SoCtronics | Wireless Testing

We have expertise on multiple wireless protocols testing which includes Bluetooth, Zigbee, RF based Mesh networking and WiGig(802.11ad), IEEE 802.15.4, 802.11ad, 802.11ac/802.11s

It encompasses:

Certification testing for bluetooth stack/BLE Mesh stack on Low Power SOC.
Zigbee testing of TI stack on low power SOC.
Smart meter Mesh protocol testing on RF network.
WiGig based Wireless VR tested using beamforming between GPU and Head mounted device.

Testing is performed by using different equipments and tools:

Network sniffers and wireshark
Logic analyzers
Oscilloscopes

Bluetooth mesh networking enables many-to-many (m:m) device communications and is optimized for creating large-scale device networks. It is ideally suited for building automation, sensor network, asset tracking, and other IoT solutions that require tens, hundreds or thousands of devices to communicate with one another. SIG certification tests are done using the PTS (Profile Tuning Suite) dongle.

We have tested on low power SOC with integrated bluetooth and Zigbee connectivity which help customers develop low bandwidth IOT based products and services like Smart devices/sensor networks with power efficiency.It enables BLE with Mesh network technology using Nimble and Zephr stack.

Test expertise area:

Tested scenarios related to Generic Access Profile functionality Using Profile tuning suite:
- General and Limited discovery and discoverable modes
- Broadcaster and observer roles
- General and Limited Inquiry
- Non Connectable, Undirected, autoconnect, general, selective modes
- Random Private address, Resolvable Private address
- Privacy feature
Tested scenarios related to Security Manager functionality Using Profile tuning suite:
- Just_Works
- Pass_Key
- Out_of_Band_data
- Encryption_Key
- Signed_Data
- Pairing
- LE_Secure_connection
Tested scenarios related to Generic Attribute Profile functionality Using Profile tuning suite:
- Gatt Read/Write
- Service discovery
- Service discovery
- Client characteristic configuration

Mesh stack testing including

Low power Node,
Friend Node
Relay node
Proxy Node
Edge node
Adv Provisioning bearer
Mesh Provisioning Service
Secure Network beacons
Net key, App Key, key refresh, IV Updates
Publication and Subscription procedures
Current and Registered Fault State.

Interoperability tests using different Mobile devices and BLE Sensors

On integrated low power SOC,tested Zigbee protocol based on 802.15.4 standard using TI Stack.

Test Expertise Area:

Zigbee functionality related to Unicast/Broadcast/Multicast mode
Network Creation, Key distribution
Network joining using primary/secondary channels.
Identifying and communicating with different Zigbee stacks profile(Legacy, Pro and Green Powered).
Assisted Binding and Device application binding manager.
Network roles testing for e.g Coordinator device, end device and router device.

Brief Overview.

The project is about AMI(Advance metering Infrastructure) based smart meters in which there is two-way communication between Smart meters and Utility Operators. Smart Utility meters are used for automatic collection of multiple intervals of billing data in engineering units from households to billing stations in a secured manner.The two-way communication is achieved by RF based mesh networks which consists of endpoints, repeaters, access points etc. Our team is involved in testing smart utility meters related to Water, Gas and Energy with different network devices using RF based proprietary mesh networking protocol.

The device includes:

Battery powered Smart Meters
Continuous powered Smart Meters

Our expertise in Test Areas:

Testing network discovery,joining the network and acquiring network identification.
Testing commands and responses between Smart meters and Access points in a lab environment.
Testing APIs at different levels (MAC layer/Network Layer/Application Layer).
Testing different topologies ( Mesh/Star/String of Pearls).
Testing of different security protocols between devices(Network Secure registration using digital certificates/Encryption/Authentication/ Authorization between network entities)
Billing meter data collection by Collection servers
Over the air multicast Firmware Upgrade and activation of firmware.
Handoff scenarios between two parents.
Time Synchronization between different devices and networks
Testing Network loss and PAN migrations scenarios
Test scenarios related to short duty cycle, long duty cycle and Regulatory duty cycle.
Link evaluation testing between nodes via applicable medium.

Deep testing is done to validate below features

Network stability
Network performance
Correct functioning of algorithms
CSMA-CA
Correct channel hopping
Synchronization
Crystal Drift compensation
Busy lists
Duplicate detection
Duty Cycle Regulation

This solution is about replacing the wired link (DP and USB) between Gaming Console and VR Head Mount Device (HMD) with Wireless link using 60GHz IEEE 802.11 AD protocol. which allows sending the data at 7 Gbps rate with channel bandwidth 2.16 GHZ for maximum 10 meters range. This wireless VR (WVR) solution allows the vendors to develop a gaming system with which users can have seamless and wonderful VR experience with high end graphic games.

Features Tested:

Firmware Flash
Throughput test to validate the Wireless link with different MCS & Packet size
Wireless link quality between GPU & HMD in different use cases
DP Video 1080P 120Hz & audio – System Use case test with different MCS & C -ratio
DP Video 2K 90Hz – System Use case test with different MCS & C -ratio
DP Video 4K 60Hz – System Use case test with different MCS & C -ratio
USB Web camera & file transfer
Concurrent test scenarios
Flash & Boot
Wireless link quality
Throughput
Video Playback over wireless link
Remote Logging to debug issues on HMD side
Concurrency
USB packet generation & Camera data over wireless link from USB webcam

Test Equipment:

Sony Playstation
Sony PSVR headset
Full HD, 2K & 4K Gaming monitors
USB Web camera
DP 1.4 cables & DP⇔ HDMI converters
SW Tools - iperf