Europe : The new Yokogawa AP6000 is a powerful air protocol analyser for monitoring and analysing complex radio signals in W-CDMA and GSM mobile networks, including the critical area of handovers between W-CDMA and GSM networks.

Target applications include the monitoring of BTS/UE traffic in simulator test environments at the R&D phase, interoperability testing in the laboratory, base-station and user-equipment connection testing in a real network environment, connection verification for multiple vendor combinations of base stations and user equipment, and field verification and troubleshooting.

"The rapid growth of mobile communications based on two different standards has created an unprecedented demand for test equipment to verify interoperability at all stages from initial research through to field troubleshooting," comments Terry Marrinan, Director of Sales & Marketing for Yokogawa's European Test & Measurement operation: "We believe that the AP6000 is the ideal tool to meet this demand."

The AP6000 acts as a non-intrusive 'window' between the base station and the user equipment in a 2G or 3G network, monitoring all up- and down-link traffic including L1, L2, L3, data and control information. With a scalable, modular architecture built around a universal platform design, the AP6000 incorporates advanced features such as HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) and HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) support, making the instrument a full solution based on the requirements of 3GPP Specification Release-6.

The instrument can be used to analyse a host of connection problems between the mobile network and the user equipment, including issues related to RF power and timing, RLC (radio link control) and RRC (radio resource control) message protocols, U-plane data and TCP/IP connection. Users can view all the U-U interface signals on a single platform, as well as carrying out basic W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS protocol analysis (with Inter-RAT monitoring option), and extract data in various file formats.

The AP6000 can be used for real-time capture and analysis of data, including Layer 1 information, channel code power, timing and CRC status, and RRC messages. It can also perform off-line decoding and analysis, including Layer 1 information, RF power TPC, RSCP, timing and CRC status, RLC re-transmission status, RRC messages and U-plane data analysis. Data can be exported in various formats, and the open architecture means that the AP6000 can be interfaced with other instruments such as signalling testers for duplicating field problems.

The new Inter-RAT function traces a specific user equipment through the GSM/W-CDMA handover, providing detailed and complete information on the Um and Uu messages. The Inter-RAT option provides a full-band GSM/GPRS receiver unit (850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 1.9 GHz) and a decode hardware module.

System operation is completely independent of base-station and user-equipment vendors and different versions, so that the AP6000 can easily be used to compare different vendors' systems and pinpoint any problems. It is also layer independent, so that each engineer can look at the applicable layer: L1 for a radio engineer, L2 for a network protocol engineer, and L3 for a network protocol and/or application engineer.

The instrument measures W 43 x D 55 x H 20 cm and weighs approximately 20 kg. Each unit is supplied with a notebook PC which acts as the GUI for both real-time and off-line testing.