Rohde & Schwarz Mobile Network Testing Blog - Get more value out of your network

By Jens Berger | February 2, 2017 | 1,250 views

What different models for predicting visual quality exist? What models are applicable for which test cases?

In a previous blog entry about the challenges of mobile video services, we discussed video quality as a perceived metric and how it can be measured subjectively in viewing sessions. In this post, we will take a closer look at automated video quality measurement methods, often called objective measurements, which are applied in real field video quality measurements. An objective…

By Oliver Jonas | January 26, 2017 | 840 views

Harmonizing user interfaces: single sign-on (part 2 of 3)

We all know the burden of having to remember the myriad of usernames and passwords we use to log in to various systems and applications. User accounts, e-mail, web sites, online banking – the list goes on. Some platforms require a username, others an e-mail address. Many applications have different password complexity requirements and password expiration times, and of course, you…

By Arnd Sibila | January 19, 2017 | 1,787 views

Smart macro network enhancements: antenna tilt optimization

Antenna tilt optimization is a cost-efficient and smart approach to increase the capacity in mobile networks. Today, operators have to focus more and more on data capacity and network densification. Also, particularly in urban and dense urban environments, macro cells need to be smaller and coverage needs to be limited. One important method to achieve this is antenna downtilting. It…

By Yunuen Wagner | January 12, 2017 | 998 views

Identifying passive intermodulation

Passive intermodulation is nothing new. It has been an issue since the first commercial networks. In GSM, for example, whenever a PIM issue was present, network operators could easily re-allocate frequencies without affecting the service. With 3G and 4G, however, frequency re-allocation is no longer possible. PIM problems have to be dealt with. They have become even more important as…

By Oliver Jonas | January 5, 2017 | 1,283 views

Searching vs browsing: why the SmartMonitor is smarter

Good navigation and quick access to features are vital for the success of any web application. On the Internet, browsing is the primary navigation method on most sites, but as content grows it can become quite difficult to solve UX (user experience) challenges with a structured navigation alone. Creators and designers – whether of websites or other software user interfaces…

By Arnd Sibila | December 29, 2016 | 10,050 views

Smart macro network enhancements: 4×4 MIMO

The various macro network enhancements available today offer a cost-efficient and smart approach for capacity increase in mobile networks. In the first part of this series, we provided an overview of the hardware-related capacity enhancing features and discussed carrier aggregation in detail. The second part of this series discusses higher order MIMO antenna configurations, particularly 4×4 MIMO. The potential of…

By Jens Berger | December 21, 2016 | 1,466 views

Evaluating visual quality and video MOS based on subjective perception

Video services are very popular and so is their use today in various services and media. YouTube and Netflix are merely the pioneers in video streaming; many other services have followed. Broadcasting stations move more and more content online, videos are shared via social media, and peer-to-peer applications are on the rise; for example, video chat services (e.g. Skype), or…

By Oliver Jonas | December 19, 2016 | 585 views

Harmonizing user interfaces: how to avoid user interface fragmentation (part 1 of 3)

User interface (UI) fragmentation is a problem that many large companies face when their products are created by different teams. Different teams may have different tendencies and preferences, the products may use different technology stacks and the applications may use different frameworks. The results are often fragmented and inconsistent user interfaces. The higher the fragmentation across your products, the higher…

By Andreas Richard | December 18, 2016 | 790 views

How phone design affects system design

In our introduction to how system design enhances the quality and reliability of measurements, we hinted at a myriad of key factors that have an effect on end-user experience, one of them being the device itself and the technologies it supports. In this post, we will look at the evolution of phone design and how it impacts the engineering and designing…