Anritsu Co. is giving the first ever single-instrument radio frequency testing of carrier aggregation at CTIA 2013, the company said. Carrier aggregation is one of the most highly anticipated features of LTE-Advanced, and allows wireless operators to make more efficient use of their spectrum.
The physical layer testing relies on Anritsu’s MT8820C One-Box Tester and commercial LTE-carrier aggregation user equipment. The MT8820C simulates inter-band and intra-band downlink FDD carrier aggregation with call processing. The demo is the latest in a series from Anritsu leading up to commercial availability of CA, with a Qualcomm reference design being used in similar tests at Mobile World Congress, and now a commercial device, according to Mike Barrick, business development manager for wireless at Anritsu. The device is Netgear’s AirCard 780S mobile hotspot.
Barrick said that he expects to see increasing Voice over LTE deployments before the end of the year, with tests of the technology well underway.
Anritsu made several show announcements, including the introduction of battery life testing on its MD8475A wireless network simulator. The testing includes various battery-saving features of 3G and LTE networks, including radio resources control states, state transitions, and discontinuous transmission and reception. Pre-existing capabilities included testing video streaming, SMS, and VoLTE, so that devices’ battery life can be accurately estimated during a variety of activities.
“We understand that making a wireless device’s battery last for 24 hours is very challenging with the large, bright screens and high data rates in today’s smartphones,” said Wade Hulon, Anritsu’s general manager and vice president, adding that the company wants to help device OEMs ensure increased battery life with accurate measurement of battery life during a variety of activities on a device.
Tektronix Communications launched a range of solutions to help operators with software-based Radio Access Network monitoring. The new GeoSoft RAN virtual probe is designed to handle RAN monitoring at a fraction of traditional costs, the company said. Tektronix reported that among its customers, as much as 70% of subscriber reported problems originate in the RAN.
According to Robert Froehlich, TekComms’ director of radio access solutions, “radio access network operations and engineering teams spend numerous hours manually troubleshooting with tools like drive testing and toggling among as many as 15 tools used that could be consolidated into just one or two. The cost savings from our RAN software solutions and the GeoSoft RAN virtual probe gives these teams an opportunity for phenomenal productivity improvements with quick payback. This is an extreme improvement, especially as operators look to build out from 2G and 3G to LTE networks.”
Tektronix also launched new products in customer experience management, corporate account management, LTE roaming, media assurance, policy services and diameter monitoring, and IMS/EPC testing for LTE. Many of those solutions integrate various types of analytics and provide high-value data, Tektronix said.
“Having evolved from an assurance and monitoring busienss, into a full service intelligence provider, we’ve come to understand that our big data and analytics solutions are actually at the core of many of the most critical workflows within a service provider’s business, from network operations to the RAN to care to marketing,” said Lyn Cantor, president of Tektronix Communications.
