R&S^®PTW70 WLAN Protocol Tester

Applications

• Development - The R&S® PTW 70 is an indispensable error diagnostics tool for wireless LAN system components from chip set to complete infrastructure
• Integration - By accommodating wireless LAN software and hardware modules, the R&S® PTW 70 can be used to evaluate how different system components interact and to test cross-technology compatibility
• Verification - Due to its special design, the R&S® PTW 70 allows the performance and quality features of wireless LAN system components to be objectively evaluated for the first time

Features

• Analyzer mode - The IEEE 802.11 reference model of the R&S® PTW 70 simulates a wireless LAN access point or a station
• Sniffer or monitor mode - The R&S® PTW 70 records data communications in a wireless LAN cell
• The multi-choice operating concept features graphical and programmable user interfaces
• Online analysis tools provide the user with reliable data exactly when needed
• Hardware-based timers and realtime processing make it possible to analyze protocol sequences in detail in all operating modes
• The measurement unit is detached from the controller and can be remotely driven from different workstations
• The modular design allows flexible tester configurations specific to a given measurement task - from the single-channel model to versions networking several R&Sreg; PTW 70 testers
• Its predefined set of applications is tailored to specific user groups
• Its powerful hardware platform makes the tester a future-proof investment

Modular design

The WLAN Protocol Tester R&S® PTW 70 (see Fig. 1) consists of a measurement unit and a controller (workstation PC or notebook). The two components are connected via Ethernet directly or as part of a network. The detached measurement unit of the R&S® PTW 70 can be configured and monitored via a graphical user interface. The measurement data is returned to the controller and can be evaluated conveniently using graphical analysis tools. In addition, complex test sequences can be configured via a user-friendly graphical script interface and run by remote control. The measurement unit contains a wireless LAN protocol plug-in developed by Rohde & Schwarz. The plug-in consists of an RF frontend capable of multi-frequency-band operation and a processor architecture suitable for all time-critical wireless LAN protocol processes. The measurement unit can be equipped with one or two protocol plug-ins. Moreover, several measurement units can be networked. This modular concept is also employed in the software, thus opening up a wide range of sophisticated measurement applications. Table 2 shows the different configuration levels and corresponding applications of the WLAN Protocol Tester R&S® PTW 70.

Fig.1: Design of WLAN Protocol Tester R&S® PTW 70