Field Test Solutions To Locate PIM Sources And Optimize Network Performance

By Tom Bell, Anritsu Company

Operators promise that their LTE networks provide high speed and high bandwidth, a claim that field engineers and technicians work diligently to keep. Ensuring that level of performance has never been easy, and it continues to be a challenge due to passive intermodulation (PIM), a growing issue in all mobile networks. Field technicians and engineers need an efficient PIM test solution to quickly correct PIM-based problems and maintain network quality.

Simply defined, PIM is interference caused by new frequencies generated by the transmit signals at a cell site, which interact with non-linear elements in the RF path. If these new frequencies fall in the uplink band, they can raise the noise floor, causing high dropped call rates, access failures, and slower data rates.