Last updated: January 16, 2009
The following information provides additional details on Step 2 of the Programming Flowchart. This information is applicable to all test and lab applications.
In this step you configure the parameters that allow a connection to be made between the test set and mobile station. This mainly involves setting up channels and power levels.
For many technologies, setting up channels involves specifying the channel associated with every band and channel type (for example, analog or digital), and then setting the active band and channel type. For some technologies, such as W-CDMA, you simply specify the downlink and uplink UARFCNs (channels).
Specify Channel Numbers
All of the test set's test applications can test in more than one frequency band (for example, US Cellular, US PCS, or Korean PCS). To produce the most efficient code, you should configure the channel information for each band in advance. Then, to move to a new band during testing, you only need to send the command to change bands. You do not need to also specify the channel of the new band. This reduces test time.
To set up the channel number for the various bands, use one of the following commands (depending upon which test application you are using):
This practice also applies to test applications which test both analog and digital channel types. In this case you should specify the channel for the analog and digital channel types in advance. Then, switching between them requires only one command to initiate the change, and not an additional change to specify the channel of the new channel type.
If you specify channels in advance as described, the only time you need to specify a channel during testing is if you move to a new channel within the same band and channel type.
Set Active Band and Mode
Once you have specified the channel information for each band and channel type, you must set the active band using one of the following commands (depending upon which test application you are using):
| Example | Technology | |
|---|---|---|
| GSM/GPRS/EGPRS | ||
|
CALL:SET:DTC:BAND PCS |
AMPS/136 | |
| CALL:BAND:<channel mnemonic> <band mnemonic> | cdma2000/IS-95/AMPS |
If the test application you are using supports testing of both analog and digital channel types, then you must also set the channel type using the following command:
| Example | |
|---|---|
Active Cell and Test Mode Considerations
The function of the CALL commands differ depending upon whether you are in active cell or test mode.
In active cell mode, when you use the CALL commands to set the channel numbers, the test set's output frequency and receiver frequency are set. A message is also sent to the mobile station to set its frequency.
However, in test mode, since the BSE does not send call processing information to the mobile station, the CALL commands only configure the test set's output frequency and receiver frequency. You need to also send the appropriate test mode commands to the mobile station to set it to the correct frequency.
In test mode, instead of using the CALL commands to configure the test set's frequencies, you may prefer to manually control the RF generator and RF analyzer using the CALL:RFG and RFAN commands, respectively. In either case, you must still send the appropriate test mode commands to the mobile station to move it to the proper frequency.
To set the output power of the test set, use the following command:
| Example | |
|---|---|
| CALL:POW <num value> | CALL:POW -75 |
In active cell mode, use one of the following commands to set the mobile station transmit power level (depending upon which test application you are using):
In addition to setting the mobile station transmit level, these commands also automatically configure the test set's receiver at the expected input level, whether in active cell or test mode. However, in test mode, you must also send the appropriate test mode commands to the mobile station to command it to output at the correct level. This is due to the fact that the BSE is not transmitting call processing commands to the mobile station.
Manually Setting Expected Power
Sending the CALL commands in Commands to Set Mobile Station Transmit Power automatically sets the expected input level of the test set's receiver. However, there is another option for setting the receiver's input level in both active cell and test mode. It is often beneficial to manually set the expected input power level using the RFAN commands, rather than using the CALL commands.
When you set the expected power manually, you tell the test set exactly what power level to expect. Whereas the CALL commands simply tell the test set the range of input level to expect, based on the definition of the mobile station power level (for example, an AMPS/136 mobile station transmitting at power level 3 has an output level in the range of +20 dBm to +26 dBm).
Depending upon the test application you are using, there may be other connection parameters to specify, such as timeslot, timing advance, vocoder, or data rates and types.
In active cell mode, you may also choose to set up network parameters, such as base station identifier numbers (for example, SID) and color codes.
All of these parameters are configured using the CALL subsystem.