Test cases approved for UMTS 1900 MHz US frequency band

August 13, 2004

Racal Instruments Wireless Solutions (RIWS) has become the first test equipment manufacturer to have approved test cases for use in the UMTS 1900 MHz 'FDD Band II'. At last week's PTCRB meeting, the US Standards Body approved 55 test cases for the 6401 AIME/CT Protocol Conformance test platform making RIWS the only supplier to offer handset manufacturers the capability to test the compliance of 3G handsets in this frequency band.

The approval coincides with the announcement made by AT&T Wireless Services and Nortel Networks launching North America's first commercial UMTS wireless networks, the first to operate in the 1900 MHz radio frequency band. This announcement is expected to accelerate the demand for thorough and rigorous testing of mobile handsets in this frequency band.

The test cases have been validated by the Validation Competence Center of CETECOM, in Essen and include Inter-System Handover between 1900 MHz UMTS and 1900 MHz GSM. The 6401 AIME/CT system provides the capability to run the standard UMTS protocol conformance tests, as defined in 3GPP TS 34.123 and implemented in TTCN. The system features direct RF connection to the mobile and is controlled from a standard Windows 2000 PC, connected to the system via Ethernet. Easy test selection and automated test execution facilities are provided, as are comprehensive logging facilities. Captured logs can be exported to HTML format, retaining message decode capability. The system can incorporate a comprehensive range of 3GPP-compliant, GCF-approved test cases.