Agilent Technologies introduced solutions that will directly address wireless service providers' urgent need to reduce operational expenditures as they deploy 2.5G and 3G wireless networks.

Picture shows Agilent Base Station Test Set.

The new solutions, including a Base Station Test Set that is the most comprehensive, single-box base station tester on the market, are designed to significantly improve the productivity of technicians and RF engineers. Wireless service providers can use the solutions to increase the efficiency and speed of planning, deploying, maintaining and optimizing their wireless networks, such as cdma2000, GSM, GPRS, and UMTS.

The new solutions include the following:

-- Agilent Base Station Test Set, which is the most comprehensive one-box tester available today for deploying and maintaining wireless base stations. Now technicians will no longer need to carry, manage and learn multiple test sets to perform base station maintenance. This portable, easy-to-use solution combines the most highly utilized BTS tools into a single box that technicians can use for daily maintenance. By consolidating the most frequently used tools, the solution dramatically increases technician productivity and helps reduce training costs and the time and expense of commissioning and maintaining new base stations. The test set is field-rugged for all testing environments and supports cdmaOne, cdma2000, TDMA and analog systems, GSM and UMTS base stations.

-- Agilent Wireless Network Optimization Platform, a comprehensive system that enables service providers and equipment manufacturers to optimize all major 2G, 2.5G and 3G networks quickly and accurately. Agilent has added UMTS phone-based measurements -- including integrated IP/application data test and engineering parameters -- to existing receiver-based measurements. The integrated platform helps operators solve data quality of service issues faster and more completely, minimizing the required number of drive tests and maximizing engineering efficiency.

-- Agilent Air Interface Remote Monitoring System, which now supports GSM and GPRS, allows service providers to improve the efficiency of wireless optimization by up to 60 percent. Remote measuring probes, typically located inside fleet vehicles, continuously collect RF performance data and sends this data back to the central server for analysis. Service providers can use the system to identify and resolve networkproblems within hours rather than days or weeks.

-- Agilent Wizard, a wireless network planning and design software tool that helps service providers quickly migrate from 2G to 2.5G and 3G networks and now supports the migration from TDMA to GSM and GPRS. Wizard allows RF design engineers to completely simulate a network and model various subscriber usage patterns, which ensures complete and reliable network performance as a network is deployed or expanded. By detecting RF problems in the planning stage, Wizard can help service providers reduce deployment time by as much as 20 percent.

Increased financial pressures on wireless service providers worldwide have slowed the deployment of 2.5G and 3G wireless networks. However, subscribers are demanding new wireless applications currently unavailable on existing networks, including video messaging and high-bandwidth mobile Internet connectivity. Agilent's solutions will help service providers work within existing financial constraints to build the networks required for these and future applications.
"Wireless service providers face enormous financial challenges as they deploy 2.5G and 3G networks," said Eric McHenry, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Wireless Network Test Division. "In an environment of declining average revenue per user and slowing subscriber growth, the need to cost-effectively plan, deploy, maintain and optimize networks is more acute than ever. The Agilent Base Station Test Set and our other new solutions will help increase productivity, cut operating costs, improve the bottom line and make 2.5G and 3G a reality."