Achievements
Anticipated marginal growth may have forced several players to take a relook at their business model. For instance, National Instrument’s continued investment in R&D fueled growth across many products, including record quarterly revenue for data acquisition, distributed I/O, modular instruments, PXI, software, signal conditioning, and machine vision. Their margins have allowed them to create a differentiated business model. They are able to make products that deliver both high performance, and easier integration. This means that its customers are able to focus on their applications, and rapidly tailor solutions that would otherwise require much higher integration costs. The alternative to their business model would be high-cost products that require high integration costs without the same degree of individualization for its customer’s unique and complex products, and systems.

Technology Adoptions
In India, leading service providers are getting ready to deploy IPTV technology as part of triple play rollout. On the IP network technology front Agilent is the undisputed leader, whether the service provider wants to monitor the voice quality of his IP network through MOS score or needs to validate the network performance for a demanding new service such as IPTV, Agilent has solutions for each and every phase.

JDSU recently introduced an innovative set of new features for its T-BERD/MTS-8000 fiber optic test instrument. The additions include an in-band optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) that tests Agile Optical Network (AON) performance with a high degree of accuracy; an enhancement for testing Optical Transport Network (OTN) interfaces, enabling users to turn-up and troubleshoot OTN circuits in the field; and a module for testing Ethernet transported over SONET or SDH (EoS), also known as new or next-generation SONET/SDH.

In the last two years, National Instruments India has introduced technologies such as USB data acquisition that makes it easy for people to use virtual instrumentation, the approach pioneered by National Instruments. This approach combines mainstream commercial technologies, such as PCs with flexible software and a wide variety of measurement and control hardware, so that engineers and scientists can create user-defined systems that meet their exact application needs.

Engineers and scientists who are increasing demands for virtual instrumentation in hopes of efficiently addressing worldwide demand are the driving force behind this acceleration. Engineers and scientists in India involved in product design and validation as a result of India’s emergence as a global R&D hub are one example of this driving force. Alongside a continued investment in new product R&D to meet these needs, National Instruments believes that aggressive investment in its branch offices in India and other emerging economies will be a key growth driver for the company in the next few years.

In September last year, Agilent introduced a series of measurement products aimed at driving down test cost associated with manufacturing feature-rich mobile handset. The Agilent MXA signal analysis platform is said to be the industry's fastest signal analyzer (from 30% to 300% faster than other analyzers), with the highest accuracy of any mid-range analyzer. Agilent MXG analog and vector signal generators enable dramatic increases in manufacturing yield and throughput. Simplified self-maintenance maximizes uptime, with typical onsite calibration able to be performed in less than one hour. The new Agilent E6651A Mobile WiMAX test set allows WiMax subscriber station designers and manufacturers to rapidly move from development to volume production, and to improve integrity and quality of their products while reducing cost.

Tektronix has made breakthrough in industry-leading test and measurement products, and solutions for high-speed serial data, digtal RF, digital video, IMS network and WiMax. For example, RSA6100A Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer is the only product able to show a live representation of the RF spectrum, revealing signal anomolies seen never before. Additionally, the DSA72004 is the fastest real-time oscilloscope in the world at 20 GHz bandwidth and ideal for testing the latest high-speed technologies.

The two large impact product releases NI in FY ’06-07 included NI CompactDAQ—the data acquisition hardware that provides the plug-and-play simplicity of USB to sensor and electrical measurements on the bench-top, in the field, and on the production line; and LabVIEW 8.20—the 20th anniversary edition of its flagship software LabVIEW. NI CompactDAQ, by combining the ease of use, and low cost of a data logger with the performance and flexibility of modular instrumentation, delivers fast and accurate measurements in a small, simple, and affordable system.

Anritsu announced completion of the first 3GPP HSUPA protocol conformance test case. A key milestone for 3G, this represents a huge step forward, enabling the mobile industry to deliver commercially available HSUPA terminals.

Rohde&Schwarz has expanded its R&S M3TR family of tactical radios by adding a small and light handheld radio. Despite its compact size, the R&S MR3000P has all the features required of a tactical radio by offering reliable connections, even in topographically difficult terrain, and by allowing flexible integration into tactical networks.

FORECAST
The wireless industry is growing in leaps and bounds. From R&D to manufacturing and deployment, investment is growing across these segments. The future of wireless will be riding on 3G deployment, and value added services. On the other hand, wireline broadband is another key segment, which is helping the T&M business grow. The explosive growth of the infotainment industry is another area that will influence growth in T&M business. 2006 was a good year for the T&M industry and continued growth is expected in 2007. The T&M market is also benefiting on account of the growing focus on mobile telephony, broadcasting, and chipset design and manufacturing.

The world is witnessing the dawn of a new digital world where computers, consumer electronics, and mobile devices merge into one always-connected, robust technological domain with infinite possibilities.

The industry is already seeing the emergence of very high performance and cost effective solutions. If you envision consumer level technology developments that will be leveraged by virtual instrumentation, power of design, prototype, and deployment tools an exciting future is there for all.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in

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