US : Tektronix, Inc. , a leading provider of test, measurement, and monitoring solutions for mobile equipment manufacturers and operators, today announced the addition of UMTS Release 5 (UMTS R5) to its portfolio of support features available on its leading protocol tester.

International bodies, such as the 3GPP, issue new standard revisions every three months to enhance existing network element functionalities.

UMTS R5 is the latest step in the migration towards full implementation of third-generation (3G) UMTS networks. In order to develop network elements that comply with the standard, mobile equipment manufacturers are challenged to test the compliance of their existing products against the newest specifications. Tektronix' K1297-G20 protocol tester Version 2.60 (V2.60) delivers compliance testing of UMTS R5 in the industry's leading protocol test platform with the ability to address more than one-thousand protocols.

"Third-generation UMTS networks are live in many areas of the world. As such, the pressure for mobile equipment manufacturers to test their products in alignment with the latest standard is higher than ever in order to keep up with demand," said Bob Agnes, Vice President, Monitoring & Protocol Test, Tektronix. "By providing test support for UMTS R5, Tektronix once again leads the way in providing solutions for the latest standards, enabling our customers to speed development and deployment of 3G infrastructure."

Full Decoding and Encoding of Protocol Messages Key to Verifying Protocol Implementation

Tektronix' V2.60 encodes message information before sending it to the network or network element. This provides the ability to create ad-hoc test messages and message sequences so that specific normal and abnormal network conditions can be simulated. The user can then verify that the protocol implementation conforms to the standard. Tektronix' V2.60 decodes information acquired from the network or from a network element and accesses the content of all messages exchanged between the involved network entities; this allows the user to verify behavior of the network or network element under test, pinpoint possible problems and identify the root case of failure. Tektronix offers the deepest decoding and encoding support for UMTS R5.

About the K1297-G20 Protocol Tester

The K1297-G20 is a full-featured, compact protocol tester that can be configured for a wide range of protocols. It supports multi-channel and multi-port protocol testing and incorporates a broad selection of conformance test suites. The K1297-G20 is set apart by its ability to simultaneously monitor and enable interoperability of GSM, GPRS and UMTS network elements. The existing GPRS-related features of the K1297-20 have made Tektronix a leading supplier of GPRS signaling protocol test equipment.