Test & Measurement

Field tests of 5G NR networks have been performed by Rohde & Schwarz, using commercially available 5G NR devices.

The field tests of network performance and quality from the end-user perspective on a live 5G NR network are an important step to verify that the 5G network performance supports the demanding technical requirements, says Rohde & Schwarz, and ensuring it delivers the required quality of experience (QoE) to the end user. The company’s mobile network testing solutions for engineering, site acceptance, optimization, benchmarking and monitoring offer the ability to conduct such measurements using commercially available smartphones.

The ultimate test is to verify that the required quality of experience (QoE) is delivered to subscribers by using real 5G devices in live networks. A complete 5G NR network’s operation can be tested using commercially available 5G devices such as the Samsung S10 5G, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, Oppo Reno 5G and the LG V50 ThinQ 5G phones. Rohde & Schwarz engineers have conducted first field tests in live 5G networks and measured key quality of service (QoS) and QoE parameters.

The quality and performance of 5G NR mobile networks can be tested by operators using commercially available user equipment and Rohde & Schwarz mobile network testing solutions such as the R&S QualiPoc smartphone-based optimiser, R&S ROMES4 universal network measurement software or R&S SmartBenchmarker network benchmarking software. These cover video streaming quality and app testing, providing detailed IP and RF trace data using a rooted phone, RF and voice and data testing with a standard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) device with open diagnostic ports.

At 5G World 2019 in London (12 to 13 June, booth 5G401) Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its test solutions that accelerate the adoption of 5G, including device testing in FR1 and FR2, 5G NR network coverage and operation testing and intelligent QoE analytics.

Rohde & Schwarz supplies mobile network testing, with a diverse product portfolio for mobile operators, infrastructure vendors, testing service providers, installation companies and government regulators. Products address every test scenario in the network lifecycle – from basestation installation to network acceptance and network benchmarking, from optimisation and troubleshooting to interference hunting and spectrum analysis and from IP application awareness to QoS and QoE of voice, data, video and app-based services.

Rohde & Schwarz’s mobile network testing solutions provide hardware, software and resources for the mobile networking industry to efficiently deliver better services, while enabling suppliers to increase the value of their networks and products.

http://www.rohde-schwarz.com

The latest version of Yokogawa Electric’s real-time operations management and visualisation software, Fast/Tools R10.04 is available from today.

Part of Yokogawa’s OpreX Control and Safety System family, the flexible and scalable supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) software is suitable for use in smart IoT-enabled applications through to enterprise-wide integrated operations spanning multiple sites and subsystems. Yokogawa adds that Fast/Tools R10.04 will help customers derive maximum value from their investments over the entire system lifecycle.

The IoT, big data analytics and the cloud are driving the convergence of information, operational, and engineering technologies (IT, OT, and ET) in unmanned, remote-controlled, and enterprise-wide operations.

Sharing data on operational capacity/conditions and its use in production/maintenance planning and forecasting can shorten production and delivery cycles as well as help with production/maintenance planning and forecasting.

Fast/Tools R10.04 supports third digital industrial ecosystems and has information models that simplify and enhance sub-system integration with the Centum VP integrated production control system.    

To integrate with Centum VP, Yokogawa provides an enhanced graphics integration tool, together with support for industry standard interfaces and protocols which has additional support for Mitsubishi MELSEC iQ-R series controllers and the FINS protocol used by Omron programmable controllers.

To make it easier to incorporate Fast/Tools into an existing IT infrastructure, authentication and authorisation services are handled as one centralised process for all system users. This means that logged-on/off activities will be visible in one window, to improve the audit trail. The Fast/Tools encryption process has been improved to provide more secure communication between server and clients.

The Fast/Tools graphics editor is able to generate native displays to the HTML5 standard for PC-based and tablet or smartphone applications. An enhanced graphics editor simplifies the task of creating screens that deliver the data operators require, says Yokogawa.

The IIoT-enabled SCADA software improves visualisation, collaboration, decision support, configuration, communication, security, deployment, connectivity, operational alarm management/analysis, and history data storage/management. It can be set up to run on systems that employ Yokogawa’s advanced dual-redundant technology, enabling automatic switch-over to a back-up system in the event of a hardware failure.

https://www.yokogawa.com.eu

Approval for Rohde & Schwarz’s cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) protocol conformance testing package, reassures customers that it fulfils the specification defined by the Global Certification Forum (GCF). The approval is based on tests executed using the CMW500 wideband radio communication tester and SMBV100A vector signal generator.

The GCF certifies the conformance of cellular handsets to ensure that handsets operate as specified with the wide range of base station hardware installed by network operators.

The organisation announced the inclusion of cellular (LTE) based vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication technologies within its certification program. This certification focuses specifically on LTE sidelink, an adaptation of core LTE standards (as defined in 3GPP Release 14) that allows communication between two or more nearby devices. It can be provided on any LTE band with the 5.9 GHz band allocated for intelligent transport system (ITS) services.

Rohde & Schwarz believes it is the first test and measurement equipment manufacturer to meet the GCF test platform approval criteria (TPAC) for C-V2V protocol conformance testing.

On the wireless communication side, the CMW500 wideband radio communication tester supports both LTE-A and WCDMA/HSPA+ technologies as well as performing LTE sidelink functionality testing on the communication link to the C-V2X module. It can be used in conjunction with the SMBV100A vector signal generator, which simulates the GNSS signals of global positioning services such as GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. Implementation of the GCF-approved protocol tests are provided through the CMW-KK550 software package.

Rohde & Schwarz supports developers and engineers that are new to automotive C-V2X module testing and enables existing customers and test houses to leverage existing hardware to support C-V2X compliance testing through a simple software upgrade.

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http://www.rohde-schwarz.com