System validates wireless-product performance across myriad protocols and applications
By Dan Strassberg -- EDN, March 3, 2005
Aeroflex’s new development- and conformance-verification system tests applications that run on all major cellular-phone types, including GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), EGPRS (Enhanced General Packet-Radio Service), and W-CDMA (wideband code-division multiple access). According to the manufacturer, the AIME/AT (Air Interface Monitor and Emulator/Applications Test) is the first tester of any kind to use a single platform for testing applications on GSM, W-CDMA, and CDMA handsets. For deterministic lab testing, the system performs live network tests alone or with any Aeroflex GSM, W-CDMA, or CDMA protocol-test system.
“Application developers can no longer think of themselves as part of either the CDMA or GSM world. Instead, they must now market their applications globally. Our new multistandard application-test platform will enable them and their customers to ensure that their products work around the world without interoperability problems,” says Peter Connell, general manager of Aeroflex’s Burnham, UK, location.
According to Aeroflex, the system’s protocol-agnostic approach to application testing is air-interface-independent and meets handset manufacturers’ current and future testing needs. Capabilities include testing applications, such as MMS (multimedia-messaging services). The GSM Certification Forum in December 2004 made it mandatory to run such test cases. In addition to measuring data performance, throughput, and application performance and ensuring that the system under test recovers from network failures, the tester also verifies that cellular handsets pass all applicable minimum and application-enabled conformance tests and operator-specific test plans.
Network operators are pressuring handset manufacturers to deliver a plethora of applications during 2005 and early 2006. Although protocol-standards bodies are still working on the exact timetables, the sheer volume of test cases to deliver and test will be challenging. After MMS, the next two applications requiring certification are video telephony, including two-way image transmission in real time, and digital-rights management to prevent data forwarding. Video streaming for downloading images, instant messaging, push-to-talk technology over cellular, and browsing will follow. As handset- and network-equipment manufacturers and network operators define test cases, they can download and run them on the AIME/AT system.
Because of the myriad applications and wireless-product configurations they can test, AIME/AT system configurations vary widely (Picture). The price for a software-only configuration begins at approximately $170,000. Test cases cost approximately $1000 each. When you add wireless-network-emulation hardware, system prices extend upward to at least $700,000.
Aeroflex Inc, 1-516-694-6700, www.aeroflex.com.
