Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, has announced immediate availability of the first commercialized test solution for LTE assisted GPS (A-GPS) Over-The Air (OTA) Testing.

This solution was co-developed by Spirent and ETS-Lindgren, two industry leaders in location testing.

This collaborative work is aligned with the upcoming version 3.2 of the CTIA Test Plan for Mobile Station Over the Air Performance and will prepare the industry for what will soon be a test requirement for LTE-enabled phones launched in North America.

With LTE now a standard capability on most new smartphones coming to market in North America, it becomes essential to test the A-GPS functionality in these devices over an LTE data connection.

A-GPS remains the most widely used positioning technology on mobile devices, and is a critical element in establishing compliance with FCC E911 Phase II performance standards.

With the introduction of LTE, new positioning protocols such as SUPL 2.0 and LPP are required to enable A-GPS position fixes.

This leads to important differences in OTA testing of A-GPS for LTE when compared with the GSM, CDMA and WCDMA A-GPS testing in v3.1 of the CTIA test plan.

"As industry leaders in LTE testing and major contributors to the CTIA LTE A-GPS standard, we are thrilled to extend our collaborative partnership with ETS-Lindgren," said Spirent Vice President Hesham ElHamahmy.

"Providing the first test solution compliant with CTIA v3.2 enables the industry to ensure the successful deployment of A-GPS devices on LTE networks."

"The performance of GPS antennas is one of the biggest contributors to overall positioning accuracy on mobile devices," said Bryan Sayler, senior vice president, Test Solutions, ETS-Lindgren.

"Our long-standing partnership with Spirent now brings an LTE A-GPS OTA test solution to the industry, giving the design engineer a complete picture of real-world device performance."

LTE A-GPS OTA testing is an upgrade option for Spirent's market-leading test solution for A-GPS, and it builds on prior collaboration between ETS-Lindgren and Spirent for GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA A-GPS OTA testing.

Existing users of ETS-Lindgren anechoic chamber solutions for OTA testing can easily upgrade to add this new LTE capability.