Network testing company Global Wireless Solutions is challenging RootMetrics‘ popular crowd-sourced ratings of wireless carriers with a new OneScore rating system for wireless carriers, which takes into consideration both how users want to utilize their devices as well as actual network testing data.
“Despite a recent focus by some media and operators on metrics such as maximum achievable data throughputs, consumers care more about their mobile network getting the basics right, like calls always connecting and good data reliability,” GWS said. OneScore will be rolled out over the next year, according to GWS, and the company said the ranking system will reflect “the performance of mobile networks not just by their relative speed or reliability, but also by other qualities that consumers want in their network and the behavior they exhibit using it.”
GWS has published a number of assessments of network performance for specific cities, locations and events, including Walt Disney World and the New York City subway system. RootMetrics relies on both its own professional testing as well as crowd-sourced data from users of its application.
“To truly understand how those networks are performing, it’s crucial to also have a meaningful understanding of consumer expectations and behavior when they’re using their mobile devices – that’s the gap OneScore is filling,” said Paul Carter, CEO of GWS, in a statement. “By providing mobile operators with a clear and meaningful metric that looks at the actual data from controlled testing, alongside how consumers are actually using their mobile devices, we are giving them a full picture of the true performance of their network.”
As part of the OneScore launch, GWS commissioned a survey of about 5,000 mobile device users and found 51% of them would consider switching carriers if they had a bad signal experience. Interestingly, voice calls were still at the top of respondents’ list as the most important factor in customer experience. GWS reported “almost twice as many Americans [said] they couldn’t live without making or receiving phone calls compared to text messages or data.”
GWS also asked participants in the survey to rank the importance of various types of network performance. On the voice side the most important aspects for consumers were whether calls connected when dialed; voice quality; and infrequent call drops. For data use, participants ranked reliability of text message delivery as the most important feature, followed by reliability of a data connection; high speeds for downloads and browsing came in third.
-A new test lab focused on the connected car has been launched, with Anritsu and automotive testing company CeteCom among its founding members. The Open Lab Alliance at CeteCom’s Milipitas, California, location made its debut with the aim of “accelerating the development of connected vehicle and autonomous vehicle technologies” by offering test space and capabilities ranging from telematics cybersecurity testing enabled by Spirent Communications; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technology testing supported by LitePoint; cellular module testing utilizing Anritsu equipment; and Ford‘s AppLink application testing, among others. It also features on-site dedicated short-range communications capabilities on-site, and is only 15 miles from California’s DSCR test bed in Palo Alto.
Testing companies are ramping up their announcements of technological advances ahead of Mobile World Congress, where many of them will be spotlighting cutting-edge demonstrations in advanced radio environments, virtualization and “Internet of Things” scenarios. Some of these include:
–Viavi Solutions is highlighting its support for network visibility as part of the evolution toward “5G,” with new and virtualized probe offerings for network insights. It launched a 10-gigabit Ethernet “microprobe” better suited to maintain visibility in increasingly high-speed aggregation and backbone networks. Virtualization and capacity are increasing at all network layers, Viavi said, with 100G backbones and aggregation layers at 10G now emerging – while SFP+ Ethernet probes have been stuck at around 1 gigabit per second, meaning operators deal with either visibility issues or complex workarounds to get insight into traffic behavior.
Viavi also introduced a virtualized probe as part of its EtherAssure product line, meant to be deployed on a standard server platform to allow network testing and performance monitoring as part of operators’ evolution toward network function virtualization. The company said national carriers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia are either already testing or plan to test its virtualized probe.
Combining solutions from its Reverb Networks and Arieso acquisitions, Viavi launched a new offering called Geoson which combines machine learning and geolocation data for more automated network optimization, with the goal of “achieving complete network autonomy, to run the network without human intervention,” according to Zoran Kehler, former CEO of Reverb Networks and VP of business development for Viavi. Kehler said in a statement the level of network automation “will be critical to manage the network complexity and traffic expected in 4G and 5G networks.”
–Rohde & Schwarz is focusing on IoT and next-generation network-related testing at MWC. Working with Prisma Telecom Testing, R&S said the two companies have successfully achieved a testing set up to verify three-component-carrier carrier aggregation in the downlink, with 4×4 multiple-input/multiple-output on each carrier – the test scenario is set to be demonstrated next week, along with several of R&S’s 5G testing solutions and its CMW500 Radio Communications Tester’s support for higher-modulation modes in LTE and LTE-Advanced (including, the company added, four-component CA in the downlink).
On the IoT front, Rohde said Broadcom has validated its CMW test platform for support of WLAN and Bluetooth chipset testing. The company is also working with Sequans on an IoT Cat 1 LTE testing demo at MWC, set up to simulate an LTE network and server connection for LTE IoT modules so radio frequency parameters can be verified as well as data throughput and power consumption in relation to connectivity status.
R&S also announced a new network performance test for better insight into customer experience, which will be available starting this month for its Benchmarker product and become available for other R&S products later this year. Although specific details were few, Rohde described the patent-pending solution as providing “immediate insight into the network capacity available to end users” as well as making multi-operator comparisons easier – but at the same time, minimizing the test load on live cells so that actual users won’t be disturbed. Hanspeter Bobst, VP of R&S’ mobile network testing market segment and CEO of its SwissQual unit, said in a statement that in the long term, all of the company’s mobile network testing products will support the new performance test.
–Keysight Technologies reported its first-quarter revenues were up 3% year-over-year, although profits dropped 9% from the same time last year. Its communications market revenues grew 8% year-over-year, due in part to its acquisition of Anite as well as “increased 5G sales,” according to Keysight.
Keysight is also addressing a number of industry trends ahead of MWC: a new, “cost-competitive” tester for remote radio heads; a partnership with SGS in Taiwan to work toward conformance test case certification for three-component-carrier aggregation in the downlink; and a new manufacturing solution for looking at both 802.11d and millimeter wave in design and validation.
–Cobham Wireless collaborated with Telefonica and Luxoft for a successful demonstration of set up, testing and tear down of virtualized network elements aimed at providing proof of concept for a virtualized test bed where the “device under test” could be a virtualized network function or a series of virtualized functions constituting a network service.
–Spirent Communications is also tackling a number of areas at MWC, from scalable channel emulation designed to be able to tackle 5G environments, to automated cell site pre-activation testing and a focus on use case-based battery life characterization (versus the more traditional “talk time” measure) with its Quantum Playback release.
The company also recently announced a partnership with Oasis, a universal “smart SIM” company, to speed up IoT-focused provisioning and connectivity. Spirent said the collaboration marks the first time both companies have entered the IoT space.
–EXFO added a cloud-based offering called TestFlow that focuses on streamlining processes during construction and turn up of cloud radio access network architectures, distributed antenna systems and small cell deployments. The solution can integrate data from EXFO testing solutions or third-party test solutions and supports the tracking of deployment process, real-time auditing of test results and “[analyzing] process inefficiencies to optimize fronthaul mobile network deployment and performance,” according to EXFO.
