NB-IoT field test: Measuring NB-IoT underground

May 22, 2019 | by Albert Huang

What are the necessary steps to measure NB-IoT coverage accurately and reliably? In this field test, we buried an NB-IoT device 20 cm underground before making coverage measurements. Learn more about the test setup and procedure, as well as the impact of soil on coverage.

Read more

Machine learning use case: Call Stability Score (part 2)

May 2, 2019 | by Miguel Román

The machine learning-based Call Stability Score (CSS) in SmartAnalytics benefits operators by removing one of the main chance factors in benchmarking campaigns. The CSS rates each call for its stability based on high-dimensional datasets that cover hundreds of thousands of good and bad calls.

Read more

Testing 5G QoE: The role of standardization organizations (part 3)

April 10, 2019 | by Jeremy Carpenter

The more once considers the mission-critical applications arising from 5G use cases, the more it reinforces the central role of standardization bodies as a neutral reference for test methodology. Our test solutions are independent, transparent and traceable to certified international standards and not aligned to proprietary techniques or individual vendors.

Read more

Testing 5G QoE: Defining and measuring 5G QoE test cases (part 2)

April 3, 2019 | by Jeremy Carpenter

Without knowing the underlying service and device requirements, network quality engineers do not know what aspects and metrics to treat as important KPIs. How do you define and set up quality of experience (QoE) test cases for new “user” experiences such as for sensors in an industrial IoT deployment?

Read more

Testing 5G QoE: Use cases, services and a new QoE paradigm (part 1)

March 28, 2019 | by Jeremy Carpenter

5G demands a new paradigm for measuring the quality of experience (QoE), particularly for mMTC and URLLC use cases, as QoE has a different meaning in machine-type communication. Explore how the emergence of 5G and the new cases and services it brings demand new network measuring approaches.

Read more

Spectrum clearance: Prepare your 5G NR spectrum for deployment

February 6, 2019 | by Peter Busch

RF interference is one of the largest contributors to poor network performance, manifesting itself in dropped calls and low data throughput rates. Explore how to prepare your spectrum for 5G deployment by starting RF interference hunting and spectral clearance in LTE networks with a more automated approach.

Read more

Network Performance Score: Initiate improvements with a QoE-centric score

January 17, 2019 | by Arnd Sibila

The Network Performance Score (NPS) is a QoE-centric score based on the harmonizing and integrative scoring methodology for end-to-end QoS benchmarking and scoring published by ETSI. The NPS integrates the main KPIs of the most popular services into a single score that describes network performance from a true end-user perspective.

Read more

NB-IoT: How to find NB-IoT carriers in the spectrum (part 6)

November 21, 2018 | by Gregor Tomic

NB-IoT carriers are very difficult, if not impossible, to find. The Automatic Channel Detection (ACD) feature in R&S®ROMES4 does the job automatically. But, what makes finding and identifying NB-IoT carriers so difficult in the first place? And, what implementation modes are there, and how do they differ from one another?

Read more

Machine learning in mobile network testing (part 1)

November 7, 2018 | by Miguel Román

Telecom leaders believe that machine learning (ML) will be key to deriving and inferring user behavior and expectations. This blog series demonstrates our ML applications on drive test data by discussing specific use cases and customer benefits. To start, we will discuss artificial intelligence in general.

Read more

Interference hunting in cities: Choose angle of arrival over power

October 24, 2018 | by Jeremy Carpenter

The urban RF environment is very demanding – densely packed with a myriad of cellular and non-cellular transmitters, interfering emitters, and inconveniently located building. This post explains why it pays to focus on the angle of arrival (AOA) method regarding speed, accuracy, and effectiveness when hunting interference in urban areas.

Read more

5G NR network rollout is now – let’s test! (part 4)

September 12, 2018 | by Arnd Sibila

The first 5G standard, specified in the 3GPP Release 15, contains a high degree of flexibility in radio parameters that complicates network measurements. We conducted measurements in pre-commercial 5G trial networks with our commercially available 5G NR network measurement solution and gained early insights into performance, capabilities, and frequency band.

Read more

NB-IoT network insights through MIB/SIB demodulation (part 5)

August 10, 2018 | by Andreas Spachtholz

Our scanner-based solution to measure coverage in NB-IoT networks pioneered NB-IoT field measurements in 2017. Since then, thousands of kilometers have been driven and walked to collect and analyze data from all available operators and cells in an NB-IoT network. This post summarizes our customers’ key requirements and our answers.

Read more

Benchmarking & optimization

More information

Field services & interference hunting

More information

Innovations in mobile network testing

More information

Testing from RF to QoE

More information

New e-book provides unparalleled insight into the 5G NR world

What's the status of 5G NR? What are the test and measurement requirements, and how do we approach them? Download our new e-book now and get unparalleled insight into the world of 5G NR.

More information

The world's first 5G NR network measurement solution

Rohde & Schwarz is pioneering 5G New Radio (5G NR) network measurements with the world's first commercially available 5G NR network measurement solution. This solution enables users in the 5G network ecosystem as well as regulators to measure the 5G NR network coverage accurately - one of the biggest challenges in the network planning.

More information

Pioneers in NB-IoT field measurements

We are paving the way to NB-IoT by provding the world's first accurate LTE/NB-IoT coverage measurement solution: via a software upgrade, the R&S ROMES drive test software now also supports NB-IoT coverage measurements with R&S TSMx scanners.

More information