European tech firm Rohde & Schwarz produced a new package of 3G test scenarios for the MLAPI C++ programming interface, with plans of providing a more flexible environment for laboratories.
The company said there responding to the needs of laboratories used to working with the TTCN programming environment. Many consider this environment overly complex and inflexible. Rohde & Schwarz sees this as an alternative.
In addition, neither end-to-end applications nor interoperability can be tested with the official TTCN test cases. For the MLAPI there are now interoperability test cases for WCDMA (release 99) as well as extensive test scenarios for HSDPA (release 5). The scenarios including source code are provided so that users can adapt the test cases to their individual needs.
The test cases specified in the TTCN description language contain a large number of different signaling scenarios. On this level all aspects that are invisible to subscribers can be tested, such as the standard-compliant setup of a voice connection. The MLAPI also provides the R&S CRTU-W with links to the user level. Tests for applications or the data throughput actually implemented at the subscriber’s end can thus be performed at high data rates.
The test case packages for UMTS in accordance with release 99 cover functionalities currently used for mobile telephony up to 384 kbit/s. The new HSDPA scenarios make it possible to test a mobile phone’s response to changes in the data rate or to multicall situations. Expanded scenarios for HSDPA tests such as mobility management and interradio access technology (RAT) scenarios are already available.
With the MLAPI, Rohde & Schwarz provides an enhancement to the R&S CRTU W that is of interest especially to development labs. The interface is able to configure the lower UMTS terrestrial radio access network (UTRAN) layers automatically. As soon as a layer 3 message from a scenario has been sent, the MLAPI independently extracts the relevant information and distributes it to layers 1 and 2. This reduces the developmental effort involved in generating scenarios, which is minimized even further by the new test case packages. At the same time, the programming interface remains flexible, since users can create their own scenarios at any time.
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John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
