Rohde & Schwarz Ready to Serve FirstNet for testing FDD14 LTE Mobile Devices

Rohde & Schwarz, a leading supplier of test & measurement equipment, has focused their offering of LTE test solutions to enable technologies important for mission critical public safety communications. Rohde & Schwarz offers test solutions span the entire public safety device and network ecosystem. This includes tools for chipset R&D, UE functional testing, UE performance, UE conformance, UE Antenna Performance (TRP/TIS), UE service & repair, UE manufacturing, network deployment and network optimization.

Rohde & Schwarz provides both the test equipment and software required for fully automated test systems that can go above and beyond conformance. At the core of this is the R&S®CMW500 network emulator that can simulate the entire FirstNet network for testing of FDD14 LTE mobile devices. Data performance, audio quality, video performance, device aggression, call reliability, mobility performance and behavior in environments with poor RF and IP traffic conditions are test areas covered by R&S test systems for proving LTE FDD14 device performance.

Another absolutely critical area covered by R&S is location determination performance. The R&S®TS-LBS is a test system for testing location determination performance of public safety devices that utilize GPS, OTDOA, eCID, WLAN, barometric pressure sensors and eventually metropolitan beacon systems. The R&S®CMW-PQA covers data performance, device aggression, call reliability, mobility performance and video performance. The R&S®TS8980 covers RF and radio resource management (RRM). The R&S®TS8991 covers antenna performance over-the-air (OTA) tests such as total radiated power (TRP), total isotropic sensitivity (TIS) and coexistence-related tests where receivers are affected by various interferers.

After a natural disaster, R&S®NESTOR Mobile Network Survey Software can be used to assess physical damage to the network infrastructure and identify active base stations that can be used for critical communications. Rohde & Schwarz also offers a portable (R&S®DDF007) and digital (R&S®DDF205) direction finder which aid in search and rescue operations that aid in locating people lost at land or sea.

Rohde & Schwarz equipment also covers event and infrastructure monitoring, where monitoring for suspicious activity at large events or critical buildings can be accomplished through network-based systems. Locating micro-transmitters and unlawful trespassers is made possible using the R&S®PR100 portable receivers and the newly introduced R&S®HE400 antennas.

"Rohde & Schwarz was the first test & measurement supplier to validate high-power user equipment RF conformance tests for LTE band 14 public safety networks. We have validated more than six RF conformance test cases for LTE-capable high-power user equipment (HPUE), allowing the certification of such devices to start. The R&S TS8980 test system is the first and so far only test system that covers these tests for LTE band 14 public safety networks. With this accomplishment, Rohde & Schwarz is paving the way for LTE's expansion into critical communication applications," said Tony Opferman, Business Development Manager at Rohde & Schwarz Americas.