US : Catapult Communications announced extensive femtocell test capability on the DCT2000® test system, enabling customers to verify femtocells on LTE, UMTS, CDMA2000 and WiMAX networks over IP, SS7 and ATM transports.

A femtocell extends the reach of the cellular network into homes and small offices providing users higher quality voice and data coverage. Network equipment manufacturers and service providers can verify femtocell access points and gateways, also known as the Home Node B (HNB) and the Home Node B Gateway (HNB-GW), by using the DCT2000 to simulate core networks and generate voice, video and data traffic. The DCT2000 supports the TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol for testing the management interface to femtocell access points. The Femto Forum recently announced its members have agreed to implement this key femtocell management protocol.

"Using the DCT2000, equipment manufacturers and carriers can simulate tens of thousands of femtocell access points to verify femtocell gateways, or simulate those gateways to test the access points," explains Adam Fowler, Catapult Marketing Vice President. "Our flexible test system can be used for functional and load testing of femtocells and their access networks, as well as performing end-to-end system tests for handovers, interworking and negative testing among the various technologies."

Fowler adds, "The DCT2000 can completely wrap around femtocell gateways by the simulating core networks and multiple femtocells. No other test product in the industry delivers this scalable high capacity load, high data rates and comprehensive protocols on a single platform."

Catapult offers test packages for simulating femtocell access points, user equipment, core networks, gateways and management servers. The DCT2000, with its emphasis on full-stack validation, provides confidence to network equipment manufacturers and service providers by supporting the smooth integration of femtocells into new networks. Unmatched in flexibility and scalability, Catapult test systems meet the needs for testing different stages in the product life cycle, different test environments, and different network technologies