Wi-Fi Alliance this week held the latest of its workshops on LTE-Unlicensed and Wi-Fi coexistence, and said in a statement it has “made significant progress toward the development of a test regimen that will address fair coexistence between Wi-Fi and LTE-U devices.”
Wi-Fi Alliance earlier this month released an initial version of its draft test plan, then moved into a validation phase to determine which tests provide repeatable and reliable insight into ensuring fair play between LTE-U and Wi-Fi. “Firm conclusions about device coexistence cannot be drawn until this validation phase is complete and the test plan is finalized,” Wi-Fi Alliance noted. The group said this week’s workshop included primary data about real-world Wi-Fi deployments and discussion on how to complete the test plan validation in a timely fashion – WFA expects to deliver a coexistence test plan by the end of this summer.
One particular topic that came up was the need for LTE-U equipment for test validation, and WFA did get an LTE-U vendor to provide it. Attendees at the workshop agreed validation for the first phase could be completed with equipment from a single vendor, according to WFA, but LTE-U equipment from multiple vendors will be needed to finalize the test plan and WFA is looking for similar commitments of equipment.
“Moving forward, continued industry involvement and contribution in Wi-Fi Alliance is critical to finalizing the test plan, and to the commencement of testing of LTE-U devices,” WFA said.
In other test news this week:
-In-flight Wi-Fi provider Gogo has completed testing on its new air-to-ground network-based offering for the business aviation market, which it said will allow users to connect via 802.11ac on the front end and is expected to start shipping in the spring of 2017. Gogo used a recent four-hour in-flight test on the company’s Challenger 600 testing aircraft to run multiple streams of audio and video on laptops, tablets and smartphones in a live flight environment at cruising altitudes and over both rural and urban areas, including the flight arrival and departure corridors at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
–P3 Group launched a new, free application for Android called Get U that collects user experience data and presents it to the user as well as reporting it anonymously to P3 for large-scale customer experience data analysis. The app collects data 24/7 and shows users their data speeds and signal strength, how many dropped calls they experience and how much time they spend on 2G, 3G, LTE and Wi-Fi networks.
P3 has had an on-device analytics framework since 2014, and said its existing panel of smartphone users generated more than 23.5 million mobile connection tests, 6 million speed tests and 8.2 million voice calls in the past three months that P3 has collected and analyzed.
RCR Wireless News recently spoke with P3 CEO Dirk Bernhardt on the new product and the growing importance of network performance testing.
–Teradyne reported strong growth in its first fiscal quarter of 2016, with revenues up 26% year-over-year to $431 million. Of that, $340 million in revenues came from semiconductor testing, which CEO and President Mark Jaiela said was the strongest yearly start in more than five years and driven in part by Teradyne’s offerings in mobile device chip testing. Teradyne earned $54 million in system testing, $20 million in wireless testing and another $17 million was generated by industrial automation. Net income for the quarter was $50 million.
-United Emirates telecom provider Du expanded its relationship with Polystar to include Du’s IP multimedia subsystem and Voice over LTE service elements.
–Keysight Technologies has agreed to a strategic collaboration with Xiamen San’an Integrated Circuit, a semiconductor manufacturer and research and development company, for process design kits for RF and microwave engineers. The partnership calls for San’an-IC to use Keysight’s solutions to develop the PDKs. Keysight also put out a new method of implementation document on USB Type-C cable assembly compliance testing.
–Bittium’s sales through Q1 were down 2.6% year-over-year to 15.1 million euros, according to the company’s interim report. Overall, Bittium saw a decrease in its product-based sales accompanied by an increase in revenues from services. Bittium has been particularly focused on its secure and tactical communications and its Tough Mobile ruggedized LTE device for the public safety market.
–Teledyne LeCroy made another protocol testing acquisition, this time expanding its video protocol solutions. The company agreed to buy Quantum Data, which focuses on HDMI and SDI signal generators and protocol analyzers along with other digital video testing technologies.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Teledyne LeCroy CEO Tom Reslewic said in a statement the acquisition will bolster Teledyne LeCroy’s position in HDMI and SDI to address emerging capabilities in consumer electronics and professional video and broadcast.
This is Teledyne LeCroy’s second acquisition this month, following closely on its purchase of Frontline Test Equipment. Teledyne LeCroy said the new acquisition will build on that of Frontline, which focused on wireless protocol testing, to improve its overall position in the protocol test market.
–Anritsu added some new options to its vector network analyzer product lines designed to improve signal integrity capabilities in terms of processing and visualizing data from signal channel characterization.
–CommScope approved EXFO’s MaxTester 940, also known as the Blue Certifier, for fiber compliance testing in data centers and enterprise structured cabling. The Max-940 can now be used for some warranty test requirements in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
