LTE-Advanced will be here sooner than you think, according to test equipment company Anite.
According to comments from Paul Beaver, products director at Anite,”With LTE-A, services and applications such as HD streaming, online gaming and video conferencing will become standard offerings. Mobile operators will finally be able to provide a platform for wireless services that will be the equivalent of ‘fiber to your phone.'”
However, according to Beaver, achieving peak data rates of 3 Gbps over a mobile network poses one of the biggest challenges the industry has ever had to face — including the evolution to up to eight MIMO antennas in the base station and up to four in the wireless device, which “could lead to changes in the design and form factor of wireless devices in order to house additional components and may even lead to new device categories and wireless technology applications. Indeed, the development of design innovations for form factors that house four antennas is already underway,” he added.
Between advanced antennas and the use of carrier aggregation, where a base station groups several radio channels and uses them as a single pipe, the two aspects will “give rise to an even more complicated radio environment for LTE-A than its predecessor,” Beaver said — leading to the need for rigorous lab-based testing to ensure market readiness of LTE-Advanced devices, before the networks themselves exist.
In terms of the timeline for LTE-A’s eventual deployment, Beaver said there is no concrete answer. But he noted that taking recent 3Gpp releases as a guideline, “there is typically a development period of around two to three years, covering the finalization of a release to the initial network trials and deployments. LTE-A is a release 10 specification, so the industry is undoubtedly getting ever closer to early adopter trial programs and roll-outs. It is likely that a limited amount of LTE-A features will be rolled-out in early 2013, but the wider industry generally estimates that upgrade migration is likely to start in mid-2013, with the availability of the first production grade LTE-A enabled handset. Beyond this, LTE-A is likely to continue rolling out in earnest throughout 2014/15 and beyond.”
Tektronix Communications is launching a new solution this quarter for testing evolved packet core networks’ diameter and IMS protocols, Spectra2 XL3, designed to be used by mobile service providers expanding LTE and mixed 3G/LTE networks and dealing with advanced devices and applications that can create diameter signalling storms that can slow or stop service delivery and impact customer quality of experience.
According to the company, “It is the first single 2U solution that equips a multi discipline test team involved with numerous network technologies to simultaneously execute their test plans.”
“A significant challenge in validating performance and interoperability of EPC core and IMS elements has been the cost and complexity of custom hardware,” said Chris Buhlmann, who is TekComms’ VP and general manager of core test solutions. He said the new solution “reprsents a revolution in both 1G and 10G price performance lowering the cost of test by leveraging commercial hardware.”
Fluke Networks launched a new version of its tablet network analyzer, which works in conjunction with a free iPhone application that provides notifications.
The OptiView XG V 10 Network Analysis Tablet allows simultaneous stress tests and network diagnosis in real-time, according to Fluke. The tablet allows test traffic to be interjected to judge network performance and for various issues to be discovered, and is designed to help isolate and address intermittent network issues.
“Until now, test solutions provided only results and couldn’t do both network performance testing and problem isolation in the same test, or even the same solution,” said Dan Klimke, OptiView XG product manager at Fluke Networks.
Rohde & Schwarz‘s R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer has a new option to include broader analog baseband inputs, aimed at furthering advanced Wi-Fi and LTE development. The option allows the inclusion of baseband inputs covering a bandwidth of 80 MHz for I and Q signals, with the instrument being able to analyze signals with up to 160 MHz bandwidth in the baseband, according to Rohde & Schwarz.
The company said that the new feature “will be beneficial especially to developers of transmitter modules for complex signals such as WLAN IEEE 802.11ac and LTE if different chipsets are used to generate the baseband signal and convert it to the RF. With the new option, the R&S FSW now makes it possible to test the signal in the baseband prior to its conversion to the RF, allowing developers to characterize the entire signal chain using a single device.”
Owners of Kaelus‘ portable Passive Intermodulation test equipment can now get a credit if they want to exchange their old hardware for new portable testers, through a new trade-in program.
“Battery powered units are new to the market, so it was essential we create a cost-effective means for everyone to acquire the product,” said Rick Hartman, Kaelus’ president of North American operations.
In mobile application testing, Bitbar said this week that it has raised $3 million in venture funding to expand its cloud-based Android app testing platform, including funds from Qualcomm’s venture investment group. The company’s customers already include eBay, Facebook, Google, LivingSocial, PayPal and Pinterest, among others.
