T&M: Heading Off the Hot Spots

It's a message familiar to many RF technicians: "Hey, Charlie. We're getting lots of complaints of dropped calls over in the Oakview subdivision. Better check into it."

What Charlie does next can have significant ramifications in terms of carrier time and money spent and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. Does he:

(a) Grab a gym bag full of handsets, drive to the subdivision and start making calls to confirm the problem?

(b) Visit base stations near the neighborhood and perform the standard litany of tests?

(c) Nothing yet, as he's only been a RF technician for a few short months and isn't sure what to do.

(d) None of the above. Charlie is just dreaming. His company saw the problem coming and averted it using a more pro-active approach to network testing and measurement.

Indeed, while the number of skilled RF technicians is dwindling, network technology is growing ever more sophisticated as carriers fine-tune existing operations, add enhanced services and convert their systems to digital. Automated test equipment and a more pro-active approach to test and measurement are becoming not just luxuries, but necessities, according to industry experts.

"Gone are the days when you could afford to have a technician that knows how to operate 15 different pieces of equipment," said Kevin Keough, Inet vice president of new business development. "Carriers can't afford to have guys running around with a box to test this and a box to test that."

A GOOD TECH IS HARD TO FIND Despite the increasing complexity of wireless networks and equipment, carriers are having trouble finding highly skilled RF technicians at any price.

"Whereas you used to have a really smart, crafty guy out there fixing this stuff, now you have to assume that you have a real novice," said Bill Rau, Motorola Communications Test Equipment product manager, cellular test equipment. "But as the technician's skill level is being questioned, the measurements we're asking these guys to make are getting tougher and tougher."

That means carriers are demanding test equipment that's "smarter," more flexible and easier to use, he said. Embedded diagnostics -- test and measurement equipment built right into network components -- also are becoming more crucial, Rau said.

"The cellular guys grew up with the mentality that they needed a lot of technicians to maintain their systems," he noted. "On the cellular side, there is about one technician for every 10 cell sites. But PCS carriers are starting off with brand new equipment, and their ratio of techs is about one to 20 or 25 cell sites. That's putting a big demand on embedded diagnostics because systems now need to be more reliable than ever."

Test equipment aside, left unchecked, the acute shortage of skilled RF technicians could spell trouble for wireless carriers, according to Phil Lorch, Hewlett- Packard wireless education services program manager.

"This situation is compounded by the rapid and ongoing evolution of digital RF communications technology and the time-to-deployment pressure faced by wireless service providers," Lorch said. "Left unanswered, this shortage will threaten the growth and health of the industry."

For now, the decreased number of technicians per cell site is being offset by overall growth in wireless infrastructure. But most carriers are hoping to lower the number of techs per site with more effective test equipment, according to Rau.

"With the cost pressures on wireless carriers, especially in PCS, and with technicians being so hard to find these days that they're beginning to command premium salaries, the goal for carriers is doing anything they can to avoid having an army of these guys," Rau said.

One way to do that is with automated systems. But beyond the straightforward need for more automation is the trend among carriers to eliminate the "fire fighting" aspect of test and measurement altogether. Thus, a movement toward centralized testing and the correlation of test data across entire wireless networks has begun.

NO MORE FIRE FIGHTING Carriers are looking for test and measurement systems that will not only diagnose and test individual components of the network, but, more importantly, that can report on what is occurring in a correlated fashion across the network as a whole. That means equipment that is based on an open architecture and external interfaces that can plug into higher-level automation systems, according to Keough of Inet.

"Of course you can go in and look at each network element individually," Keough said. "But historically, it's been left to the human being to put all of the puzzle pieces together to figure out what transpired on a given call."

What carriers want now, he said, is test equipment that can do all of the correlation for them.

"Essentially, they want equipment that can make the physical diversity of the network transparent to the technician who is trying to troubleshoot it," Keough said.

Centralized testing is one way to gain a more pro-active stance on network performance, according to Don Duff, TTC vice president, wireless development.

"Carriers want to avoid just jumping when there's a problem," Duff explained. "They'd like to sit back and have a system in place that continually monitors the network."

With centralized testing, the carrier is able to detect a potential problem, stimulate the network to confirm it, isolate the problem area, then send out a trouble ticket for repair. In other words, the carrier can detect a "soft" failure and then remedy the problem before it becomes noticeable to the end user.

Centralized testing systems can be applied throughout the network, from the air interface all the way back to the switch and interconnections with other service providers, according to Duff. For example, base-station testing would be done by remote probes in the field, monitoring network performance at each cell site and eliminating the need for the "gym bag" approach.

TTC has been working with AT&T Wireless on a call-verification system that stimulates the network and then monitors feedback. This allows the provider to simulate test calls from any location within the network from a central location, according to Duff.

"The provider is looking to see that all of the services they offer to the subscriber can be delivered in that particular calling area," he said. "The centralized system is able to simulate subscriber activity, then check the records on the switch to make sure the calls were processed properly from a routing standpoint as well as checking the billing records."

It is systems such as these that may allow test data to cross over into other useful areas such as revenue assurance and monitoring usage trends.

"By collecting data from the network, carriers can not only share it with technicians, but also use it to do other things related to revenue assurance, such as billing, fraud detection and service quality enhancements," said Keough of Inet. "We're seeing carriers think along those lines more than they used to."

This is a natural evolution, he added.

"If you picture the network as the 'big cloud' that many people use when drawing diagrams -- with the cloud being a collection of hardware interfaced with cables -- carriers are now looking beyond the cloud, down to the customer-service level," he said. "They're saying not only, 'Here's how the technology within the network cloud is working,' but also, 'Here's how the technology is impacting the end customer on an individual basis.'"

Another emerging area of wireless network testing integrates prediction data and traffic analysis, according to Luke Werner, Safco Technologies marketing manager.

"Traffic analysis is currently conducted by switches dumping out traffic data," Werner said. "It's going to become imperative that predictive tools be enhanced with actual traffic analysis measured from the network to assist in better placement of new cells."

Aside from the larger movements toward centralized testing and increased automation, a number of other trends also are emerging in wireless test and measurement.

One is the increasing interest among carriers to provide in-building wireless services and the resulting need for customized in-building test equipment.

"Wireless is moving indoors, as we all know," Werner said. "Competition for wireline minutes is going to increase the amount of activity -- and therefore testing -- carriers are going to want to do in-building."

At the factory level, speed and size remain paramount as equipment vendors increase volumes to meet demand. "As volumes go up, companies don't want to build additions onto the factory," said Al Fisher, product marketing engineer, digital mobile radio products, at Anritsu. "So if you can get it in a smaller box, that's good."

AROUND THE BEND So what will wireless carriers of the future be seeking in the area of test and measurement? The answer to that question likely will mirror the evolutionary path of next-generation systems.

"There is nothing available today in test and measurement for the new wideband standards," Fisher noted. "The way I see it, we have three basic standards working in the United States now, and it's split up fairly evenly among them. They all need test equipment."

Rau said that from Motorola's perspective as a tester of base stations rather than overall network performance, the move toward video, data and Internet services simply would add another layer of test gear.

Other companies will continue to introduce products designed toward network optimization, Rau predicted.

"I can see eventually a convergence of LAN/WAN and wireless equipment all wrapped into one somehow," he said. "Some people believe that the third generation will be based on the infrastructure that's out there today, just networked differently."

Andrew Miceli, Wavetek wireless applications engineer, said the 144kb/s data rates of third-generation systems would result in "a whole new paradigm" in the way testing is conducted. "This would be a whole new product category," he said. "Whenever you have a paradigm shift in technology, you have to have a shift in test and measurement as well."

Other test and measurement product developers are not as concerned with the wireless data market.

"Obviously, with data, we'll need more sophisticated equipment to test the data throughput," said Rich Miletic, ZK Celltest president. "But voice will continue to be the primary wireless application for years to come."

Werner of Safco agreed. "The transmission of data for the mainstream carriers is still a long way from being their primary concern," he said. "Although data rates will become more of a factor, competition on voice will continue to be most important."

With the transition to digital moving full steam ahead, demand for multimode test equipment continues to grow. Although choosing a digital technology was tricky for carriers, digital options present even more of a challenge to test-equipment vendors.

"Although individual carriers are going to choose a technology and stick with it, those of us in the test equipment business can't afford to have different pieces of test equipment for every customer," explained Bill Rau, Motorola Communications Test Equipment product manager, cellular test equipment. Rau said some of the newer testers on the market consist of a chassis that contains all of the common instrumentation, which then can be adapted for specific technologies using smart modules or "personality" cards.

"Carriers are investing heavily right now in supplying their engineers with digital-capable equipment, including equipment that measures audio quality on digital channels," said Rich Miletic, ZK Celltest president. "They also are doing a lot of testing of handoffs between PCS and 800MHz cellular systems using dual-mode, dual-band equipment."

Andrew Miceli, Wavetek wireless applications engineer, said that among digital technologies, "CDMA is it right now." But an interoperable phone tester also is in high demand, according to Miceli.

"That's something somebody's going to have to do," he said.

At the factory level, Al Fisher, Anritsu product marketing engineer, digital mobile radio products, agreed that although CDMA is "very hot" this year, what's "really hot" is multiformat equipment capable of testing CDMA, TDMA and GSM all at the same time.

"Many base-station and handset manufacturers today are building to all different standards," Fisher said.

"Sometimes they build to one standard in the morning and want to switch over to another in the afternoon. They can't afford to tear down an assembly line and redo it. They want to reprogram the equipment and go with it."

Don Duff, TTC vice president, wireless development, predicted an eventual convergence into one or two wireless technologies but said that would not occur for some time.

"From a T&M standpoint, it's very important that testing companies be able to address the present interface technologies as well as these technologies as they converge," he said. "The derivative will be something that's not here today."

Portability. Flexibility. Speed. Doing more with less.

Wireless carriers' test and equipment needs are as wide-ranging as their networks. Following is a sampling of the T&M products that will be on display at Wireless '98.

*Anritsu will highlight its MT8801B multiformat tester and MS8606A CDMA transmitter tester, both designed primarily for use at the manufacturing level.

For information, visit the web site at www.anritsuwiltron.com, or call 408-776-8300.

*Berkeley Varitronics will display the Eagle CDMA pilot scanner, consisting of an IS-95 receiver and high-speed, multicorrelator system; the Gator transmitter; and the companion receiver for propagation analysis.

For information, visit the web site at www.bvsystems.com, or call 732-548-3737.

*eXpert Wireless Solutions will display its TX2000 cellular and PCS test transmitter; the RX2000 cellular and PCS receiver; and a new propagation analysis and system design tool with CDMA, GSM and TDMA modules.

For information, send e-mail to info@expertwireless.com, or call 201-944-7780.

*Hewlett-Packard will showcase the Viper phone receiver for wireless drive systems; the HP 8935 for TDMA testing; a wideband CDMA product; LMDS developments; and a new education program with Bellcore.

For information, visit the web site at www.hp.com, or call 509-921-3331.

*IFR will showcase its digital PCS test system.

For information, visit the web site at www.ifrsys.com, or call 316-522-4981.

*NetCom USA will introduce new tower emissions testing services.

For information, visit the web site at www.netcomconsultants.com, or call 703-478-2181.

*Racal will display test equipment for PCS1900/GSM systems, including data, fax and short-message service.

For information, visit the web site at www.racalinst.com, or call 714-859-8999.

*Safco will show its Walkabout PCS in-building tester for 800MHz and 1,900MHz systems as well as its TQNM VoicePrint, a voice-quality measurement system.

For information, visit the web site at www.safco.com, or call 773-631-6216.

*Tektronix will introduce enhancements to its CMD80 CDMA test set, including the ability to test handoffs between analog and CDMA and support for the Japanese CDMA standard ARIB STD-T53.

For information, visit the web site at www.tek.com/measurement, or call 800-426-2200.

*TTC will display AirAudit, a call verification system based on interactive and automated call-audit features, and NetAnalyst network- management software.

For information, visit the web site at www.ttc.com, or call 301-353-1550.

*Wavetek will announce a new CDMA phone tester.

For information, visit the web site at www.wavetek.com, or call 317-788-9351.

*ZK Celltest will introduce new dual-band CDMA and dual-band IS-136 network test equipment.

For information, e-mail to zk@zkcell.com, call 408-986-8080.