Drive testing
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Drive Testing is a method of measuring and assessing the coverage, capacity and Quality of
Service (QoS) of a mobile radio network.
The technique consists of using a motor vehicle containing mobile radio network air interface
measurement equipment that can detect and record a wide variety of the physical and virtual
parameters of mobile cellular service in a given geographical area.
By measuring what a wireless network subscriber would experience in any specific area, wireless
carriers can make directed changes to their networks that provide better coverage and service to
their customers.
Drive testing requires a mobile vehicle outfitted with drive testing measurement equipment.
These equipments are usually highly specialized electronic devices that interface to OEM mobile
handsets. This ensures measurements are realistic and comparable to actual user experiences.
Contents
[hide]
1 Data Collected during Drive Testing
2 Types of Drive Testing
3 Network Benchmarking
4 Optimization & Troubleshooting
5 Service Quality Monitoring
6 References
7 External links
[edit] Data Collected during Drive Testing
Drive test equipment typically collects data relating to the network itself, services running on the
network such as voice or data services, radio frequency scanner information and GPS
information to provide location logging.
The dataset collected during drive testing field measurements can include information such as:
Signal intensity
Signal quality
Interference
Dropped calls
Blocked calls
Anomalous events
Call statistics
Service level statistics
QoS information
Handover information
Neighbouring cell information
GPS location co-ordinates
[edit] Types of Drive Testing
Drive testing can broadly be categorized into three distinct topics:
Network Benchmarking
Optimization & Troubleshooting
Service Quality Monitoring
The resulting oduced by drive testing for each of these purposes is different.
[edit] Network Benchmarking
For network benchmarking, sophisticated multi-channel tools such as Ascom's Symphony or
SwissQual's Diversity Benchmarker are used to measure several network technologies and
service types simultaneously to very high accuracy, to provide directly comparable information
regarding competitive strengths and weaknesses. Results from benchmarking activities,such a
comparative coverage analysis or comparative data network speed analysis, are frequently used
in marketing campaigns. Drive testing to gather networking benchmarking data is the only way
mobile network operators can collect accurate competitive data on the true level of their own and
their competitors technical performance and quality levels.
[edit] Optimization & Troubleshooting
Optimization and troubleshooting information is more typically used to aid in finding specific
problems during the rollout phases of new networks or to observe specific problems reported by
consumers during the operational phase of the network lifecycle. In this mode drive testing data
is used to diagnose the root cause of specific, typically localized, network issues such as dropped
calls or missing neighbour cell assignments. For this type of work, it best to integrate a Scanner
to the drivetest tools, Rohde & Schwarz's TSMW scanner is a powerful tool that can do
parallel/simultaneous measurement of all the standards like GSM, WCDMA, WIMAX,
CDMA200, Tetra, and LTE.
[edit] Service Quality Monitoring
Service quality monitoring typically involves making test calls across the network to a fixed test
unit to assess the relative quality of various services using Mean opinion score (MOS). Quality
monitoring focuses on the end user experience of the service, and allows mobile network
operators to react to what effectively subjective quality degradations by investigating the
technical cause of the problem in time-correlated data collected during the drive test. Service
quality monitoring is typically carried out in an automated fashion, using devices that run largely
without human intervention carried in vehicles that regularly ply typical drive testing routes such
as garbage collection vehicles, taxis or buses.
Drive Testing can be conducted at any time on a live network and very rarely will there be any
network intrusion.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
DingLi Communications, a solution provider in drive testing equipment
Keynote SIGOS, a supplier of drive testing equipment
Ascom, a supplier of drive testing equipment
SwissQual, a supplier of drive testing equipment
JDSU, a supplier of drive testing equipment
1. a supplier of drive testing equipment
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This page was last modified on 1 March 2012 at 02:11.
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