[Press Release] Spirent and octoScope partner to deliver testing of Wi-Fi and wireless technologies in a repeatable RF environment

Spirent Landslide and octoScope enable real access point and real client device testing in a single testbed 

 Bangalore – March 07, 2016 – Spirent Communications, the leader in networks, network services and device testing, today, announced an agreement to deliver a complete Spirent Landslide Wi-Fi and octoScope system, supporting real access points and real client devices in the octoBox testbed.  The octoBox testbed supports coexistence of multiple wireless technologies such as LTE and 802.11ac Wave-2 including MU-MIMO, while providing a controllable real-life RF environment.  The octoBox testbed automates common wireless tests such as throughput vs. range, roaming and coexistence in a completely isolated environment under controlled conditions, with common real-life impairments such as interference, path loss and multipath.

The Landslide™ octoBox wireless testbed is a powerful integration of the world’s most sophisticated protocol level Wi-Fi and multi-UE traffic generator with a completely isolated and real-life RF environment.  By emulating thousands of UEs (User Equipment) and APs (Access Points) on the access side, Landslide provides extensive support for testing Wi-Fi offload gateways and controllers deployed in carrier and enterprise environments.  Integrated with the octoBox® STACK wireless testbed, the Landslide octoBox solution combines protocol layer with MIMO-OTA throughput testing. Wireless testing requires a controlled, automated, and repeatable RF environment and testbed building blocks that can challenge and analyze the complex wireless adaptation algorithms.

Jio's LTE-U May Need Longer Timeframe for Commercial Launch

In a recent report, it was revealed that Indian mobile service providers – Airtel and Reliance Jio – are working on next step of simple LTE – LTE-A and LTE-U – respectively. LTE-A (LTE Advanced) is more about carrier aggregation, which means adding different types of spectrum bands for one pipe i.e. more bandwidth.
On the other hand, LTE-U (LTE Unlicensed) is more likely to be the next step forward after LTE-A. It was originally proposed by Qualcomm for using LTE technology in the unlicensed spectrum (5GHz for example).

Ericsson also uses the term License Assisted Access (LAA) to describe a similar technology.

Paper Vouchers of Mobile Companies - A Look Back

Paper vouchers from mobile service providers were some interesting stuffs in those days. Last week I was rearranging my room and found some of them saved as a precious goodies by me.

Well Jio is coming, India is going to be Digital. Ask yourself when did you buy a paper voucher last time? If you do it regularly still now, when did you see the full sized visiting card shaped paper vouchers? For everybody, get nostalgic !!

Ten Key Trends to Follow in 2016 in Indian Telecommunications

The year of 2016 will bring some stuffs very much new to Indian telecom and will probably make right path to the fate of the industry. Definitely 4G LTE will be the biggest game changer in this year. Jio's commercial 4G LTE launch over multiple spectrum bands with lots of in house concepts as well as tons of stuffs to be consumed it'll be spectacular to see how Jio will manage RIL's most ambitious business venture that was started just from a scratch.

Let me tell you the key trends to see in 2016 in Indian telecom.

Airtel's Data Topup Packs May Have Many Takers

To engage data revolution, I suggested some steps can be taken by mobile operators. Two of them, first to offer double data on night usage and second to offer data topup without any validity has been by Airtel.

Now Airtel's data topups, which are promoted as no validity data packs, are trashed down by many as they offer very low amount of data.

However I believe Airtel may get some active data users on its network. Take this example, you have WiFi at home and office and so you need cellular data connectivity only when you are travelling from home to office and vice versa.

Airtel plans to fill this gap as during the travel you can opt this packs for low volume data session with mail & messaging.

We can hope others would come with such plans with more data.

Jio Remains the Only Factor in Indian Telecom for My Interest!

I am writing on telecom stuffs since 2008, and that time I found the interest in it because I was a student with limited pocket money. I was an active member of Forumz.in (founded by Gabu, and now the forum is out of internet) and there I met Tarun PK with similar interest. Tarun was that time already running a small portal called Telecomtalk.info with negligible reader base.

I joined on the Team Telecomtalk in 2009 - perfect timing for Indian telecom as many new companies were started to invest money in this sector, thanks to A. Raja, the then telecom minister who sold airwaves to new companies at a cheap price. The new entrants were Swan Telecom, backed by Etisalat (Cheers); Shiva Group, backed by Batelco (S Tel); Videocon Telecom; Sistema Shyam Teleservices; Unitech, partnered with Telenor, Loop Telecom, Tata Tele's GSM venture with NTT Docomo.

Anyway we know what happened later - in February 2012 Supreme Court cancelled the most of the licenses and few stayed in the battlefield.

Idea Plans for 4G-LTE in 8 Circles Initially, Pre-Booking offer of FREE 1GB

Idea Cellular, country's leading 2G & 3G GSM mobile service provider is serious to bring 4G to its customers. Initially Idea will launch 4G in 8 circles - Andra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Orissa, Kerala, Karnataka, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh & Chattisgarh.

You can pre-register on Idea's website: http://www.ideacellular.com/new-offers/idea-4g-coming-soon and can grab 1GB 4G data.