Cellular Device Testing

5G testing is crucial to ensure that 5G devices meet industry standards, function optimally in various network environments, and comply with regulatory requirements, ensuring product quality and reliability. To realize the full potential of 5G, several areas need to be considered:

• Each release of the 5G standard introduces new capabilities that require new technologies. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure the devices meet 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards, as well as any relevant industry regulations and network requirements. Compliance testing ensures that devices meet these evolving specifications, supporting features such as enhanced mobile broadband and massive machine-type communications.

• Operators need to evaluate the real-world performance of devices and handovers between radio networks. This evaluation often includes deploying devices in pilot environments, such as smart cities, to measure metrics like throughput, latency, and reliability under actual user conditions, including seamless handovers from 4G to 5G to maintain uninterrupted service during mobility. Utilizing automation tools on real devices can further simulate diverse scenarios to identify performance gaps that extend beyond lab settings.

• Validating device interoperability and performance against expected use models is crucial for seamless interaction. This process typically employs channel emulation and massive MIMO testing to confirm compatibility with O-RAN base stations and across multi-vendor setups, ensuring devices perform reliably in use cases like industrial IoT or vehicular communications. Frameworks for testing also incorporate KPIs, environments, and methodologies to address limitations and verify end-to-end architecture compliance.

• Stress-testing the network with 5G user equipment (UE) traffic under various use case scenarios is crucial to ensure it meets key performance metrics, such as high data throughput, reliability, and low latency. Tools for this can emulate large-scale UE traffic to assess impacts on network functions, including resource constraints during registration and data sessions, while measuring additional KPIs such as battery life, block error rate, sensitivity, and network efficiency. Standardized measurements from 3GPP specifications facilitate the simulation of scenarios such as ultra-reliable low-latency communications or massive connectivity, helping to uncover potential bottlenecks.

5G introduces new challenges with the use of millimeter wave (mmWave) frequencies and beam management, driving the need for validating complex, integrated next-generation devices in over-the-air (OTA) test environments. Use cases for 5G also continue to evolve, which means that 5G devices need to be characterized and validated to comply with developing 3GPP New Radio (NR) specifications and mobile operator acceptance plans.​

Challenges vary during the 5G device workflow. Engineers need to consider the following aspects during each stage:​

• Device development: A suite of tools spanning domains can help accelerate the development cycle from pre-silicon protocol development, modem and radio frequency (RF) bring-up, mobile test platform, and device integration, to performance optimization.​

• Device conformance: Passing conformance and device acceptance tests is a significant challenge for 5G device and base station companies. Preparing for conformance tests by performing pre-conformance testing is critical to accelerate time to market.​

• Device acceptance: 5G technology needs to address a wide range of use cases. Accelerating device certification and acceptance requires early and continuous access to the latest 3GPP conformance test cases including the ones validated by the certification bodies, regulators, and mobile network operators (MNO).

The 5G conformance testing process involves multiple parties, including:

• 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for setting the standards for mobile cellular communications

• Global Certification Forum (GCF) and PCS Type Certification Review Board (PTCRB) mandate 3GPP test cases for device certification.

• government agencies that issue regulations to ensure public safety 

3GPP conformance specifications also cover three main classes of test cases for ensuring that new 5G devices work correctly with the radio access network (RAN):​

• Protocol​

• RF​

• Radio Resource Management (RRM)​

The GCF and PTCRB certification bodies mandate a selection of 3GPP test cases that chipset and device manufacturers must comply with to achieve certification. Once they select the test cases, test vendors implement the corresponding test specifications in their conformance test solutions.

Device and chipset makers then use the solutions to perform pre-conformance testing. They then send their devices to independent test labs, which also use conformance test solutions to validate device compliance with the standards requirements.