New Testing Challenges Posed by Next Generation Mobile Networks

PRISMA has over two decades of experience on cellular network testing on most wired interfaces. Until a few years ago, testing of networks meant testing of a single network element at a time. In a Circuit Switched network, this approach still guaranteed acceptable test results. Along with the evolution of the broadband generation networks, the testing paradigm has also changed. Mainly because of the the all-IP flat architectures and Service Oriented Network philosophies, testing of a network must be close to user’s perspective as much as possible, i.e. it should involve the radio interface.
The Radio Access Network dedicated portfolio addresses these issues while offering – at the same time – the flexibility of a traditional test solution and benefiting by PRISMA’s worldwide experience in managing complex test beds and technologies.
PRISMA’s RAN solutions are based on a common hardware platform with a powerful Software Defined Radio architecture; all the 3GPP protocol stacks are internally developed and maintained. Both hardware and software follow the standards evolution and guarantee the maximum Return of Investment.

Please take a look at the different solutions available.

Load & Stress Testing Advantages

Prisma has long experience on load & stress testing over the wired interface. Thanks to the high-capacity Software Defined Architecture (entirely designed by PRISMA), the load & stress testing paradigm can be applied to radio interfaces from different standards. Full loading of GSM, UMTS and LTE carriers, even with multi-antenna technologies (such as 2×2/4×4 MIMO) can be easily done by means of a flexible architecture and a powerful GUI called AirMosaic. Our Customers will benefit from PRISMA’s experience on load&stress testing over different interfaces.

Based on a common hardware platform, three specific solutions have been designed to perform full-layer multi-terminal simulation:

• MsSIM is suitable for loading of TRX carriers of GSM/EDGE/Evolved-EDGE base stations
• 3GSIM is able to perform full load of UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+ carriers
• UeSIM is suitable for full load of 5/10/20 MHz carriers from LTE/LTE-Advanced eNodeBs.
  For UeSIM, an unparalleled solution to simulate real radio conditions (such as fading and mobility) is available.

Each solution has a dedicated AirMosaic Graphical User Interface where standard’s specific KPIs and test functionalities have been implemented.

Inter RAT & Handover Testing

It comes without saying that, by having the opportunity to operate on different standards, the multi-terminal simulations can also operate on all the technologies concurrently. By doing so, a revolutionary and unique multi Radio Access Technology test bed is now available to Customers.

A Single Architecture to Test Different Standards

In few words, by having the above three solutions, the Customer will be able to simulate pools of mobiles performing traffic moving under different technologies while in idle and traffic mode. Although several different Inter-RAT scenarios have been defined (Hand-Over, CS-Fallback, etc), all of them generally require complex test configurations that are now easily manageable with the integrated testing solutions by PRISMA.