Ixia, Tuesday announced IxLoad-Wireless, a high-performance Long Term Evolution (LTE) test solution for cellular IoT enhanced Machine-Type Communication (eMTC) and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) technologies.
Ixia, now part of Keysight Technologies, provides testing, visibility, and security solutions to strengthen networks and cloud environments for enterprises, service providers, and network equipment manufacturers.
These technologies are new 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)-defined and will help manage the density expected with IoT and lay the foundation for 5G.
Cellular IoT provides wireless communications for devices and applications that need low-power and wide-range communication connectivity, and have infrequent data transmission.
According to Ixia, IxLoad-Wireless generates real-world traffic enabling network equipment makers and carriers to fully test the performance of LTE components and networks. IxLoad-Wireless supports multiple Cellular IoT interfaces including S1-Lite, a modified version of the existing S1-MME interface used for the control plane to signal or control messages, and the user plane the data being transferred between users, plus S11u for small data transmission. This allows IxLoad to emulate both the network and IoT user equipment (UE) to test IoT network nodes in isolation or the entire IoT ecosystem.
To effectively validate the performance of devices and networks in the lab, emulated test traffic must closely mimic real network traffic. IxLoad accomplishes this by simulating IoT network traffic details such as the signaling and messaging for Power-Save Mode and eDRX (extended Discontinuous Reception), where a UE stays inactive for set periods of time to extend battery life.
Chang-Seok Seo, EVP and Head of Network Strategy Unit, KT
KT is launching its first Narrow Band-Internet of Things(NB-IoT) service in Seoul and metropolitan areas thanks to close collaboration with Samsung. IoT services will remove boundaries between industries with their ability to connect everything. KT will open up new possibilities of the IoT era by generating unprecedented services and industry convergence.
Jinsoo Jeong, SVP an Head of Dmomestic Business Marketing, Samsung Electronics
As a strategic partner, we provided KT with NB-IoT features complying with all the latest enhancements in 3GPP standard specification in a short period of time to support KT’s pioneering work.
