Madhukar Tripathi ,Associate Director – Optical Business & Marketing ,Anritsu India Pvt Ltd

5G (Fifth Generation) services has been rolled out by many Mobile operators worldwide and many countries are planning 5G service rollout soon.

The spread of 5G is not limited only to smartphones and will impact different world markets and industries as well as both wireless and wired network infrastructure. Moreover, world operators with 5G frequency-band licenses are running 5G-related proof-of-concept tests in many different business fields, including automotive, medical/healthcare, security, insurance, construction, distribution, industry, farming/forestry/fisheries, tourism, retail/services, entertainment (virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality(MR)), public transport (rail and bus), public infrastructure (road and bridge monitoring), etc. This fusion of 5G with the Cloud, Fog, data centers, AI, and edge computing, as well as with communications, is expected to generate new and unforeseen services and applications.

According to recent report by IoT Analytics, Number of connected IoT devices growing 16% to 16.7 billion globally. Internet of Things (IoT) is important use case of 5G and getting popular for many uses cases mentioned above. 5G network needs a properly tested IoT device to ensure success of use cases targeted.

IoT devices connect to the network by communicating via other devices (node, access points such as routers, and then to base stations). Various factors in the field can make wireless communications unstable, which causes IoT devices to retransmit data frequently to try to maintain connection. If re-transmission frequency exceeds a certain level, the connection may be difficult to establish or maintain, and the expected communication speed may not be achieved. Consequently, the IoT device power consumption may increase and reduce battery life. In other words, even when a wireless connection is confirmed at the access point (AP), there is still a real possibility of hidden communications problems following product design and manufacture. If these hidden problems are allowed to continue, communications issues may continue to occur more frequently, depending on how the product is used by the end user under the actual environment. Three key technologies: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular IoT are dominating IoT devices connectivity worldwide. Each technology have own pro & cons. Here cellular IoT means connectivity using 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE-M, and NB-IoT technologies. This count to approximately 20% of total global IoT connections.

It is important to select the appropriate telecommunication standards that are suitable for actual usage,

This figure shows a clear value proposition of each wireless connectivity technologies used in IoT devices. There are 3 key parameters to select any connectivity technologies- Data transfer speed/ communication speed, power consumption and coverage range. Some application required contact data collection and transfer of these data to server or analysis area. Some IoT devices need very low power consumption due to application or use case or installed in some areas where replacing IoT devices is not easy task.

Anritsu provides test & measuring instruments (for IoT Device Testing) supporting the various standards for LTE, NB-IoT and Cat-M wireless communications technologies used by cellular communications systems such as smartphones, and for wireless LAN (Wi-Fi, WLAN), Bluetooth, etc., wireless communications technologies used by connectivity systems.

In this article we will cover Bluetooth Test Set only. Bluetooth 5 is the latest standard under Bluetooth technology. Big changes in Bluetooth 5 are 2 Mbps and Long Range (LE Coded) are added to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Bluetooth 5 is expected to make major future contributions in various fields, including automobiles, smart cities, smart industry, and smart agriculture.

Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B

Anritsu Bluetooth Test Set MT8852B is a dedicated measuring instrument for performing Bluetooth RF tests in accordance with the Bluetooth SIG test standards. It supports the latest Bluetooth 5 version as well as all the earlier Bluetooth Core 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, 3.0+HS, 4.0, 4.1, and 4.2. versions. With a large range of test items, including RF and connectivity tests for Bluetooth modules and devices, it has wide versatility for every measurement application, from R&D to product inspection and manufacturing.

A variable-length field called Constant Tone Extension was added to the Bluetooth Low Energy packet structure to implement this Angle of Arrival (AoA)/Angle of Departure (AoD) function.

Angle of Arrival (AoA) and Angle of Departure (AoD) packet generation with slot duration and variable CTE lengths is important function supported by Anritsu Bluetooth Tester MT8852B.

Advantages of using MT8852B

• Improvement of Test Reliability
  • Qualified by Bluetooth SIG for measurements.
  • Compliant with Bluetooth RF Test Specification
• Easy Operation
  • Control test devices by RS232, 2-Wire, USB, USB to RS232 or USB to 2-Wire adapters via the MT8852B’s HCI port
  • Built-in scripts let you run a complete set of tests with a single keypress.
• Smooth Technical Support from SoC Vendors
  • Easy test data correlation with SoC vendors
  • Adopted major SoC vendors as their reference test set.

MT8852B Supported Test cases:

• Output Power
• Carrier frequency offset and drift
• Tx Power Stability, AoD Transmitter

“Wireless communications quality” of IoT devices means the quality in the actual usage environment and Anritsu contributes a successful IoT Device validation or testing. Proper tested device ensures a satisfied customer ;resulting business success in longer term.