Spirent Communications Brings the Real World in...

SUNNYVALE, California, April 1 /PRNewswire/ --

    - Flexible 'Virtual Drive Test' and 'Fading Lab' Features Deliver Cost 
Efficiencies over Field Testing



    Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global leader in wireless
infrastructure, devices and application testing, today introduced Virtual
Drive Test and Fading Lab functionality on Spirent's SR5500 Wireless Channel
Emulator (http://www.spirent.com/go/sr5500), the award-winning solution for 
wireless receiver performance testing. Virtual Drive Test allows rapid 
re-creation of RF conditions to bring real-world field testing of mobile 
devices into the lab. Fading Lab enables the creation or replay of 
highly-detailed, advanced radio environments from a wide range of data 
sources.



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    Wireless operators and manufacturers traditionally rely on fleets of
drivers to perform mobile field testing, also referred to as drive testing,
to verify the operational and performance capabilities of mobile devices and
services. This approach is neither repeatable nor cost-efficient.



    "Virtual Drive Test reduces the amount of physical field testing required
in a product's life cycle resulting in significant cost savings," said Rob
VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent's CDMA and Physical Layer market segment.
"It also offers some clear technical advantages over field testing, enabling
the same precise scenario to be repeated across multiple test runs,
eliminating much of the uncertainty inherent to field testing."



    Virtual Drive Test uses Spirent's exclusive Dynamic Environment Emulation
(DEE) feature to provide a more rigorous and sustainable alternative. Virtual
Drive Test generates a set of controlled dynamic RF channels based on channel
parameter data. Complex radio mobility scenarios can be created without
deploying scores of vans, and the RF environment remains consistent between
test iterations.



    Spirent's new Fading Lab supplements the SR5500's existing real-time
engine with a new "Fading Data Playback" engine. The Fading Lab engine
converts data into a sample-accurate wireless RF environment. The Fading
Lab's universal interface accepts data from a wide range of sources including
channel-sounding tools and software packages. Virtually any mathematical or
ray-tracing software package can be used to synthesize the input data, as can
custom software packages or scripts. The text-based template allows the user
to create any customized fading model imaginable.



    "For wireless operators and device manufacturers, the Spirent SR5500 has
been there to eliminate the risk of missing a critical RF issue," added
VanBrunt. "Now Fading Lab's flexibility eliminates the risk of running up
against a channel model your equipment can't address."



    The Fading Lab includes Fading Studio, a software package that creates
advanced channel scenarios for testing MIMO and other multiple-antenna
systems. These already include Spatial Channel Models (SCMs/SCMEs), with
models defined by the European Wireless World Initiative New Radio (WINNER)
consortium to follow shortly.



    Demonstrations of the Spirent SR5500 and the company's wide range of
other wireless device, application and infrastructure testing solutions will
be showcased at Booth #744 at CTIA Wireless 2009, April 1-3 in Las Vegas 
(http://www.spirent.com/news/events.cfm?id=527&media=7&ws=330&ss=187). For
more information visit www.spirent.com/go/sr5500



About Spirent Communications plc

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