Testing IoT designs with the R&S®RTO and R&S®VSE

The need for internet of things (IoT) solutions can arise fast. In most cases, wireless communications modules are added to an embedded design. When designing and debugging IoT systems, many different measurements need to be performed. Since developers are very familiar with using an oscilloscope for voltage and time measurements, they also want to use it to for all other necessary measurements. And now they can – with the R&S®RTO oscilloscopes.

Measurement examples

Analysis of a wireless module’s data capture, processing and communications timing

The upper screenshot displays an IoT module’s GSM connection time-correlated to power consumption and data traffic on the modem interface. The RF and power supply voltage and current are measured on the analog channels. The digital channels acquire the module’s modem interface communications via UART and decode the protocol. The spectrum of the GSM bursts is shown on the top right.

Analysis of the wireless signal

The optional R&S^®VSE vector signal explorer base software can load I/Q data acquired in real time from the R&S^®RTO with the R&S^®RTO-K11 option and provide extensive analysis. The base version of the R&S^®VSE software provides magnitude, spectrum, statistics and I/Q vector analysis. The lower screenshot shows a GSM based magnitude, power versus time (PvT) measurement and the modulation spectrum. In addition there is a table view of the modulation accuracy and the modulation spectrum.

Suggested configuration

The table shows a suggested configuration for IoT measurements. This configuration can be extended depending on your needs, e.g. by adding custom decoding for NRZ/Manchester protocols, I/Q acquisition and vector analysis software, even after the initial purchase. A broad portfolio of active and current probes is also available.