Operator 4G LTE Cellular Device Testing – The Need For Radio Channel Emulators

By Juha Määttä, Product Manager for the EB Propsim F32

New 4G LTE technology introduces incredible data rates up to 100 Mbits for cellular devices. This performance level involves many technically challenging improvements to be deployed in mobile devices and network infrastructure. Equally important is to be able to verify that the consumer expectations toward new 4G technology can be met. Operators are often held responsible for the quality of service despite the possible underlying performance issue in the actual devices. Therefore, operators carry the risk of diminishing revenues due to customer dissatisfaction and possible increased operating and support expenditures (OPEX) caused by poor-performing devices. In order to mitigate the risk of poor performance, leading operators have defined thorough acceptance test criteria for devices used in their network. Operator acceptance of 4G LTE devices addresses both performance and conformance tests covering the RF, data, mobility, and voice performance as well as protocol and radio resource management (RRM) conformance to industry standards.