Technology Options
Telecom operators across the world have a common problem—how do they take care of quality of service (QoS) and network performance issues even as the amount of traffic, especially data grows rapidly. On the other hand, the emergence of 2.5G and 3G wireless networks meant to support high-speed data traffic offers new challenges. It is in this backdrop that test and measurement (T&M) equipment manufacturers are delivering a new generation of solutions.

l Software-based Solutions Gain Prominence: T&M equipment manufacturers are placing greater emphasis on software to make measurements easier to use, faster, and more accurate. Since these software-based testing equipment use PC-based platforms, the same hardware can be used to test any of the standards like GSM, GPRS or CDMA by simply changing the software. In other words, PC is most likely to become the standard T&M instrument hardware in the near future with the integration of software testing tools into it. These solutions are easy to configure (according to user requirements), use and also come at a lower cost. More than that, for example, National Instruments promoted the concept of ‘virtual instrumentation’ allows users to design and configure their own instruments according to their requirements using software tools. On the other hand solutions like Agilent Technologies’ new wireless application measurement software (WAMS), the central component of its data service assurance program, enables RF engineering teams to automate data traffic, quantify wireless data user experience and find the cause of problems through leading visualization and analysis tools, thereby reducing the cost of wireless data rollout. WAMS enables RF engineers to build complex serial and parallel test sequences via an easy-to-use and customizable interface. Tests are independent of wireless technology and include multimedia message service (MMS), short message service (SMS), HTTP, FTP, e-mail, wireless-application protocol (WAP), and PING.

l Portable T&M Instruments: T&M companies are making handheld T&M devices with more functions and power. For examples, service providers can expect a growing number of portable analyzers that can meet the needs of burgeoning field applications. What is good about these instruments is that even though they are portable they are powerful and feature-packed. Also, many T&M equipment manufacturers are trying to harness the power and portability of handheld computers. For example, Noah Industries (Melbourne, FL) offers a fiber-optic power meter that ties into PDAs and provides graphs of the fiber’s performance.

l Realtime RF Analyzers: Tektronix has come up with a new series of real-time spectrum analyzers that provides the ability to trigger, capture and analyze time-varying RF signals. RF signal characteristics are becoming more complex as RF communications increasingly replace wired technologies in applications ranging from inventory identification to video games. Today’s RF signals carry complex modulation and change from one instant to the next, hopping frequencies, spiking briefly, and then disappearing. As a result, these RF signals are difficult to measure and present unpredictable behavior, making engineers’ ability to observe RF devices with existing spectrum analyzers extremely challenging. This evolution in RF technology has spawned an unprecedented demand for a new approach to spectrum analysis. Realtime spectrum analysis has emerged as the vehicle to address this RF technology evolution.