Testing & Validation
in Telecommunication
umlaut has been providing testing and validation services to the telecommunication industry for more than two decades now. We are always at the forefront of new technologies like 4G, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and many more. Our wide expertise and in depth technical knowledge paired with our professionalism, reliability and agility have made us a relevant partner for major industry players all over the world.
Just to highlight one example: Today, more than 200 mobile networks in more than 120 countries are being evaluated by our unique scoring methodology which is widely accepted as the de-facto industry standard.
For the collection of crowd-data, we have integrated background diagnosis processes into thousands of diverse Android apps. If one of these applications is installed on the end-user’s phone, data collection takes place 24/7, 365 days a year - with the user's approval. Reports are generated regularly and sent daily to our cloud servers. We focus on the user experience, avoiding that our software cause any disruption on the user day-by-day. Our data collection is compliant with the GDPR, since we do not include any personal user data. Interested parties can deliberately take part in the data gathering with the specific ”U get“ app. This unique crowdsourcing technology allows us to collect data about real-world experiences wherever and whenever customers use their smartphones.
umlaut communications, Inc. is currently an Apple MFi (made for iPhone) authorized test lab for CarPlay Location Performance, Wireless Performance, and Wireless Drive Test services. This program validates in-car entertainment system’s GPS accuracy and wireless performance while tethered or wirelessly connected with iPhone for CarPlay. umlaut communications, Inc. serves as an independent, unbiased certification provider.
umlaut is a Global Certification Forum (GCF) Field Trial Recognized Test Organization (RTO). GCF enables certification of any mobile device based on 3GPP and/or 3GPP2 bearer technologies: from handsets, smartphones and tablets to wireless broadband USB dongles, wireless modules and M2M/IoT devices. The scheme now covers the 3GPP LPWA IoT technologies of NB-IoT, LTE CAT M1 and EC-GSM-IoT. Field Trials complement laboratory testing to provide valuable insight into a device’s real-world operation across live commercial networks which encompass equipment from different suppliers. All GCF ROT needs to be ISO 17025 accredited laboratories.
Device acceptance is key to achieve performance and seamless interworking. umlaut is looking into device implementation, also being able to include specific aspects, such as UE-SIM and UE-RAN interaction. Our services range from testing/certification to consultancy/audits - we tailor our methodology to cover key 5G building blocks like functionalities (cell acquisition, split bearer etc.), interoperability (eNB/gNB, EPC, VoLTE etc.), capacity (CA, mMIMO, transport etc.), mobility (beam management, MCG/SCG operations etc.), and signaling (DCI/RRC/NAS etc.). We leverage tracing and advance analytics including proprietary log packets analysis.
“5G Ready” program affiliation enables umlaut for advanced logging and post processing, enabling faster time to market by extensive KPI delivery, with extensive tools and in-house scripting. umlaut is the preferred device services supplier for all major carriers and OEMs and Qualcomm preferred Test Center Network (TCN) since 2012. We are approved lab of Verizon Wireless for domestic and global Field Test device approval process.
The network tests cover inner city areas, outer metropolitan and suburban areas. Measurements are also taken in smaller towns and cities along connecting highways. The combination of test areas is selected to provide representative test results across the populations. The test routes and all visited cities and towns are shown in every report. Our drive-test cars can be equipped with the latest smartphones for the simultaneous measurement of voice and data services in 4G and 5G.
Airline passengers clearly expect a comparable level of smartphone/tablet connectivity performance during flight as anywhere else. To get a decent connectivity service offered to passengers, airlines would need to reliably control the quality of connectivity service (QoS). umlaut uses its experience from cellular network testing with focus on in-flight connectivity services – benchmarking different technologies, services and offerings.
umlaut is trusted IoT partner of tier1 MNOs when it comes to large scale rollouts in various verticals: smart metering, automotive, payment, healthcare, industry sector etc. We enable successful IoT rollout, ideally from the RFQ phase when we define the IoT solution requirements for particular vertical or use case.
With our help, customers can deploy millions of assets without having fear that devices will stop communicating or that they will cause excessive traffic towards the network. This way we can mitigate the risk by proactively avoiding any potential issues, reduce the time to market and keep the TCO at low level. At the same time, we are maximizing connectivity by achieving high readout success rates matching the SLA expectations.
Certification Benchmark and Network Audit
Using our experience in testing mobile networks, we verify and certify the performance of mobile services. The umlaut service certification is the ideal tool for the independent assessment and attestation of mobile networks and the services they offer. This is done by means of independent measurements and audits of service-quality. The successful verification of the service statement is recorded in a certificate. The operator is entitled to use the certificate for its own communication purposes and use the „Best in Test“ seal in case of being awarded.
Moreover, we offer a broad range of consulting services to advice you how to improve your mobile network performance.
Public Benchmark
Our independent public benchmarks are designed to evaluate and objectively compare the performance and service quality of mobile networks all around the world. They are published in several countries on an annual basis in order to inform the end users about the best services available. Moreover, they give the operators the opportunity to demonstrate both the strengths of their respective networks and improvements in performance or coverage over time. These improvements show the positive impact of our public benchmark activities on the development of the country’s networks. The end costumers can take informed decisions on this basis.
Based on the results of an extensive and comprehensive series of tests focusing on the performance-capability of UMTS and LTE networks, the benchmarks highlight the performance of mobile networks, including the latest technologies deployed by each operator and their benefits to consumers.
To address on-board connectivity issues in airplanes or trains, umlaut can simulate and test the performance of each planned system to verify wireless multi-passenger configurations. The umlaut developed test system is controlling multiple PED’s as test devices performing test scenarios and test cases.
Currently, the focus is still on Wi-Fi systems with common frequency bands of 2.4 and 5 GHz, but the test setup is also suitable to other technologies, such as Bluetooth or the new WiGig, which will use the 60 GHz band for Wi-Fi in the future. Depending on the number of passengers, hundreds of cellular phones can be used for testing. Using an own automated solution, the measurement can be started and stopped via control messages. Gradually, the cellular phones then begin to connect to the Wi-Fi of the aircraft whilst running a proprietary test application being developed by umlaut. It records all relevant test parameters and values such as data throughput levels, latency times and ID of the WAP to which the device was connected to.
umlaut uses a specially developed and even patented mock-up, the “umlaut RF canopy”. A chamber constructed from aluminum-coated foil which corresponds in shape and geometry to the cabin being examined. It simulates reflections from radio waves on the aircraft skin equally keeping any RF disturbance off the canopy.
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