Rohde & Schwarz PTW70 WLAN Protocol Tester

Objective of the R&S PTW70

The WLAN Protocol Tester R&S PTW 70 represents a considerable enhancement in speed, accuracy and cost-effective-ness in the complex measurement tasks involved in multi-standard wireless LAN systems.

Target customers

• Innovators in wireless LAN chip-set and protocol-stack development
• Suppliers of wireless LAN system components and infrastructures
• Consulting firms and engineers specializing in radiocommunications and telecommunication systems
• Professional providers and users of WLAN-based services and networks
• Laboratories and test houses perform-ing interoperability, compatibility and certification tests

What does IEEE 802.11 multimode protocol tester mean?

IEEE 802.11 currently specifies wireless LAN systems for the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band (802.11b and 802.11g) and the 5 GHz U-NII frequency band (802.11a).The R&S® PTW 70 supports the 802.11a and 802.11g systems, i.e. it offers a wide range of functions from the RF frontend, the physical protocol layer, the MAC protocol layer through to applications. As to 802.11b functionality, the focus is on interoperability measurements, particularly the monitor mode and analysis functions for testing 802.11b and 802.11g interoperability. IEEE 802.11 defines a number of additional functions for the PHY and MAC protocol layers. These functions and their implementation in the R&S® PTW 70 are listed in Table 1.

IEEE Standard		R&S PTW70 availability	Comments
802.11a	PHY/MAC layers for high-speed WLAN in 5 GHz frequency band	x
802.11b	PHY/MAC layers for WLAN in 2.4 GHz frequency band		Sniffer mode and 2.4 GHz interoperability testing
802.11c	MAC layer procedures to cover bridge operation with 802.11		Please ask about availability
802.11d	PHY layer requirements to extend the operations of 802.11 to new regulatory domains	x
802.11e	MAC layer enhancement to improve and manage QoS	x	See application note for further details
802.11f	Inter-access point protocol to support multi-vendor AP interoperability across a DS		Please ask about availability
802.11g	PHY/MAC layers for high-speed WLAN in 2.4 GHz frequency band		Mandatory parts are implemented
802.11h	PHY/MAC layer enhancement (DFS/TPC)	x	See application note for further details
802.11i	MAC layer enhancement to improve security and authentication mechanisms	x	See application note for further details
802.11j	PHY/MAC layer enhancement to apply the Japanese rules for radio operation in 4.9 GHz and 5 GHz bands		Please ask about availability
802.11k	Radio resource measurement enhancements provide interfaces to higher layers for radio and network measurements		Please ask about availability

Table 1: IEEE 802.11 standards versus R&S® PTW 70 implementation (as of October 2003)