Drive test scanners for 5G network optimisation

30th April 2021

Alex Lynn

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China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom have selected the R&S TSME6 drive test scanner from Rohde & Schwarz for their 5G network deployment and optimisation efforts. Rohde & Schwarz China and Zhuhai DingLi have jointly won the three tenders for each operator’s centralised procurement projects over the past months, thanks to the scanner’s superior performance.

In China, commercial use of 5G networks started in 2019. By today, it has developed into a large worldwide 5G network, operated by the three principle mobile carriers: China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. The increasing number of 5G NR base stations have made China’s mobile networks more complex.

In addition, the impact of 5G NR on existing 4G networks needs to be taken into consideration. Therefore, even after the initial deployment of 5G, optimisation to improve network performance and efficiency becomes increasingly important.

The ultracompact R&S TSME6 drive test scanner from Rohde & Schwarz is critical for measuring coverage and interference. Major network operators and infrastructure providers around the world have been using it from the early stages of 5G deployment onwards to optimise the overall performance of their 5G NR networks. The scanner passively captures data from the air interface, offering an accurate view of the RF environment and all information messages of multiple technologies sent out by the networks without the need to subscribe to the network services.

The R&S TSME6 scanner supports parallel measurements of wireless technologies including 5G NR, TDD-LTE, FDD-LTE, NB-IoT, eMTC/LTE-M, WCDMA, EVDO, CDMA and GSM, meeting operator needs for simultaneous measurements on 3GPP multistandard networks. In addition, the scanner covers all 5G NR frequency bands for sub6 GHz TDD and FDD, including the 700MHz, 2.1GHz and 3.5GHz frequency bands.

In combination with the R&S TSME30DC and R&S TSME44DC downconverters, it supports also the FR2 frequency band from 24GHz to 44GHz, fulfilling the requirements of Chinese network operators.

As the industry's smallest and most lightweight 5G NR multimode scanner featuring the lowest power consumption, the R&S TSME6 offers an excellent test performance. The dynamic range can reach more than 30 dB, its high sensitivity enables it to detect signals as low as -143 dBm, and the 5G NR same-frequency multicell dynamic range is as high as 24 dB. In addition, the R&S TSME6 is the only device on the market that fully detects multipath propagation, measuring power, delay and Doppler shift.