Rohde & Schwarz and Qasara Collaborate on LTE Protocol Verification

Rohde & Schwarz and Qasara announced a joint programme to verify inter-operability between Rohde & Schwarz’s 3GPP LTE Virtual Tester and Qasara’s LTE compliant UE protocol stack. The collaboration between Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) and Qasara provides an independent verification of a complete, end-to-end, LTE protocol stack. LTE is set to enable the next generation of mobile broadband products, deploying enhanced services to mobile users and enabling the vision of universal mobile connectivity.

Focusing initially on the complex interactions and data flows in the LTE Medium Access Control (MAC) and Radio Link Control (RLC) Layers the ongoing programme will propose and implement joint solutions for any inter-operability and standardization issues identified. Both Rohde & Schwarz and Qasara plan to make the results of this ongoing verification programme available through the 3GPP standardisation process and to incorporate the results into each company’s future LTE products releases to customers.

“This collaboration is built on long standing relationships between engineers from Rohde & Schwarz and Qasara” added Rob Meades, Chief Operations Officer at Qasara, “This provides a fantastic opportunity to enhance the products of both companies and accelerate the deployment of LTE technology world-wide”.

“We are delighted to be working with Rohde & Schwarz to verify inter-operability between Qasara’s LTE UE optimized protocol stack and R&S’s LTE Virtual Tester. Rohde & Schwarz is the acknowledged leader in the field of wireless standards testing and verification. Qasara’s team has many years experience in the development of highly optimized cellular protocol stacks used in millions of cellular products deployed in the field today. The synergies were obvious from the outset.” said Michael Barkway Chief Executive Officer of Qasara Ltd.

“The R&S Virtual Tester provides a powerful environment for testing LTE UE protocol stack software. It is based on a fully 3GPP compliant reference implementation. Verification of interoperability between the Qasara LTE UE protocol stack implementation and the R&S Virtual Tester is of great benefit,” said Thomas Moosburger, Head of R&D LTE Protocol Testers of Rohde & Schwarz. “This joint programme announced today will enhance both company’s LTE products and also support the 3GPP LTE standardisation and trial process,” added Anton Messmer, Director of Subdivision Mobile Radio Testers of Rohde & Schwarz.