T&M-EXCLUSIVE

DEVICE TESTING

Internet of Things (IoT) is being well accepted now and number of connected devices are increasing day by day. One report indicates that there will be 35.82 billion IoT devices installed worldwide by 2021 and 75.44 billion by 2025. Another report from Fortune Business Insights says IoT technology holds important potential in the ICT segment with the worldwide market valued at $190 b in 2018 and hitting $1.1 trillion by 2026. The report projects that the international market will grow at a surprising CAGR of 24.7% all through the estimated years.

IoT has moved from industrial- commercial applications to home appliances, personal devices and much more. Smart sensors, wearables, and connected devices will continue to alter the way healthcare is delivered, from automated homes to telemedicine help for the disabled and elderly. Besides, in situations where the risk of virus infection is strong, it will also be used to minimize unnecessary contact.

n the future, manufacturers who develop and manufacture IoT devices (products) expect more customers complaints about problems, such as difficult and dropped connections and short communications range, which will increase support costs. In order to prevent this situation, manufacturers who develop and manufacture IoT devices (products) must evaluate and test the wireless communications quality at the development and manufacturing stages.

By testing the quality of IoT devices (products) thoroughly at the development stage and guaranteeing quality, after-sales support problems can be reduced in advance.

Also, at manufacturing of IoT devices (products), defects may occur due to component or assembly failure. After-sales support problems can be reduced in advance by testing and checking the wireless communications quality of finished IoT devices (products) at the final stage. Wireless communications

Madhukar Tripathi

Associate Director – Optical Business and Marketing, Anritsu India are assumed to be the most common method used in the IoT market for connecting to the Internet. There is also news about using 5G, LTE, NB-IoT, Cat-M, wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth for these wireless communications and IoT devices (products) featuring these technologies are appearing.

Today there is increasing need to deliver better and faster services. There is a huge demand to access, create, use and share data from any device Anritsu IoT device test solutions and equipment can check and test the wireless communications quality at the above-described development and manufacturing stages of IoT devices (products). They support all wireless communications methods, including 5G, LTE, NB-IoT, Cat-M, wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth.

There will various testing levels in IoT eco system such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing or functional testing or regulatory compliance testing. ITU -T document Q Series specifies test methods SWITCHING AND SIGNALLING, AND ASSOCIATED MEASUREMENTS AND TESTS Testing specifications – Testing specifications for IMT2020 and IoT.

Key Test Solutions & key features of them are:

* Wireless Connectivity Test Set (WLAN Tester) MT8862A The Wireless Connectivity Test Set MT8862A is for measuring the RF TRx characteristics of WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands) devices. The MT8862A has standard WLAN protocol messages (WLAN Signalling) to connect with the device under test (DUT) for measuring each TRx performance item as Network Mode

* Universal Wireless Test SetMT8870A Universal Wireless Test Set MT8870A is test equipment from Anritsu that has been specifically designed for high volume manufacturing test of cellular and connectivity wireless systems supporting LTE, NB-IoT, Cat-M, V2X, WLAN and Bluetooth etc.

* Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B The Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B is the market leading RF measuring equipment for design proving and production test of a wide range of products that integrate Bluetooth technology. It supports Basic Rate (BR), Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) measurement of transmit power, frequency, modulation, and receiver sensitivity required by Bluetooth RF test specification.

* Signalling Tester MD8475A/B The Signalling Tester MD8475B is an all-in-one, high-performance base station simulator supporting various mobile communications technologies ranging from 2G to LTE-Advanced. With up to eight TX and four RX RF ports, easy operation, and a full range of versatile tests using SmartStudio (state-machine GUI) parameter settings, it is ideal for assuring the quality of mobile terminals supporting LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation technology.

* Spectrum Analyser MS2830A /Signal Analyser MS2830A The Signal Analyzer MS2830A includes a low-cost spectrum analyzer function supporting high dynamic range. With builtin vector and analog signal generator, modulation analysis function, BER measurement function, Noise Figure measurement function and audio analyzer, it supports measurement for spurious, EVM, LTE FDD, LTE TDD, Analog modulation, etc. The digitize function can capture RF input signals.

* Vector Signal Generator MG3710A The MG3710A Vector Signal Generator is a best-of-class, highfunction, signal generator with excellent RF and baseband performance. Up to two RF output connectors can be installed each with two built-in waveform memories to output two combined modulation signals from each RF connector for a maximum of four modulation signal outputs. * Radio Communication Analyzer MT8821C The Radio Communication Analyzer MT8821C is designed for R&D into mobile devices (UE: User Equipment), such as smartphones, tablets and IoT modules. It supports all technologies, ranging from LTE-U/LAA/Higer order MIMO/ LTE-Advanced to 3G/2G, with its easy-to-use measurement functions for efficient RF adjustment and testing in one unit.

Conclusion:

Various test instruments will play important role in R&D, production, integration of IoT devices in ecosystem. IoT devices acceptance and success in market will need latest test instruments. R&D instrument should be more precise in measurement while production test instrument should have faster test speed and more automated to save time and lead delivery in market.

* Simple Conformance Test System ME7800L: Simple Conformance Test System ME7800L is the ideal system for introducing RF and Protocol Conformance tests of 3GPPcompliant LTE mobile terminals. It covers all the basic LTE test items include Cat-M1/NB-IoT and also supports evolving communications standards.