In 2009, the large-scale network building of 3G brought amount of order for the network equipment manufacturer, while stimulated the development of the network optimization and test industry. Meanwhile, since the first TD-LTE trial network should be completed before the Shanghai World Expo in 2010, TD-LTE has finished the proof-of-concept stage and launched the outfield test work to promote the optimization and test industry.
From the research and the pre-authentication to the formal authentication, from the production and the modification to the maintenance, from the network deployment and the operation to the optimization, all the parts in the communications industry chain need the support of the test machine and the test system. Along with the large-scale network building and investment of 3G, the requirement of test machine in the 3G market increases more and more. Since the three operators in China are operating different 3G standard networks, they require the different test and optimization machines and approaches respectively. For the WCDMA and CDMA EV-DO networks, the previous rich international experience is relatively mature and useful. However, as a new 3G commercial standard, TD-SCDMA has to wait the market to proof the corresponding optimization and test productions, as well as the technological maturity.
Compared with the 3G test approaches, LTE has the more complicated test implementations. Along with the TD-LTE development in China, the value degree of the largest operator China Mobile increases day after day, so that amount of manufacturers is competing in the LTE test market. Currently, LTE is still in the early stage of development in China and the test and optimization production in the market are very limited. The companies including Tektronix, Agilent and Rohde-Schwarz are actively introducing counterpart solutions. Since the infrastructure of LTE has changed a lot compared with the conventional cellular networks, the flat organization ignores the Radio Network Controller. The base station coordinates the assignment and control of network resources directly and the core networks can not obtain the valued radio data to analyze, which increases the complexity of network management and optimization. The traditional protocol analysis machines are difficult to satisfy these new challenges and it requires the particular solutions to monitor and optimize the network performance, which is the problem that should be overcome by the test companies. The LTE in China has been in the outfield test stage, when the market size is not as large as 3G test industry, however, the current technology accumulation should be the solid foundation for the large-scale application in the future.
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