Test company Anite has been increasing its focus on in-building testing and data flow across its product lines.
Alex Chua, director for product management and business development at Anite Network Testing, told RCR Wireless News that the company has been focusing of late on three areas: in-building testing; drive-testing workflow management, including real-time checks and reporting; and core functionality, with an eye toward IP Multimedia Subsystem rollouts.
The in-building testing focus has been prompted by the general trend toward most data being generated indoors, where cellular coverage can be problematic. ABI Research has predicted that between cellular and Wi-Fi, monthly in-building traffic will reach 53 exabytes per month by 2020. Ahead of CTIA’s Super Mobility 2016 show, Anite announced that its Nemo line of portable cellular test equipment for walk testing will be more tightly integrated with iBwave’s Mobile Suite, with the aim of reducing the time and effort needed for cellular site surveys while improving the data on which network planning is based. Anite’s Nemo IBC Meter, Nemo Handy and Nemo Walker Air will have more integration with iBwave’s Mobile Planner and iBwave Mobile Note.
According to Anite, the increased integration among the product lines means a more seamless exchange of information between iBwave’s tools and Anite’s. That means in-building testing and network planning is based on rapid acquisition of the best possible radio environment measurements to verify planned coverage and visualize the measured radio environment using Nemo analytics tools. Radio planning and site surveys for indoor networks can make the difference between good and bad performance and whether costly fixes are needed later, Chua noted.
In addition to in-building testing, Anite has been working on the role of reporting and data processing in drive-test workflow management, he said. The ability to report different amounts and types of information to technicians on the spot and after varying levels of processing and analysis can improve drive-test efficiency and aid network planning and optimization, he added. Chua said that Anite is also focused on core functionality of its products to support IMS implementations as that technology becomes more widely rolled out – including the IR.94 feature that supports video over LTE.
