Newsletter: Drive Testing now in GL's Wireless Voice Quality Testing Product
Welcome to the September issue of GL Communications' Newsletter providing information about GL's new and enhanced products. This month we focus on GL's Wireless VQT Drive Testing product, a complete and self-contained hardware, software, and accessories package for automated wireless voice quality testing from within a vehicle. The portable package can house up to four wireless phones, a graphical computing and measurement platform, and mapping software.
Carriers as well as equipment manufacturers must understand and respond to the dynamics of today's wireless networks including interworking with PSTN and VoIP networks. Questions that may arise include,
- How does the voice quality in my network compare to that of competitive networks within a given geographic area? Are there any coverage holes? What about voice quality during peak loads?
- How will voice quality be affected by increasing capacity, reducing cell size, increasing voice compression, or changing technology?
- How is voice quality affected when calling between networks such as wireless, landline, and VoIP?
GL's Wireless VQT - Drive Testing product provides the necessary answers to these questions, in addition to providing a means to perform long term voice quality testing on a wireless network. Results are logged and statistics are provided for a complete understanding of the wireless network. All hardware associated with the GL's Wireless VQT Drive Test Tool, is conveniently packaged in a custom enclosure such that users can transport it within a vehicle, just plug into the cigarette lighter (for power), connect to the PC Laptop using the USB connections, and start the test.
Up to four mobile phones can be supported simultaneously within a single enclosure, all conveniently controlled from a single laptop running the GL's VQuad™ software. Both the GL's VQuad™ and VQT applications can be remotely accessed via the Internet and the audio voice files may be streamed to the remote location.
Automated Call Control and VQT using PESQ LQO
GL's Wireless VQT Drive Testing solution supports fully automated call control for most all mobile phone manufacturers/models including support for BlueTooth connectivity. The call control takes into consideration dropped calls, and failed call attempts, so that tests will not be interrupted during adverse situations. Once a call is established, voice files are generated from either end of a call and recorded from the opposite side.
The recorded voice files are automatically passed to GL's VQT application for analyzing the voice and providing VQT measurement results using the widely accepted PESQ LQO algorithm. Along with PESQ LQO results, GL's VQT also reports analysis associated with clipping, noise/signal levels, jitter, and S/N Ratio (to name a few).
Available as a part of the GL's Wireless VQT Drive Testing, is Round Trip Delay measurements RTD). RTD uses the GL's UTA hardware (included with the Drive Test solution) for generating RTD results to within less than 1 msec tolerance. The RTD can be configured to run manually or automatically during drive testing and results made part of the VQT final results.
Results stamped with GPS coordinates and GPS time
As an option to GL's Wireless VQT Drive Test solution, a GPS receiver can be included so that all results are stamped with GPS location coordinates and GPS time. GPS stamping occurs when a mobile call is generated and when a mobile call is disconnected (or dropped), when a voice file is recorded, and when an RTD measurement is made.
The logged GPS information can be imported to most GPS mapping software packages for an overall graphical understanding of the results. Thus, your drive-test results can be superimposed on a map providing you with VQT ratings, mobile phone status, and RTD results.
Complete VQT Solutions
GL's Wireless Drive Testing is a portable, easy to use and easy to setup solution that provides all results in both graphical and tabular form. Along with automated wireless phone testing, GL's VQT Solutions can also support automated 2-wire landline (POTS), VoIP ATA testing, VoIP (SIP/RTP) user agents, Handset phones (VoIP, Digital, Analog), and T1/E1 testing. GL's VQT is offered as a complete solution for all your voice quality testing requirements.
Please visit Wireless VQT Drive Testing and Wireless VQT pages for further details.
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