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Testing Those Millions Of Wireless IoT Devices



August 07, 2018


There may one day be billions or even trillions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in service, using the Internet to connect to us and to each other. IoT technology is already making homes, factories, warehouses, and even vehicles smarter, using sensors, detectors, RFID tags, radio transceivers, and software to provide data about different equipment and environments that can be collected and analyzed at any time. IoT devices can be accessed by any communications equipment such as mobile phones and laptop computers capable of connecting to the Internet. The Internet provides the means of linking the IoT devices to each other and providing data about how they are being used and about the environments in which they are being used. Ideally, IoT devices provide the insights needed for optimized electronic devices and improved operating environments.

IoT devices allow businesses to improve their efficiency over time, by keeping track of trends and changes. For this to happen, however, those IoT devices must be maintained, and this requires the right test equipment and measurements. Portable test equipment provides the flexibility to perform where needed, and check IoT devices within their operating environments and as connected to different networks. IoT devices are typically small, but they are not simple, since they rely on several different hardware and software technologies and IoT testing may involve one or more of these technologies, such as characterizing radio performance, network access, or even power consumption to estimate operating lifetime on a battery.

IoT devices are part of a multiple layer technology stack which includes the hardware (the IoT devices), connectivity to the Internet, data management, different applications and data analysis, and different forms of data and access security. It is not a single IoT device that makes a home, office, or vehicle “smart,” but the fact that one IoT device is connected at any time to so many other IoT devices and can share the data from all IoT devices on the Internet.

IoT devices may be connected to each other and to the Internet by any number of communications systems, including cellular communications, wide-area networks (WANs), satellite communications (satcom) systems, short-range wireless systems, and wireline networks. Radio testing on wireless IoT devices, for example, can be challenging quite simply because of the many wireless standards employed for IoT products. A wireless IoT device may be connected by means of Bluetooth, Fourth Generation (4G) Long Term Evolution (LTE) cellular systems, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, and even possibly one day Fifth Generation (5G) wireless communications networks. The frequency range of an IoT device using multiple wireless standards can be quite wide, requiring broadband test equipment for signal generation and analysis, such as vector signal generators, microwave spectrum analyzers, and high-speed oscilloscopes.

 

Windows on the IoT World

Spectrum analyzers are among the most versatile of test instruments for evaluating the “in situ” performance of an IoT device since the appropriate analyzer can “observe” a selected portion of frequency spectrum to study not just the IoT device but other radio transmitters in its proximity and the possibilities for interference. For example, the Tektronix RSA5000 Series real-time spectrum analyzers (RSAs) includes models with wide frequency ranges and the wide dynamic ranges needed for measurements of low-power IoT radio links even as surrounded by other wireless transmitters, such as WLANs, in the same operating environment. The RSA5000 Series includes the RSA5103A with frequency range of 1 Hz to 3 GHz, the RSA5106A with frequency range of 1 Hz to 6.2 GHz, and the microwave model RSA5126A, with broad measurement range of 1 Hz to 26.5 GHz.

The RSAs can study many different types of signals, including pulsed signals and those with modulation, such as amplitude modulation (AM), frequency modulation (FM), and phase modulation (PM) using built-in demodulators. The RSAs offer acquisition bandwidths—the among of bandwidth that can be “seen” by the analyzer at any one time—as wide as 110 MHz, with enough memory to capture more than 7 s worth of signal activity across a 110-MHz bandwidth to simplify the analysis of an IoT operating environment. The RSAs incorporate electromagnetic-interference (EMI) detectors to enable them to detect EMI problems that may stem from multiple IoT devices in an application or from IoT devices mounted near other EM radiators.

One day, the 26.5-GHz upper frequency range of the RSA spectrum analyzers may seem a bit limiting, specially with the use of 5G wireless networks and their millimeter-wave signals for short-range, high-speed data links. Such links will allow enhanced data transfers from IoT devices but will also require IoT devices capable of operating at 28 GHz and higher frequencies. For analyzing such devices, a higher-frequency spectrum analyzer will be needed, such as the Rohde & Schwarz FSW67 signal and spectrum analyzer. This is a spectrum analyzer with DC-coupled bandwidth of 2 Hz to 67 GHz and on-screen marker resolution of 1 Hz. With impressive displayed average noise level (DANL) of better than -150 dBm through 25 GHz and better than -145 dBm at the highest frequencies, this is a power broadband instrument to capture the short-range millimeter-wave signals from IoT devices that will soon be commonplace on 5G cellular networks.

 

Generating IoT Signals

Spectrum and signal analyzers are useful tools for characterizing an IoT device’s transmit performance and capabilities for linking to the Internet through a wired or wireless connection. On the receive side, some means of emulating signals sent to an IoT device is needed, and vector signal generators (VSGs) such as the Rohde & Schwarz SMBV100A covers a frequency range of 9 kHz to 3.2 GHz or from 9 kHz to 6 GHz with many options, such as the capability to create multiple-satellite-signal environments, including with navigation and Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite signals.

For high-frequency signals in multiple-channel formats, as might be needed for IoT testing in multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) systems, the Rohde & Schwarz SMW200A VSA provides flexible generation of complex signals. It is available in single-channel and multiple-channel formats with frequency ranges starting at 100 kHz and through 3, 6, 12.75, 20, 31.8, and 40 GHz.

 

All-in-One Tester

Of course, it is also possible to pack the equivalent of a complete test laboratory into a single portable package, and test both IoT transmit and receive functions with one instrument, with the Tektronix MDO4000C Series 6-in-1 mixed-domain oscilloscopes, which combines an oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, arbitrary/function generator, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, and digital voltmeter (DVM)/frequency counter. These are measuring tools that is as capable of charactering an IoT device on the design bench as when connected to a network in an application.

As an example, the Tektronix MDO4054C features an oscilloscope with four analog channels, bandwidths of 200 MHz, 350 MHz, 500 MHz, or 1 GHz (and upgradeable to 1 GHz), and sample rates to 5 GSamples/s. It can also provide a spectrum analyzer with frequency range of 9 kHz to 3 GHz or 9 kHz to 6 GHz and capture bandwidth of greater than 1 GHz. With its array of measurement functions, it is well suited for time-synchronized analysis of IoT and other wireless communications signals.

This is a small sampling of the instruments available for IoT wireless device testing on the Axiom Test Equipment website. More information, including data sheets for any of the instruments mentioned above, can be found by searching Axiom’s website, by emailing Axiom's sales department at sales@axiomtest.com, or by calling an Axiom sales representative at 760-806-6600.



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