Rohde & Schwarz and Qasara have 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 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. Both companies are working to address the technical challenges presented by this new standard.

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. The results of this ongoing verification programme will be made available through the 3GPP standardisation process and the results will be incorporated 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,” said 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 worldwide.”

Thomas Moosburger, head of R&D LTE Protocol Testers of Rohde & Schwarz, replied, "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.”