Spirent Tests Service Interaction on Smartphones

Although today’s smartphones are running an ever-increasing number of applications, these applications must share the device’s limited resources, and this can lead to performance challenges. For example, the use of A-GPS location on smartphones for navigation or other location-based applications can disrupt the reception of business e-mail, reduce data download speeds and can also cause important calls to drop, even threatening the reliability of emergency calls.



Spirent’s new service interaction testing capability was used to carry out tests on a number of commercial smartphones, which ran multiple simultaneous services in the lab under real-world conditions. The results, documented in a recent Spirent white paper, highlight some of the significant performance threats to key elements of smartphone functionality. The findings, along with the innovative test methodology used to obtain them, are also the subject of a recent Spirent webinar, available now for on-demand viewing.



“Today’s savvy consumers continue to drive smartphone adoption, demanding ever more services and applications,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst, Mobile Devices at Infonetics Research. “But device manufacturers and network operators have only a short window to get it right, as we’ve seen from the negative headlines around some high-profile device issues. Spirent’s white paper highlights some important smartphone performance challenges that vendors and operators face. Going forward, the requirement for smartphones to support more and more applications and services, as well as new technologies like LTE, can only add to these challenges. One thing is certain - consumers will become less tolerant of a poor user experience and the market will punish devices that are unable to deliver.”



With its industry-leading integrated network emulation that includes channel fading and noise, Spirent’s 8100 Development Library helps accelerate functional, integration, and inter-operability testing of UMTS devices, including a full test automation capability. As a key part of the 8100 Mobile Device test system, 8100 Development Library also provides a scalable, multipurpose solution that is expandable beyond initial testing needs.



“In the tight race for mindshare and revenue, wireless operators and their device and chipset vendors are increasingly trying to differentiate around performance in the presence of combined services to offer a great anytime, anywhere end-user experience.” said Hesham ElHamahmy, vice president of Spirent’s wireless business. “Testing for service interaction issues earlier in the device development cycle can help to greatly reduce unwanted performance issues before they negatively impact the end user experience.”