Telecom Lead America: Test and measurement solutions provider Azimuth Systems announced the latest release of its Field-to-Lab (FTL) solution.
The version 2.4 offers test cases with added support for new scanners and file formats including TD-SCDMA with QXDM and JDSU, UMTS with Anite Nemo, and native support for LTE with XCAL, as well as mapping enhancements and increased built-in mapper intelligence.
The Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution enables Indian telecom service providers and network equipment manufacturers to emulate real test conditions in the lab efficiently before by taking dynamic channel conditions collected from drive testing and replaying this data in Azimuth’s ACE MX/MX2 MIMO Channel Emulators.
An ACE MX or ACE MX2 is used to replicate real-world channel conditions in a controllable and repeatable fashion. The Field-to-Lab solution improves quality, user satisfaction, and speeds vendors’ time-to-market by providing a bridge between laboratory and field-measured test results. It reduces the need for multiple rounds of drive testing.
Field-to-Lab release 2.4 supports TD-SCDMA playback with QXDM. Support for enhanced multi-frequency playback with QXDM complements existing support for FDD LTE and TD-LTE and will allow the Azimuth Field-to-Lab solution to accurately play back scenarios with inter frequency and iRAT handovers.
The new functionality included in the latest Field-to-Lab release, developed with input from a chipset and scanner vendor, solves a significant problem faced by most mobile operators as users often report problems under these conditions in the field and, with new bands being added for 4G, additional complications are arising.
Additionally, Azimuth has added support for JDSU for a Datang chipset, one of the most prevalent chipsets for TD-SCDMA in China.
“With the latest release of Field-to-Lab, version 2.4, Azimuth has made a number of enhancements to better meet the needs of the wireless test market — from GUI improvements to providing support for the latest industry standards — in order to keep up with the growing complexity of testing 4G and LTE products,” said Ajay Patel, executive director of product management for Azimuth Systems.
Field-to-Lab release 2.4 also features built-in intelligence to analyze drive logs and provide critical statistics such as the average gap size, as well as reporting on how changing a parameter impacts playback. This will make AzMapper, a key component of the Field-to-Lab solution, easier to use and enable new customers to use the tool with minimal training.