All posts by Mark Hakim

Qosmotec showcases its Car-2-X test system at the 2015 ITS World Congress in Bordeaux, France. Between October 5th-9th 2015 Qosmotec will demonstrate that it is not necessary to be a radio expert for running a channel emulation.

Qosmotec’s Car-2-X test system QPER C2X provides engineers with a powerful means to reduce testing on the road significantly, getting Car-2-X communication out of the transition zone. QPER-C2X emulates the radio transmission in car-to-car communication scenarios on a HiL test bench under real-life conditions. This powerful test system executes drive tests in the lab reproducibly. It is used for

• ITS station benchmarking
• integration of ITS stations into the car
• finding the right antenna mounting position in the car
• reproduction of complex traffic scenarios in the lab.

ITS World Congress attracts experts from the Intelligent Transport System field from all over the World – from the automotive industry to public systems operators and systems integrators to users.

Qosmotec’s exhibition at the 2015 ITS World Congress is located at booth F13. Click here to view the floor plan.

Business Review Zillion International, a magazine covering trends, technological developments and strategic issues in international business, features an in-depth report on Qosmotec’s Car-2-X test system QPER-C2X.

Titled “Paving the way for C2C communcations”, the article gives an insight on Qosmotec’s approach to enable realistic and comprehensive C2C interoperability testing in the lab.

Click here to read the article

Qosmotec presents its Car-to-X test system QPER-C2X at the 1st International ATZ Conference “Driver Assistance Systems – From Assistance to Automated Driving”.
At the conference top-class engineers and managers working in the interdisciplinary field of Car-to-X technology gather to evaluate technical concepts and their feasibility as well as their acceptance on the market. “We are proud to showcase our approach to test Car-2-X technology under real-life conditions in the lab at an event, where the roadmap for Car-2-Car communication for the next couple of years will be examined,” claims Mark Hakim, Managing Director Qosmotec.

The newly launched conference is held by ATZlive and specialist magazines ATZ and ATZelektronik. It looks at the technical challenges of driver assistance systems that are expected to be ready for series application until 2020. A special focus is set on testing methods requiring interdisciplinary and cross-sector development. “This is exactly where we fit in. We offer a testing method for repeatable and reproducible drive tests which makes approaches from mobile technology usable for Car-2-X communication,” states Hakim.

“Driver Assistance Systems – From Assistance to Automated Driving” takes place on April 28th and 29th at the Hilton Hotel, Frankfurt (Main), Germany.

Qosmotec’s project team for the integration of Azimuth’s channel emulator led by Iris-Marie Köster (left) with students from the University of Applied Science Aachen.

Qosmotec and Azimuth Systems, Inc., a leading provider of automated, realworld mobile performance test solutions, announced a joint collaboration for developing a Car-to-Car (C2C) test solution. By combining Qosmotec’s signal strength emulator QPER with Azimuth’s ACE MX channel emulator, the solution simulates all traffic, mobility and channel aspects of a C2C environment. This solution enables realistic, and comprehensive C2C interoperability testing in the lab.

Testing Car-to-Car communication in the lab requires the emulation of a significant number of radio links (each of which maps to a link between two cars), some links requiring primarily just attenuation and others requiring a complete radio channel. Qosmotec’s field strength emulator system provides the attenuation links for these tests; the field strength emulator offers a large number of configurable links that can be configured to reflect the different path loss between the cars. Azimuth’s ACE MX channel emulator complements this by emulating the complete radio channel (path loss, Doppler, propagation delay, AWGN etc.) for links that require a complete radio channel. The QPER-C2X software controls this integrated solution and provides a graphical interface to create and configure the physical environment and the traffic model.

The ACE MX is a part of Azimuth’s industry leading portfolio of channel and environment emulators purpose-built for testing real-world device-network interactions and their impact on end-user performance. The underlying platform is architected to support existing and forward-looking technologies and enable rapid development and automation of applications and solutions such as C2C communications.

Qosmotec’s QPER-C2X is a signal strength emulator enabling to interconnect up to 15 radio modules and thus simulating a high number of individual radio as they are established in Ad-Hoc networks. It emulates all kind of signal strength effects like path loss, shadowing, fast fading or antenna shaping on each individual path. These effects are automatically generated, when the tester runs a traffic model that can simply be created on a graphical user interface. Besides to that, QPER-C2X offers an open interface to integrate with traffic modeling tools that are well established in the automotive industry like the open source software SUMO.

Pete Paglia, President of Azimuth Systems, said, “Azimuth is excited by our leadership in channel emulation and its application in emerging areas such as C2C. Azimuth has a strong track record of developing innovative solutions for emerging applications and we see C2C as an area where we can contribute to this evolving industry by leveraging our leadership in channel and environment emulation along with our solutions expertise. We look forward to building on the strong collaboration that already exists between Qosmotec and Azimuth. Together we can provide end-to-end real world test solutions that help our mutual customers better emulate the environment and test C2C more comprehensively.”

Mark Hakim, Managing Director at Qosmotec, said: “Now, where Car-2-Car technology is on the step between research activities and rollout on the streets, systems for interoperability testing become indispensible. Nobody wants to risk mounting a technology in cars that has not been examined under absolutely real-life conditions. Our joint solution with Azimuth enables us to offer a best fitting solution for emulating air interface conditions on a test bench. This will accelerate the deployment of Car-2-Car communication.”

On Qosmotec side, a team of five Bachelor students from the University of Applied Science has been working on the development of traffic scenarios, that are dynamically executed on the Azimuth ACE MX channel emulator. Iris-Marie Köster, head of the team, was excited about the achieved results: “It feels fantastic to put scientific knowledge into pratice this way.”  From next week on, Iris will operate the developed prototype on the ITS plugtest in Helmond.

Between March 2^nd and 5^th Qosmotec will showcase its products at Mobile World Congress 2015, Fira Gran Via Exhibition Center, Barcelona, Spain.

At MWC 2015 we present our latest features and developments of our test systems:

• QPER-C2X: Our test bench setup for Car-to-X communication. The extension of our signal strength emulator QPER for interoperability tests in Ad-Hoc network environments hands test engineers a powerful solution to examine Car-2-X technology under real-life conditions in the lab that allows them to accelerate the deployment of Car-to-Car communication. (See schematic on the left)
• An extension of our non-blocking switches for QPER: RF-Switches, that select one from 40 RF inputs provide for a completely software controlled test lab and avoids any re-cabling of coaxial lines.
  
• Enhanced and optimised LTE testing procedures in our load and functional tester LTS.
• A new shielding box for larger UEs such as tablets and prototype platforms with external USB and Ethernet interface.
• On the roadmap and available soon: A voice recognition procedure that identifies  transmitted speech samples.

Meet our experts for a chat on automated network testing with integrated subscriber mobility emulation in Hall 6 Stand K11. Our famous stand-party will take place on Monday at 18:00. We would enjoy to welcome you there.

ATZ Elektronik, one of Germany’s leading automotive special interest magazine, has an in-depth report on the Car-to-X adaption of QPER as cover story in its december issue. The article gives a detailed account of Qosmotec’s approach to employ signal-strength emulation to run virtual drive tests in the lab and the extension to a full test bench setup for Car-to-X test laboratories.

Additionally, ATZ offers an insight into Qosmotec’s current R&D activities in co-operation with RWTH Aachen University. These are aimed at developing channel models to predict signal strength exactly in specific locations, based on real building data and traffic situations.

ATZ Elektronik’s current issue is available online, where you find the German version of the article.

You find an English version at https://www.qosmotec.com/ATZ_Elektronik_6-2014_Qosmotec-ENG.pdf

For further information on Qosmotec’s Car-to-X test system go to:
https://www.qosmotec.com/products/car2x-test-systems/

It had something of a premiere: For the first time Qosmotec officially showcased its test bench setup for Car-to-X communication testing. At the 8^th Car2Car Forum at Stadthalle Braunschweig we had built up our 5-port QPER system with two IEEE 802.11p capable radio modules communicating with each other via a radio link, on which signal strength was controlled by our emulation software. Additionally, the two modules were controlled via the CANoe software from Vector Informatik. “Last year at the Car2Car Forum in Munich, we planned to establish this co-operation with Vector. At this time, we did not even have the slightest idea, whether those to systems really fit together. All the more proud we are that we could demonstrate a fully integrated environment, executing several typical traffic scenarios like emergency break situations, slow vehicle warnings or communication between cars and infrastructure like traffic lights, only eleven months later ”, says Qosmotec’s Managing Director Mark Hakim.

The demonstration attracted many of the 250 congress participants, who appreciated to see a complete example for a hardware-in-the-loop test benches on our booth. Together with car manufacturers and vendors of radio equipment, we identified an important application case, that shall be followed up in the near future. “We want to proof the negative impact of WLAN noise from IEEE 802.11ac and 802.11n on the Car-to-car communication”, says Mark Hakim.

Besides to this setup we showed a first concept, how to extend interoperability tests with other signal propagation effects like Doppler and Multipath fading. Also we specified on the congress, how to support the ETSI Plugtest, that will be hosted by TASS international in March next year in Helmond, with Qosmotec test equipment.

Download Qosmotec’s presentation posters:

Poster Car-to-X Communication Test Bench

Poster Virtual Drive Test in the Lab

A country road and a blind bend ahead – what if there are road works behind the curve or a vehicle has broken down? Most motorists wish they could be warned, if there is a pontential hazardous situations ahead. Car-to-car communication technology aims address this issue by ensuring vehicles are warned or warn the other traffic in potential dangerous situations, even allowing cars to react automatically. Nearly every OEM in the Automotive sector works on this technology.

Even though vehicle manufacturers have agreed on standards and specifications for communication between vehicles spanning all brands, Car-2-Car technology still lacks a reliable, reproducible automated test methodology. Potential weaknesses and malfunctions have to be detected and resolved in the test lab, before the new technology can be deployed in the field.

Adapting QPER to the needs of Ad-hoc networks in Car-2-Car Communication

Arbitrary traffic scenarios can be created with a few drag & drop actions. Radiation patterns are taken into account for calculating the signal strength between vehicles and setting them on the attenuators.

Qosmotec aims to solve this issue. Together with RWTH Aachen Universtity and Vector Informatik we develop a signal strength emulator for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test facilities in the automotive industry. This poses a challenge, because public mobile networks and Car-2-Car technology have different parameters. “In Car-2-Car communication we are dealing with Ad-hoc networks”, explains Qosmotec’s Managing Director Mark Hakim. “This means there is no distinction between fixed base stations and mobile subscribers. All devices communicate directly with each other while they are moving. They also assume different roles, e.g., message broadcaster, router or mobile receiver.” For this ad-hoc network emulation, a new hardware setup had to be developed with configurable radio links between all network participants. Currently Qosmotec works on traffic and channel models that simulate driver behavior and resulting radio propagation impacts on the communication channel.

Qosmotec co-operates with the Institute for Theoretical Information Technology at RWTH Aachen University. They focus on propagation models based on real building environments, based on an approach derived from ray tracing. “This allows predicting signal propagation for drive tests through actual streets. A huge step for Car-2-X technology, as conducting virtual drive tests in the lab keeps the required resources to a reasonable amount,” says Mark Hakim.

Joining CANoe.Car2X and QPER to provide reproducible drive tests for Car-2-Car Technology

Day-One applications for Car-2-X communication: Improving saftey by warning the driver in case of critical situations, e.g. roadworks, emergency breaks, traffic jams, crossings, approaching or slow vehicles and obstacles. All these situations can easily be created in the lab with virtual drive test software.

Besides propagation models, there is another challenge: “Our approach is based on our propagation effects replicator QPER which is designed to model the air interface but not to control the wireless equipment involved”. Here, Vector comes into play. Its widely-used software CANoe to develop, test and analyze electronic control units (ECU) has been extended by a new component CANoe.Car2X. It can handle the WLAN 802.11p protocol and the ETSI specified messages for cooperative awareness and decentralized environment notification and allows controlling On-board Units (OBU) and Road-Side Units (RSU) as well as simulating them. Qosmotec and Vector have joint forces to combine their tools. GPS-Positions simulated in QPER are transmitted by CANoe to the EBUs involved. “By joining CANoe’s Car-2-X extension with the air interface simulator QPER, we provide the necessary test set-up to enable testers to run virtual drive tests in their lab”, says Hakim. Testers can emulate traffic and infrastructure, and model user behavior. Standard scenarios, like road works, slow traffic or crossroads with restricted visibility are supplied. This enables engineers to check whether the technology reacts as required and brings Car-2-Car technology a step closer to market. First results of this joint development will be presented at the Car-to-Car Forum that is taking place in the town hall of Braunschweig on October 22^nd / 23^rd 2014.

The seal of quality for innovative research

Germany has a fairly good reputation as research location and is famous for its dual education system that combines practical apprenticeships with vocational training. For both areas, Qosmotec is a good example, how research and education are integrated into a company’s workaday life.

There are about 3.5 million enterprises in Germany, but less than one percent of them participate actively in research activities. This figure has been found out by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft. Qosmotec belongs to this small group and was recently awarded the seal of quality “Innovative through Research” for their contribution to industrial research activities. It is actually surprising that the portion is so small compared to Germany’s standing in the world. “Apart from Chemistry, Pharmacy and Medicine Technology, most research is done at universities and only leaves them, when scientists and academics found spin-offs, because they believe, that they can commercialize their results”, says Qosmotec’s Managing Director Mark Hakim.

The German Ministry of Economics encourages research cooperations of small and medium sized enterprises with universities with public fundings

Research co-operations to improve Qosmotec’s test systems

Qosmotec has gone a completely different way. “We are not an academic spin-off. Our complete management team already had years of experience in other companies, before we started Qosmotec in 2004”. It became soon obvious, how much more could be achieved, if research results and promising ideas would drive the development, rather than just reacting to customer demands. We got in touch with the institute for theoretical information technology at RWTH Aachen University, who do research on signal propagation models. “This was a fantastic add-on to our signal propagation emulator QPER. We found a way to make good use of their research results and integrate them into our simulation software”, explains Mark Hakim the co-operation. In the end  it turned out to be a perfect synergy as Qosmotec could took over the part of the practical implementation of research results. For these activities we could make use of public funds that support those kind of co-operations several times. “The number of enterprises, who would like to do some co-operations of this kind is much higher than those, who actively do them. The reason for this is, that research seems too much theoretical on the first glance and people either do not know how or are afraid of the effort to use them practically”.

Dual education guarantees well trained employees and brings input for new products

Apprentices at Qosmotec are trained on the job and study for a BSc degree in parallel to their work

The tasks that Qosmotec deals with are also challenging enough for writing a bachelor or master thesis. Therefore, Qosmotec is able to offer very attractive apprenticeships for A-level degree students that cannot be found so often in Germany: Our young employees, who become Mathematisch technische Software Entwickler, are educated as application programming engineers by Qosmotec and study in parallel Scientific Programming at the University of Applied Science in Aachen. After three years, they write their Bachelor Thesis in Qosmotec. “We always find a subject which also pushes our test systems”, guarantees Mark Hakim. For example, the test automation app Qosdroid which is now an important application within the LTS platform, has originally been initiated by a such a student project. Since 2008 we have been qualifying six students through an apprenticeship. By now, all of them have become regular employees at Qosmotec. But it is also possible to continue studying in an additional master degree program – for example becoming a master in software engineering.

Next week, in the last article of our jubilee-series, we present a current new research activity in Qosmotec: The development of a signal strength emulator for the upcoming Car-2-Car Communication. This activity combines both aspects mentioned above: It is another research project where the Technical University is involved and it offered enough possibilities for student projects and bachelor thesis’s.

Nowadays, many services are based on wireless networks, where the service provider is not owner or operator of the mobile network. The most popular examples are Virtual Network Enablers and Operators. They offer very attractive subscription models for usage in specific foreign countries and other value added services. Their testing process is typically very difficult, because they need to verify their services in various networks. It gets really tedious, when the tests have to involve international roaming from one country to another. Exactly for these purposes, Qosmotec has invented the Network in a Box – a combination of a freely configurable mobile network (consisting of core and radio network part) and a handover emulator.

Freely configurable radio part

The radio part of the mobile network emulator consists of signal generators specifically for GSM 900/1800, UMTS Band I and LTE Band 7 (2600 MHz). Each signal generator can be configured with all relevant cell parameters like Mobile Country Code (MCC), Mobile Network Code (MNC), Location Area Code (LAC), Cell Id and Frequency (ARFCN) and then creates a correctly modulated signal that is detected by any mobile phone. “With two, three or four cells, you can simulate the local situation in any country, emulating various network operators or in a border region, emulating networks in different countries”, explains Qosmotec’s Managing Director Dr. Dieter Kreuer, who has developed the concept of configurable mobile network for test laboratories. Configuration time for switching a cell to a completely new configuration is 15 – 20 seconds. “Most probably the quickest way to get a bit of vacation feeling, when you see the name of a caribean mobile network operator on your phone”, says Dr. Kreuer with a smile on his face.

The Home Location Register (HLR)

Your mobile phone recognizes the emulated cell in the network search. To be able to register to the emulated network, the SIM card must be added to the Home Location Register (HLR) that belongs to the emulated core part. During network search, the phone sends its IMSI number which can be added to the HLR. Thus, an administrator can maintain the test network and make sure, that no uncontrolled registrations occur.

Test with all functions and services of a public mobile network

Once registered, the mobile phone can use all  services of a normal mobile network. Above all, testers can influence on the mobile network behavior and therefore act like a real mobile network operator. He can establish network generated calls, can let the mobile network send SMS messages or influence the quality of a data transmission by setting packet delays or packet losses separately on the uplink and on the downlink. And he can freely configure USSD services – from simple subscriber requests up to complex interactions between subscriber and operator. “For virtual network operators, this is the most important test functionality, because most of their value added services on SIM cards are based on textual communication with the network”, says Dr. Kreuer.

Handover emulation and mobility simulation enable international roaming tests

The QPER software displays in which cell a mobile device is registered and which services are in use

The combination with Qosmotec’s field strength emulator QPER, that emulates the subscriber’s mobility in the wireless network, makes the network emulator now a real mobile network in a box.. The neighborhood of cells can be set as a part of the cell configuration,. Dr. Kreuer knows, what this is good for: “If two cells are linked together as neighbours, a handover between them is possible, while otherwise the network connection would be completely interrupted, when the mobile changes the cell”. With this capability, the emulated cells can supply input for a handover matrix consisting of digitally controllable attenuators, and the mobile phones on the other side of the matrix can see several cells with user controllable strength and move between cells or roam between countries.

The schematic setup for the emulated network: the radio part is available for all technologies from 2G to 4G

The control of the complete emulated mobile network is smoothly integrated into the QPER virtual drive test software. Having preconfigured the cell parameters, they are set on the signal generators by simple drag & drop actions and it is clearly visible, when they are activated. Users can see, which mobiles attempt to register to the network, when they have been successful and what type of link they have (circuit switched or packet switched; GPRS, EDGE, 3G HSPA or LTE data transmission).

Having such a flexibly configurable mobile network in your lab always makes sense, when testing interoperability of services that have to work in other countries. Typical application cases are

• Multi-IMSI applications, where a mobile shall follow a dedicated price plan in foreign countries, that is identified by the used IMSI number,
• Toll Collection, that has to begin and end at the country’s border
• Intelligent Transport Services applications that go via 3G and 4G, where the driver shall be able to rely on internationally.