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Solutions for
Femtocell Manufacturing
Accelerating delivery of quality,
low-cost femtocells to market
Application Note
Overview Problem
Femtocells (3GPP Home Node B for W-CDMA/ As service providers stand ready for mass
HSPA and enhanced Home Node B for LTE) are deployment of femtocells, manufacturers now
low-power wireless access points that connect face unprecedented challenges to quickly deliver
standard mobile devices to a mobile operator's quality, low-cost devices to market. Limiting test
network via residential DSL or cable broadband. is one way to improve production throughput.
While a compelling entrant into the broadband Since femtocells are subject to stringent
CPE (Consumer Premises Equipment) market requirements on interference, compatibility
dominated by Wireless LANs, femtocells are tests between the device and the network
forcing manufacturers to confront a number of (e.g., self-organizing network, handovers), and
test considerations; namely cost, quality and adherence to the 3GPP's rigorous verification
volume. Early femtocells are costly (roughly and conformance document, limited testing is not
$100-$300), multiformat (e.g., may require GPS, an option--at least not during early production.
support for W-CDMA, LTE or WiMAXTM, etc...), As femtocell volumes rise, manufacturers may
operate in the licensed spectrum, and face strin- continue to run a large number of tests to get the
gent conformance requirements. Achieving high quality they need, with long test times, opposing
volumes and driving down cost requires every the manufacturers desire to streamline produc-
aspect of the manufacturer's design through tion and drive down cost. Manufacturers may
production to be streamlined. The ultimate also want to produce multiple femtocell products
goal is to reduce test times while maintaining (e.g., a WiMAX and a W-CDMA femtocell),
quality, a difficult task since some designs will demanding separate test equipment and further
be unstable at first launch and require rigorous driving up cost.
conformance testing and verification of complex
functionality (e.g., network sniffer mode, Rx
sensitivity) and new formats. Addressing these
constraints demands fast test equipment with
just enough performance to enable rigorous
verification early in production and less testing
as volumes increase.
Solution
Achieving comparable test times with Wireless
LANs under these conditions will be challenging,
especially given their 1 to 2 minute test time
bench marks. Femtocell test times may be 5 to
10 times greater. Manufacturers can successfully
navigate this challenge by employing low-cost
test equipment that easily scales to meet their
throughput and test requirements without
compromising performance and quality. Support
for multiple formats is also important as it enables
manufacturers to leverage the same test equip-
ment to produce multiple femtocell products on
the same line.
The Agilent MXG vector signal generator
and Agilent EXA signal analyzer provide a
general-purpose RF test solution designed
to help manufacturers quickly deliver quality,
low-cost femtocells to market. Fast measure-
ment times and switching speeds, and "just
enough performance" significantly reduce test
times and enable manufacturers to achieve
the quality they demand. Scalability allows the
tools to be tailored to meet the manufacturer's
changing test needs. They can be used to
perform rigorous validation early in production
and scaled down as volumes increase and the
manufacturer's confidence in the design grows.
Flexible, multiformat measurement capabilities
ensure that both current and future formats will FIGURE 1: MXG switching speed.
be supported.
Key features of the Agilent MXG signal generator
and EXA signal analyzer in support of these
capabilities include:
Fast Measurement Times/Switching Just Enough Performance Scalability and Flexibility
Speeds