E7477A Agilent Analyzer Used

The Agilent E7477A cdma2000 drive-test system is used to obtain RF coverage, service performance and data test measurements for wireless communications networks that use the advanced cdma2000 technology. The system runs on a PC that interfaces with an Agilent digital RF receiver and/or a cdma2000 mobile phone. The system can control up to four receivers and four phones simultaneously.

The drive-test system is a platform product which provides the following features: carry-around testing, indoor testing, real-time mapping, as well as measurement capabilities in other technologies such as IS-95 CDMA, W-CDMA (UMTS), GSM, TDMA, and GPRS.

The Agilent E7477A cdma2000 receiver-based drive test solution provides a built-in spectrum analyzer capability to help optimization engineers troubleshoot problems in the frequency domain. The advantage of using the built-in spectrum analyzer is that a separate spectrum analyzer is not required. Having a dedicated spectrum analyzer would add additional weight and expense to the drive test solution. The digital receiver, an integral part of the cdma2000 drive test solution, is a compact, DSP-based receiver that is capable of making a core set of spectrum analyzer measurements in addition to making cdma2000 measurements. Both the uplink and downlink frequency bands can be measured.

The Agilent E7477A cdma2000 receiver-based drive test solution also provides Channel Power measurements. Channel power is defined as the integrated power within a defined bandwidth. The E7477A drive-test system provides two channel power measurement types: Channel Power List and Channel Power Trace. The Channel Power List allows you to enter a list of channels to be measured. Conversely, the Channel Power Trace measures the channels occupying the frequency range defined by the user.

The Agilent E7477A cdma2000 receiver-based drive test solution provides CW power measurements. The ability to perform CW measurements in the early life cycle of a network is essential when evaluating prospective cell site locations. Performing CW measurements validates that the cell site location will provide adequate RF coverage.

The E7477A provides mobile debugging messages from the phone handset. These messages are from the mobile software and are useful to phone manufactures and infrastructure providers to understand the internal messaging on the phone. 

Top N measurement display returns the “N” strongest pilots measured by the receiver. The display can be user configured to display either of the following measurements:

• Ec
• Ec/Io
• Aggregate Ec
• Absolute delay
• Aggregate Ec/Io
• Delay Spread (in Chips)
• Aggregate-Peak (dB units)
• All Pilots Measurements display shows the amplitude of all the pilots measured by the receiver

The advantages of having Agilent’s digital receiver with CW measurement functionality are as follows:

• Reduces the costs of dedicated test equipment (i.e. a separate receiver), since the Agilent receiver can be used for both cdma2000 drive testing and site evaluation/selection activities
• Allows for CW measurements to be performed as a function of location
• Measures both uplink and downlink frequencies can be measured

The E7477A system extracts measurement data from the mobile handset. Specific measurements can be extracted by the use of check boxes. Some of the measurement types include:

• State (i.e. CDMA idle, CDMA mobile station initialization, CDMA conversation, etc.)
• RSSI (mobile received power)
• Mobile transmit power
• FER (frame erasure rate)
• Ec/Io (Aggregate or Dominant)
• Transmit gain adjust
• Protocol revision (IS-95A, JSTD8, IS-95B, cdma2000)
• PN list
• Pilot data - active, candidate, and neighbor pilots
• Receive/transmit history
• TA fingers

The E7477A system extracts and decodes over-the-air messaging from the handset. The user can select any or all of the message types listed below to extract and decode:

• Access
• Paging
• Sync
• Forward traffic
• Reverse traffic

All of the above message types would include any cdma2000 messages that may be transmitted to or from the mobile handset.

The E7477A provides automated control of up to four handsets. The user can program the handset to complete a sequence of calls, a continuous long call, or to accept incoming calls (terminations).

Some of the call control abilities are:

• Call initiation mode (sequence, single, termination)
• Call mode preference (no analog)
• Call initiation control (start, pause, stop)
• Automatic redial (on a drop, on a block, redial interval, redial attempts)
• Phone number to call
• Call option (voice 13kbps, Markov RS1 or RS2, Loopback, EVRC, and TDSO)

In addition to the control function, the phone control displays the information below in a tabular format:

• Channel
• Access time counter
• Redial time counter
• Calls remaining counter
• Total attempts
• Total drops
• Total blocks
• Drop call rate
• Block call rate