Design Of Automatic Test System Uses In TD-LTE Base Station RF Analysis

The global commercialization and industrialization of LTE is still in its infancy. The three major 3G standard groups, WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TD-SCDMA are almost fully engaged in the LTE development and testing. In order to meet current market requirement for research and development of TD-LTE equipment, it is imperative to design and develop automatic test systems for RF analysis of TD-LTE base stations such that the relevant equipment vendors, operators and research institutions can be supported to validate and test RF performance of TD-LTE base stations.This paper introduces the current status of LTE development, describes the basic principles of LTE technology, and generalizes a group of RF test items and test methods for TD-LTE base station according to the relevant standards, based on which, test system requirements analysis is taken, both software and hardware architecture of the test system is investigated. Design for RF switch unit and the automatic test software are completed as well, based on Visual Basic 6.0, SQL Server 2000 database programming environment.The platform consists of automatic testing software, PC, RF switch unit and test instruments. Automatic test software controls the test process, RF switch unit sets up the test link, in which it controls testing instruments to complete the test. With back-end database used to manage instrumentation and test equipment, test results and other related information, the test system can complete data acquisition, processing and display for test results, automatic generation for test reports and so on.The automatic test system described above can test the TD-LTE base station equipments effectively, with considerable compatibility and scalability to meet the requirement of TD-LTE devices development. Test results show that the system has satisfactory accuracy and operability. The test system can complete automated test for the TD-LTE base station equipment and improve the test efficiency. The test system is helpful to the TD-LTE equipment vendors, operators and research institutions to verify and test the RP performance of TD-LTE base station equipments.