Introduction of the new generation TR-398 test system WTE NE

TR-398 is the standard for indoor Wi-Fi performance testing released by the Broadband Forum at Mobile World Congress 2019 (MWC), is the industry's first home consumer AP Wi-Fi performance testing standard. In the newly released standard in 2021, TR-398 provides a set of performance test cases with PASS/FAIL requirements for 802.11n/ac/ax implementations, with a comprehensive range of test items and clearly defined Settings for test setup information, devices used, and test environments. It can effectively assist manufacturers to test the Wi-Fi performance of indoor home gateways, and will become a unified test standard for home Wi-Fi network connection performance in the future.

The Broadband Forum is an international non-profit industry organization, also known as BBF. The predecessor was the DSL Forum established in 1999, and later developed into today's BBF by integrating several forums such as FRF and ATM. BBF unites operators, equipment manufacturers, testing organizations, laboratories, etc., all over the world. Its published specifications include cable network standards such as PON, VDSL, DSL, Gfast, and are highly influential in the industry.

Number	TR398 test project	Test execution requirement
1	6.1.1 Receiver Sensitivity Test	Optional
2	6.2.1 Maximum Connection Test	Necessary
3	6.2.2 Maximum Throughput Test	Necessary
4	6.2.3 Airtime Fairness Test	Necessary
5	6.2.4 Dual-band Throughput Test	Necessary
6	6.2.5 Bidirectional Throughput Test	Necessary
7	6.3.1 Range Versus Rate Test	Necessary
8	6.3.2 Spatial consistency test（360 degree direction）	Necessary
9	6.3.3 802.11ax Peak Performance Test	Necessary
10	6.4.1 Multiple STAs Performance Test	Necessary
11	6.4.2 Multiple Association/Disassociation Stability Test	Necessary
12	6.4.3 Downlink MU-MIMO Performance Test	Necessary
13	6.5.1 Long Term Stability Test	Necessary
14	6.5.2 AP Coexistence Test（Multi-source anti-interference）	Necessary
15	6.5.3 Automatic Channel Selection Test	Optional

TR-398 Latest test item form

WTE-NE Product Introduction:
At present, the traditional test solution on the market to solve the TR-398 standard requires the instrumentation of various manufacturers to cooperate with each other, and the integrated test system is often huge and occupies high resources. In addition, there are also a series of problems such as the imperfect interoperability of various test data, limited ability to locate problems, and high costs for the entire system. The WTE NE series of products launched by BTF Testing Lab can realize the perfect replacement of instruments from various manufacturers, and open all test projects in the entire link from the RF layer to the application layer on a single instrument. It perfectly solves the problem that the traditional instrument has no interoperability in the test data, and can further analyze the cause of the problem while helping the user locate the problem. In addition, the product can provide users with in-depth customized development services based on the standard protocol stack, and truly implement the actual needs of users to the specific test functions of the instrument.

WIFI network emulator

NE currently supports all test cases of the TR-398 and can support one-click automated test generation of test reports.

NE TR-398 test project presentation

·WTE NE can offer thousands of 802.11 simultaneously and traffic simulation with Ethernet users, moreover, the linear velocity analysis can be performed on the characteristics of the test system.
·A WTE NE chassis can be configured with up to 16 test modules, each of which is independent of traffic generation and performance analysis.
·Each test module can simulate 500 WLAN or Ethernet users, which can be in one subnet or multiple subnets.
·It can provide traffic simulation and analysis between WLAN users, Ethernet users/servers, or roaming WLAN users.
·It can provide full line speed Gigabit Ethernet traffic simulation.
·Each user can host multiple flows, each of which provides throughput at the PHY,MAC, and IP layers.
·It can provide real-time statistics of each port, statistics of each flows, and packet capture information, for accurate analysis by users.

6.2.4 Dual-band Throughput Test

6.2.2 Maximum Throughput Test

6.3.1 Range Versus Rate Test

WTE NE can realize visual operation and test result analysis through upper computer software, and also supports automated use case scripts, which can complete all test cases of TR-398 in one click and output automated test reports. All parameter configurations of the instrument can be controlled by standard SCPI instructions, and open the corresponding control interface to facilitate users to integrate some automated test case scripts. Compared to other TR398 test systems, WTE-NE combines the advantages of other products on the market today, not only ensuring the ease of software operation, but also streamlining the overall test system. Based on the core technology of the meter itself to accurately measure weak wireless signals down to -80 DBM, the entire TR-398 test system is reduced to a single WTE-NE meter and an OTA dark room. A series of external hardware such as test rack, programmable attenuator and interference generator are eliminated, making the whole test environment more concise and reliable.

TR-398 Automated Test Report display: