MUNICH, February 20, 2001 - Acterna, the new company formed by the May 23, 2000 merger of TTC and Wavetek Wandel Goltermann (WWG), has launched a new Dual band test transceiver for evaluating the performance of the GSM Air Interface. The solution measures the parameters of the GSM air interface between a base station and a mobile phone, simulating a dual band GSM mobile with voice, SMS, fax and data capabilities. Operated through a laptop connection, the MAM-8501 is fully remote controlled to trace GSM signalling information, implement base station Go/NoGo checks, drive test systems and optimise network systems.

The fully remote controlled functionality of the MAM-8501 obviates the need for a display and a keyboard. Simple to install into a base station, it features different settings to enable mounting in many positions, and can operate either as a stand-alone solution or a component of larger test systems. Industry standard connectors provide easy connection to the control, trace, voice and power ports, while battery problems are eliminated by the direct power supply with a wide input voltage range (5.5V DC to 16V DC ).

The air interface test module has an AT data port and additionally a trace port where full mobile test data, including layer 1 and 3, information is visible. The trace port allows the behaviour of the module to be controlled with band selection or speech codec selection (full rate or full rate/enhanced full rate). Manipulating the link-layer reports to the base station, for example, by forcing a handover can test the response of the network.

To provide a detailed view of the RF environment, measurements of neighbouring cells include the whole concurrent cell list (up to 32) rather than the usual six strongest. An advanced feature of the MAM-8501 is channel scanning that allows the whole GSM900/GSM1800 frequency spectrum or a list of user-defined channels to be effectively managed.

To reduce churn and increase capacity, network operators have to ensure that the network always works efficiently and delivers high quality of service. By testing network coverage as well as the receiving quality (RX Qual) of the base station's signal, the MAM-8501 reports the RX Qual in idle mode, therefore permitting continuous measurements without blocking a channel.

A laptop computer can be used to record the data from the MAM-8501 during test calls, including data calls and SMS transmissions. The separate data and trace ports allow data to be transmitted while the air interface is simultaneously monitored.

The hardware design and protocol stack of the MAM-8501 have been verified and tested in over 25 different commercial GSM mobile phones. Thus users can be sure that the data measured by the MAM-8501 represents true network performance, as experienced by "normal" subscribers. However, the module and special firmware are individually calibrated to provide precise measurement results.