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Rohde & Schwarz sets out test product strategy for LTE, WiMax era

Single-box approach controls costs in 4G test

Rohde & Schwarz has announced a wideband radio test system, based around its 6-GHz CMW500 radio test set, that will provide a single platform for multiple environments – both development and production test – and spanning all significant cellular and non-cellular standards. The intention is to provide makers of wireless devices, and of baseband and RF chipsets, as well as network operators, with a stable test system that will operate over many years. As a wideband radio tester, the unit tests all layers from RF parametric measurements to protocols and applications, in a single chassis. The existing CMW500 is already a modular instrument, and the platform will be modular in both hardware and software, going forward; the unit combines RF generator and RF analyser functions. Standards supported at introduction comprise; GSM/(E)GPRS; WCDMA/HSPA; LTE; TD-SCDMA; CDMA2000 1xRTT; CDMA2000 1xEV-DO; Mobile WIMAX; WLAN; Bluetooth; DVB-T; and GPS. Multi-technology support handles test cases such as handover and cell-selection procedures where multiple standards are in play.

In contrast to such layered development test scenarios, in production test you can configure the same base platform to optimise it for minimum test-time and hence cost. R&S’ Smart Alignment concept cuts alignment times by as much as 90%, while the unit’s two complete channels allow parallel measurements to take place on two products – which need not employ the same standard. Using a single platform means that test scripts created in development will transfer to production with minimal effort.
Sending high data rates over non-ideal radio channels involves complex protocol-layer processes; The mobile must correct errored data packets and handle multiple data streams in parallel. These extremely fast processes such as hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) and MIMO run at layer 1 and layer 2, and require a tester that performs protocol analysis as well as hardware-oriented RF measurements simultaneously. Director of R&S’ Mobile Radio Testers subdivision, Anton Messmer, notes that previously, in the early stages of working with a standard, you would require a protocol tester, plus RF parametric measurements: now, he says, one unit provides all the data and carries out end-to-end testing of the complete communications link, in realistic signal environments. Messmer says that despite the economic downturn, there is still considerable pressure - from celular operators - on R&S’ lead customers to have LTE product ready for a 2010 rollout; he describes it as an, “R&D push on LTE and Release-7.” Increasingly, testing will encompass end-to-end systems measurements, such as real data rate, and even battery life, Messmer concludes.