Test & Measurement: Anritsu sees operator interest in LTE multicast testing

Editor’s Note: The ability to test network and device features and functions is an important piece of technology development and deployment. RCR Wireless News looks weekly at the test and measurement space to see what’s afoot.
—Anritsu submitted new LTE multicast test cases to the Global Certification Forum’s latest meeting and says that it leads the market in protocol conformance test cases for mobile devices that can receive those broadcasts, also known as Evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services.
Anritsu said that it submitted the test cases to the GCF after “an increase in network operator priority to bring this new technology to consumer markets this year.” LTE multicast has already been deployed by operators in the U.S. and Korea, and Anritsu noted that operators in Europe and Asia are beginning live trials. Anritsu supports the test cases on its ME7834L Protocol Conformance Test system (pictured at right). 
—Agilent Technologies introduced what it says are the industry’s first compliance test applications for 100G Ethernet networking systems. The new applications are aimed at speeding up turn-on and debugging of 100G by automating physical-layer tests on several of Agilent’s Infiniium oscilloscopes.
The company also has a new USB  receiver test set for chip designers, which can characterize the recently introduced USB 3.1 interface.
–The Wi-SUN Alliance designated Tokyo’s Telecom Engineering Center as an authorized test lab. TELEC will provide testing and certification cervices in Japan for Wi-SUN’s PHY and its profile for Echonet Lite standards. Wi-SUN technology is used in infrastructure for smart grids.
—Anite will have its Propsim channel emulators in a new MIMO over-the-air testing lab in Taiwan, built by testing company SGS.
MIMO OTA testing presents significant technical challenges and has several different approaches, but no technical standard as yet. Read more about it here, including a panel discussion on the topic.
—Hameg Instruments will now be marketed under the Rohde & Schwarz brand. Hameg is a Rohde & Schwarz subsidiary that focuses on general purpose, economical test instruments and was previously marketed with a dual logo that included both companies names.
R&S also has a new executive board member: Peter Riedel. Meanwhile, the company’s R&S broadcast test center instrument won an award for innovation from the French technical journal Electroniques.