting wireless operators as they transition to LTE networks and advanced wireless services. RCR Wireless News’ Kelly Hill is tracking this space in a weekly look at analysis, trends and new products in test and measurement.
Wireless mesh network provider Firetide said this week that its 1.5-mile test track for experimenting with mobile infrastructure is now open. The mini-network is set up for testing wireless concepts for mass transit, industrial transportation, and public safety vehicles.
Firetide installed an outdoor wireless mesh network facility in partnership with California State University Monterey Bay; the company got permission to deploy on university land, and Firetide will provide access, training and mentoring to the university’s computer science and IT students. The mobility test track is located along a public two-way road and includes 22 of Firetide’s HotPort 7020 wireless mesh nodes on 11 existing street poles, two on each pole. One mesh network provides connectivity for testing and the other works as backhaul.
JDSU said today that it is expanding its position in the small cell and network optimization markets with the acquisition of privately-held, U.K.-based Arieso, and two new products from that company.
Arieso specializes in location-aware software that boosts the performance of 2G, 3G and 4G mobile networks, and its customers include AT&T, MTN, Telefonica and Vodafone Group. Its products involve both RAN optimization and the self-optimized networks (SON) space, and JDSU said that it expects the Arieso acquisition to help it extend network visibility for service providers all the way to the subscriber location and let carriers better target ideal locations for small cells or other network enhancements.
In conjunction with the acquistion, JDSU said it is now offering AriesoGEO for location-aware intelligence on network monitoring and optimization, and AriesoACP, which automates network planning by searching possible configurations for the optimum network arrangement.
Rohde & Schwarz’s CMW500 wideband radio communication tester now has an option for supporting TD-SCDMA signaling – the 3G standard used in China – for developing and producing wireless devices.
The company says its solution is the only available test platform that offers signaling functions for all common wireless communications technologies as well as non-cellular technologies. Its tester simulates a wireless connection and measures transmitter and receiver activity.
Rohde & Schwarz also added new options to extend the baseband of their R&S SMBV100A vector signal generator to 160 megahertz. I wrote recently about the company’s product for testing over-the-top applications, the R&S CMW500 – for more detail on that, check out this RCR Wireless video from Mobile World Congress.
The company spoke to RCR Wireless News’ Jeff Mucci about their view on trends in test and measurement:
And that video mentioned on their carrier aggregation testing can be found here.
For other vendors’ offerings and thoughts on carrier aggregation, we also talked to Aeroflex, Anritsu and Agilent on that topic.
Agilent Technologies has increased the warranty on all of its new electronic test instruments from one year to three years. Agilent said that the change is the result of ongoing quality initiatives started back in 2002 that have “yielded unprecedented improvements in product reliability.”
You can watch more about what the company has to say about the drivers behind the change here.
Spirent Communications recently launched new malware testing capabilities aimed at helping enterprises cope with security in a bring-your-own-device environment.
According to the company, “the growth in the BYOD trend changes the mix of traffic on the network and may significantly increase the chances of being attacked by malware.” Spirent noted that BYOD challenges include IT departments having to secure networks despite users who have devices with non-standard operating systems, out-of-date software patches, missing or unsupported protocols and little or no security software.
Polystar recently launched a new load- and feature-testing solution that includes voce over LTE functionality and can simulate hundreds of simultaneous calls to put the network or specific nodes under high or low load to find problems.
The company also recently received the 2012 Global Customer Value Enhancement Award from Frost & Sullivan for its Jupiter application’s view into the customer experience.
“The company’s solutions are known for their integrated real-time data collection capabilities, coupled with high-level business intelligence applications. Polystar’s product portfolio provides operators not only with the comprehensive view of their networks and analytics on individual subscriber behavior, but actionable business intelligence operators need to remain competitive,” said Olga Yashkova, Frost & Sullivan program manager.
Speaking of awards, we also talked with Anite about one that it recently received from China Mobile for optimizing test cases related to customer experience.
If you missed out on test and measurement news during Mobile World Congress, take a look at RCR Wireless News’ YouTube channel to catch up. We talked to EXFO’s CEO Germain Lamonde about test and measurement and backhaul; Agilent on its new product for high-volume testing of smartphones; and Lyn Cantor, president of Tektronix Communications, about trends in the market and his view on the “significant acceleration” of LTE deployments and the implications of big data for network testing and monitoring – among many others.
