Open RF Test Pack Lab Emulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current wireless device testing methods are inefficient and costly due to the complexity of field testing environments, which are not well-controlled, leading to repetitive and time-consuming troubleshooting, and the need for repeated tests for different devices responding differently to RF scenarios.
Innovation Solution
A lab-based system that uses test equipment to deliver test signals with representative or actual measured time-varying RF channel parameters, emulating network communications and allowing for synchronized playback of network events, enabling accurate and efficient performance measurement of wireless devices across a range of configurations and conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If field drive testing is used to evaluate device performance, then real-world performance data can be collected, but the testing environment becomes complex and uncontrolled, requiring extensive repetition and increasing time and cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual drive test environment that copies and reproduces real-world RF scenarios, network events, and drive test conditions in a controlled lab setting. Instead of repeatedly conducting actual field tests, the system captures real field data once and replays it virtually, maintaining measurement accuracy while eliminating the need for repeated physical field testing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary capture of RF channel parameters and network events during actual field drive tests, storing this data for later virtual replay. By pre-capturing the real-world conditions and events, the system eliminates the need to repeat field testing, as all necessary test data has already been collected and can be reused indefinitely in the virtual environment.
2Measurement precision
If field drive testing is repeated for each different wireless device, then device-specific performance can be measured, but the testing process becomes extremely time-consuming and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual drive test system creates a universal test platform that can evaluate multiple different wireless devices using the same captured RF scenarios and network events. The system is configured to test various device types, models, and configurations against identical real-world conditions, maintaining device-specific measurement precision while dramatically improving productivity by eliminating the need to recreate field test scenarios for each device.
3Reliability
If extensive repetition of field drive tests is performed for troubleshooting, then accurate problem identification can be achieved, but the process becomes prohibitively time-consuming and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual copies of the actual field test scenarios including RF channel conditions, network events, and device behavior. These virtual replicas allow troubleshooters to repeatedly analyze and debug issues without leaving the lab, maintaining the accuracy of real-world problem identification while eliminating the time and cost of repeated field deployments.
Data Source
AI summary
A channel emulator generates radio channel conditions of live cellular base station signals in a simulation of a radio environment of a fielded cellular network, based on a record of captured radio signal data of a plurality of cellular base stations in the fielded cellular network. A generates a simulation of a fielded cellular network. In one aspect, the radio channel conditions in the simulation of the radio environment are synchronized with events in the simulation of the fielded cellular network. In another aspect, an event handling state machine directs configurable events in the simulation of the fielded cellular network in response to radio channel conditions in the simulation of the radio environment.