PCTEST Engineering Laboratory, Inc. (PCTEST LAB), an accredited testing laboratory for wireless testing and certification, has purchased a second R&S TS8980FTA-2 conformance test system and several additional R&S CMW500 wideband radio communication testers to cover key next generation technologies. PCTEST’s expanded test capabilities support new conformance and carrier acceptance test requirements for IMS, VoLTE, RCS, WiFi Offloading, E911 over IMS, SUPL 2.0, LTE A-GNSS, OTDOA, and eCID.
While there are many conformance and carrier acceptance tests developed for LTE and LTE-Advanced features such as carrier aggregation, much of the focus right now is turning towards IMS enabled applications such as VoLTE, RCS and E-911 over IMS. VoLTE represents a major technology shift that brings along a wave of new testing requirements for devices. Wireless carriers and device manufacturers need to ensure that these new VoLTE-enabled devices deliver a high quality of experience; as good as what customers’ have come to expect with current 3G voice/data services delivered in a circuit switched environment.
Another area of conformance and carrier acceptance testing that is quickly changing is location based services (LBS). 3GPP Release 9 has incorporated enhancements to improve indoor positioning, which is critical for many new mobile applications and services. New positioning technologies and techniques, such as observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA), LTE positioning protocol (LPP), and the ability to use additional satellite constellations (i.e. GLONASS), all bring about additional protocol and performance testing requirements.
For more information on Rohde & Schwarz products, visit www.rohde-schwarz.com and info on PCTEST Engineering Laboratory, visit www.pctestlab.com.
