PCTEST Selects Spirent for Carrier Conformance Testing of IMS/VoLTE

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (March  26, 2014) — Spirent Communications, the leading provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services, announced today that PCTEST Engineering Laboratory, Inc. has selected the Spirent 8100 Mobile Device Test System to expand its VoLTE/IMS testing capabilities to include IMS, RCS and VoLTE E911. PCTEST will use the Spirent 8100 to support major US carriers and their ecosystems, providing testing services for IMS/VoLTE, including the ability to fallback to legacy services when needed. 

With the goal of surpassing Over-The-Top (OTT) voice services, VoLTE presents wireless carriers with the challenge of guaranteeing a quality of experience that meets or exceeds what the mobile subscriber is used to today. A major aspect of maintaining quality of experience is ensuring seamless and reliable voice services across multiple radio access technologies.  With initial VoLTE deployments, operators will need to ensure VoLTE-capable devices are able to fallback to legacy systems such as CDMA when moving out of an LTE service area.  The 8100 platform is equipped to address these critical mobility scenarios and the complex interoperability issues between LTE and legacy technologies such as CDMA and EVDO.

“The successful launch of VoLTE services will only happen when carriers are confident their subscribers will experience the same or better voice quality as on 3G networks,” said Randy Ortanez, President of PCTEST. “Spirent’s industry-leading device acceptance testing experience for both legacy and 4G networks has enabled us to provide the most complete test capabilities to our customers and help to facilitate an efficient and successful launch of VoLTE services.” 

“The ability to guarantee VoLTE quality of experience introduces a new level of complexity in device acceptance testing and requires new test methodologies to ensure device performance,” said Rob VanBrunt, General Manager, Wireless Solutions at Spirent Communications. “In addition to VoLTE conformance, Spirent has partnered with PCTEST on Over-The-Air Antenna Performance testing, the best methodology available today to fully characterize device performance. Our continued collaboration with PCTEST delivers the most robust test capabilities to the ecosystems of leading North American operators.”

Spirent’s VoLTE/IMS portfolio covers a broad range of test capabilities for industry standards and operator specific areas, including IMS, RCS, Audio Quality and VoLTE E911.

Additional Resources:

• 8100 Mobile Test Platform:

  http://www.spirent.com/Products/8100_LTE 

• 8100 Location Technology Solution:

  http://www.spirent.com/Products/8100_Location_Technology

• Video:

  Voice over LTE (VoLTE) E911 Emergency Services