Mobile devices and chipsets are more complex than ever. The device must now accommodate multi-antenna techniques (e.g., MIMO) while roaming between networks using multiple radio access technologies on different frequency bands. Today’s device delivers voice, navigation, data services and more, often simultaneously. The increased complexity of protocol layer interdependence means that designers can no longer catch and “patch-fix” fundamental bugs during field-testing.
What to Test
Due to the interdependencies between multiple elements at multiple protocol layers, today’s device designer must be able to quickly and completely control a simultaneous integrated emulation of multiple network and radio access elements. Cellular devices and chipsets must be evaluated for:
- Operation with the IMS subsystem (especially Voice over LTE, or VoLTE operation)
- Interaction with the complex Evolved Packet Core (EPC)
- MIMO antenna performance
- Roaming between radio access networks (using multiple radio technologies)
When issues arise, the designer must be able to quickly isolate causes, make fixes, and conduct regression tests, even if the design is nowhere near complete.
Spirent Solutions
Today, time-to-market calendars are short and design teams are lean. Spirent is committed to helping wireless engineers deliver better-quality products in less time.
- CS8 Device Tester offers a unique set of tools that help designers deliver flawless designs quickly. At the engineer’s fingertips are a real-time Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IMS subsystem and multiple cells using multiple simultaneous Radio Access technologies (RATs).
- CS8 Protocol Tester includes a suite of purpose-specific tools, allowing the engineer to quickly create any imaginable scenario for testing. CS8 protocol control is complete yet efficiently intuitive. The result is a device design that has been battle-tested before it leaves the R&D lab.
