Azimuth Targets LTE-Advanced, Smartphone Test
February 16, 2013. Azimuth Systems Inc. has announced new capabilities for the ACE channel emulation portfolio that directly address LTE-Advanced test requirements. The company also debuted its Device Automation & Control (DAC) system, enabling user experience testing on smartphones.
Azimuth’s ACE MX and MX2 channel emulators are adding new capabilities to address the industry’s evolving testing needs, with features including
- multilink channel emulator topologies designed for applications where channel and link density are critical factors, which feature support for configurations of up to 16 RF links and 64 digital fading channels;
- Reciprocal Path Loss, which provides an intelligent mapping of dynamic downlink models to the uplink channel; and
- automation for complete test-bed control including user equipment, network emulators, and diagnostic monitors, all run by a test executive on a single PC.
These capabilities are designed to support multi-RAT and carrier aggregation test beds, and availability is ideally timed to match the needs of operators, OEMs and chipset vendors for full-scale testing.
“In working with our installed base of leading operators and OEMs worldwide, we have responded to the need to begin testing the unique features of LTE-Advanced in support of wide-scale deployments starting late 2013. Our announcement today responds to that need and maintains Azimuth’s lead in real world testing,” said Erik Org, director of product management, Azimuth Systems. “Due to our seamless, organically developed architecture, our ACE channel emulators can also be integrated into our modular, fully automated, end-to-end platform for mobile performance testing.”
Device Automation & Control
The company also announced the availability of its Device Automation & Control (DAC) system, enabling unattended execution of user experience testing on smartphones and other mobile devices. DAC was developed to address the requirements of both lab- and field-based test organizations, providing a common tool set and methodology across test environments.
DAC automates the operation, results capture and reporting of the device functions which are most important to operators, OEMs, chipset manufacturers and other mobile ecosystem partners. Key features include automation of voice calls, messaging, data and video streaming, control of test-bed elements, including diagnostic monitors, network emulators, analysis, and reporting; and integration with Azimuth’s Test Builder automation suite, enabling drag-and-drop creation of test plans to fit customers’ unique requirements.
DAC seamlessly integrates with all Azimuth products, including the Director II Test Executive and Test Builder Automation Suite, the ACE MX and MX2 MIMO channel emulators, the Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution to replay real-world RF in the lab, and the Azimuth Over-the-Air (OTA) platform. DAC for Android is available now, and support for other major OS platforms will be available in the first half of 2013.
Amit Malhotra, vice president of software products at Azimuth, said, “With the proliferation of new network, service, and application technologies, the mobile industry must rapidly expand the scope of device testing while maintaining a common test plan and methodology, conserving costs, and minimizing time to market. Device Automation & Control directly addresses these requirements and provides exceptional leverage to both lab and field testing.”
Azimuth executives will be attending Mobile World Congress, February 25-28, in Barcelona.