Wifi Revolution

An Austin, Texas-based company that helps scientists design systems for automation and embedded applications today introduced a new toolkit that it says will allow engineers to test a receiver’s position accuracy.

 

Through a multi-satellite global positioning systems signal simulation, the new “GPS Toolkit” from National Instruments (News - Alert) will offer a low-cost solution for receiver design validation and verification, company officials say.

 

According to Test Solutions Manager Leonardo Bonanomi, the GPS Toolkit is an effective solution for simulating a GPS environment that gives designers complete control over the simulated receiver position.

 

“This toolkit, together with NI TestStand and NI LabVIEW software, helps us easily build flexible and scalable automated test systems for GPS receivers,” said Bonanomi, of Services for Electronic Manufacturing.

 

Here’s how the technology works.

 

By recording live GPS signals off the air with an NI PXI-5661 RF vector signal analyzer and an NI PXI-5690 pre-amplifier, engineers can capture GPS signals with natural impairments that a receiver would observe in the real world, according to NI.

 

Those engineers also can generate both simulated and recorded signals with the NI PXIe-5672 RF vector signal generator by streaming GPS waveforms from a hard disk, company officials say. With a 2 TB redundant array of inexpensive disks and hard drive option, engineers can generate nearly 13 minutes of non-repeating simulated waveform, or 25 hours of continuous recorded GPS signal, to test how the receiver responds to a broad range of circumstances.

 

Also, engineers can combine the new toolkit with National Instruments’ so-called “NI Modulation Toolkit for LabVIEW” and “NI TestStand” test management software and PXI RF modular instrumentation, officials say.

 

Because PXI modular instrumentation is software-defined, company officials say, the same PXI system can test wireless devices that use other standards such as RDS, WiFi (News - Alert), GSM, WCDMA, Bluetooth and DVB.

 

“PXI measurement systems offer a lower cost, more flexible and higher throughput solution compared to traditional instrumentation in production test applications,” company officials say. “For multi-protocol test, the cost savings of PXI is even greater.”

 

 

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