Sales of WLAN RF performance testers supporting IEEE 802.11ac/n/a/g/b have begun.

Anritsu Corporation announced that it has started selling its new MT8862A, which features the industry's first network mode for testing IEEE 802.11ac WLAN devices.

This new model is designed for WLAN testing. Equipped with built-in communication protocols supporting IEEE 802.11ac, n, a, g, and b standards, the MT8862A measures the performance of a Device Under Test (DUT) under actual operating conditions using network mode. RF performance characteristics such as Tx power and Rx sensitivity (PER) can be measured using network mode. This network mode facilitates simple test environment configuration and eliminates the need for dedicated test modes provided by chipset vendors required for WLAN device inspection.

WLAN is rapidly being used not only in mobile devices such as smartphones but also in many other applications, including home appliances such as TVs and cleaners, connected cars, industrial equipment, and sensors, due to the expansion of IoT.

These device manufacturers anticipate an increase in user inquiries regarding WLAN performance, particularly concerning propagation distance and reception sensitivity. Generally, WLAN inspection equipment utilizes special inspection modes for measurements that require a physical control line connection between the WLAN equipment and the measurement equipment.

Consequently, since the measured performance of the WLAN device is analyzed using the physical connection to the control line without considering the influence of the internal wireless antenna, the evaluation results do not actually reflect the real performance experienced by the user. The current Anritsu MT8860C model used in this analysis has a network mode but does not support the IEEE 802.11ac standard. To address this issue, Anritsu developed a new model, the MT8862A, which implements support for the IEEE 802.11ac network mode.

The MT8862A wireless connectivity test set is suitable for measuring RF TRx characteristics during the design and quality assurance of WLAN devices. It features WLAN protocol messaging, a specification standard that enables measurements by connecting to the DUT in network mode. The MT8862A can be easily operated using a web browser after connecting to a PC via an Ethernet interface, which simplifies measurement environment setup and eliminates the need for configuration.