New mobile network testing solution from Rohde & Schwarz brings innovation to network performance testing
Capacity demand and quality of experience expectations in mobile networks are increasing dramatically. Mobile network operators need to look for innovative approaches to verify current network performance and to design and roll out network expansions. The innovative and patent-pending network performance test from Rohde & Schwarz is a very compact and resource-saving implementation of a new measurement procedure for testing data transmission speed in mobile networks.
Munich, February 18, 2016 — Rohde & Schwarz announces its new network performance test for mobile network testing. The innovative and patent-pending solution enables users to simultaneously measure the maximum data capacity and minimum continuous connectivity in a mobile network. Mobile operators have immediate insight into the network capacity available to end users. It is also easier and more affordable to carry out benchmark comparisons with competitor networks. This new procedure overcomes the disadvantages of traditional capacity testing using plain file uploads and downloads.
Network and service performance are the key to delivering the required quality of experience to mobile subscribers. Mobile network operators’ main areas of interest include preparation of service launches as well as monitoring the network quality of experience to ensure service quality. Large enterprise customers are also interested in SLA assurance. And last but not least, a minimum network quality needs to be assured. Mobile network testing in general and the network performance test in particular are critical elements in meeting these requirements.
Compared to traditional long-term transmission capacity tests, the new test procedure dramatically minimizes the load in live cells during testing and therefore real subscribers in the network are not disturbed during live measurements. On the measurement end, the power and data consumption of the smartphone used for testing is significantly reduced. Consequently, costly SIM/data tariffs for benchmarking competing operators’ networks and costly efforts to keep the phone’s CPU temperature healthy and constant (required for precise measurements since increasing temperature significantly impacts the smartphone’s inherent performance) can be avoided.
Hanspeter Bobst, Vice President, Mobile Network Testing Market Segment and CEO of SwissQual, a Rohde & Schwarz company, commented: “We are delighted that our newly developed network performance test further enhances our full range of solutions for end-to-end quality of experience (QoE) benchmarking, optimization and service monitoring and for data management analysis and reporting. It covers all cellular technologies and in the long-term all our mobile network testing products will support it. A true “all for one, one for all” story.”
The test procedure focuses completely on the aspects of mobile network performance that benefit end users, including the geographical dimension (which SON algorithms cannot provide). Unlike many speed tests on the market, the network performance test is independent of any third-party service hosted on the public Internet.
Rohde & Schwarz is initially launching this new network performance test in February 2016 for its Benchmarker product line. Releases for other product lines will follow later in 2016.
To learn more about mobile network testing solutions from Rohde & Schwarz, please visit: http://www.rohde-schwarz.com/mobile-network-testing
Rohde & Schwarz
The Rohde & Schwarz electronics group offers innovative solutions in the following business fields: test and measurement, broadcast and media, cybersecurity, secure communications, radiomonitoring and radiolocation. Founded more than 80 years ago, this independent company has an extensive sales and service network and is present in more than 70 countries. The electronics group is among the world market leaders in its established business fields. On June 30, 2015, Rohde & Schwarz had approximately 9900 employees. The group achieved a net revenue of EUR 1.83 billion in the 2014/2015 fiscal year (July to June). The company is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and also has strong regional hubs in Asia and the USA.
Mobile network testing in brief
Rohde & Schwarz is a leading global supplier of mobile network testing solutions. The company’s extensive and diverse product portfolio provides sophisticated, cost-effective test solutions for mobile operators, infrastructure vendors, testing service providers, installation companies and government regulators. The products address every test scenario in the network lifecycle – from base station installation to network acceptance and network benchmarking; from optimization and troubleshooting to interference hunting and spectrum analysis; from IP application awareness to QoS and QoE of voice, data, video and app-based services.
Rohde & Schwarz mobile network testing solutions provide all the hardware, software and resources that the mobile networking industry needs to efficiently deliver better services with higher quality for customers while enabling suppliers to increase the value of their networks and products.
