WO2018161379A1

WO2018161379A1 - Apparatus, method, and system for measuring throughput of wireless air interface of wlan terminal device

Info

Publication number: WO2018161379A1
Application number: PCT/CN2017/078161
Authority: WO
Inventors: 全智
Original assignee: 深圳市中承科技有限公司
Priority date: 2017-03-06
Filing date: 2017-03-24
Publication date: 2018-09-13
Also published as: CN106789451A

Abstract

An apparatus, method, and system for measuring the throughput of a wireless air interface of a WLAN terminal device. The apparatus comprises a wireless comprehensive tester, a software control platform, and a microwave shielding dark room. At least one WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in the microwave shielding dark room; the wireless comprehensive tester and the WLAN terminal device to be tested are in communication connection by means of radio-frequency signals; the WLAN terminal device to be tested sends an uplink data frame to the wireless comprehensive tester by means of a distributed contention channel access mechanism, and at the same time, the wireless comprehensive tester participates in channel contention by means of a contention channel access protocol and sends a downlink data frame to each WLAN terminal device to be tested; the wireless comprehensive tester is connected to the software control platform by means of a communication cable, so as to calculate the data throughput of the wireless air interface. By means of the present invention, the throughput of air interfaces of one or two or more devices to be tested can be measured simultaneously; the measuring method is efficient, and the time consumed during a measuring process is short.

Description

Test device, method and system for wireless air interface throughput of WLAN terminal equipment

Technical field

The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication system measurement technologies, and in particular, to a device, method and system for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested.

Background technique

Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) A wireless local area network (WLAN) is a wireless communication network system that interconnects various computer devices and realizes resource sharing. With the rapid development of the mobile Internet and the increasing use of mobile intelligent terminals, WLAN technology has also developed rapidly, and application scenarios are also increasing. The WLAN includes multiple standards such as IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, mainly using the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands, and the network scale is expanding. Therefore, it is more and more important to quickly test the performance of wireless communication terminal products and network over-the-air (OTA), especially data throughput (Throughput).

In the development and production of WLAN wireless communication products, the air interface throughput test system usually places the WLAN terminal in the shielded anechoic chamber, completely shielded from the external environment, and the test antenna is installed in the shielded dark room, and the RF cable is used. An external wireless integrated tester is connected.

The traditional WLAN air interface test environment only places one WLAN terminal, and divides the total amount of data actually transmitted by the measurement time to obtain the throughput of the interface, that is, the network throughput is equivalent to the air interface throughput of the WLAN terminal. This traditional test method can only measure one WLAN terminal at a time, and the uplink and downlink cannot be measured at the same time, the efficiency is low, and the testing process takes a long time.

Summary of the invention

In order to solve the above problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a device, method and system for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested for simultaneous testing of single, two or more WLAN terminals. .

To achieve the above objective, the present invention provides a wireless air interface throughput testing device for a WLAN terminal device, including a wireless integrated tester, a software control platform, and a microwave shielding darkroom, and at least one WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in the microwave shielding. In the dark room, the wireless integrated tester and the WLAN terminal device to be tested are connected by using a radio frequency signal, and the WLAN terminal device to be tested transmits an uplink data frame to the wireless integrated tester through a distributed contention channel access mechanism, and simultaneously The wireless integrated tester participates in channel competition through the contention channel access protocol, and sends downlink data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested. The wireless integrated tester and the software control platform are connected by a communication cable, and the software control platform is used for wireless synthesis. The tester sends the meter control signal and receives the test data fed back by the wireless integrated tester to calculate the wireless air interface data throughput.

As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, the wireless integrated tester includes a vector signal analyzer for performing transmitter verification and a vector signal generator for performing extended receiver test.

As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, the wireless integrated tester is based on an IEEE 802.11 communication protocol.

The invention also provides a test method for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested, comprising the following steps:

The WLAN terminal device to be tested establishes a communication connection with the wireless integrated measuring instrument through scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol;

The software control platform controls the wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measures downlink data throughput;

Each WLAN terminal to be tested transmits a certain number of data frames to the wireless integrated measuring instrument, and measures uplink data throughput;

According to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, the total network data traffic within the test time overhead is obtained, and the wireless air interface data throughput is calculated.

As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, the WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in a microwave shielding dark room.

As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, downlink data throughput is measured by:

For each data frame that is correctly received by the WLAN terminal to be tested, the WLAN terminal returns an ACK frame to the wireless integrated tester as a confirmation that the data frame is correctly received within a short time frame interval; for data that is not correctly received Frames, wireless integrated meters will not receive ACK frames within the short time frame interval, and data frames that are not correctly received will be retransmitted until they are received correctly.

As a preferred technical solution of the present invention, when the number of WLAN terminals to be tested is two or more, the downlink data throughput is measured by:

The data frame sent by the WLAN terminal to be tested to the wireless integrated measuring instrument avoids collision and mutual interference by using a carrier channel multiple access mechanism with collision avoidance through a distributed competitive channel access mechanism, and simultaneously, each wireless integrated The data frame correctly received by the tester, the WLAN terminal device to be tested corresponding to the data frame receives an ACK frame as confirmation in the short time frame interval.

The invention also provides a test system for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested, comprising:

a communication connection module, configured to establish a communication connection between the WLAN terminal device to be tested and the wireless integrated measuring instrument by using a scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol;

a downlink data throughput test module, configured to be used by the software control platform to control the wireless integrated tester to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measure downlink data throughput;

An uplink data throughput test module, configured to send each WLAN terminal to be tested to a wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain number of data frames, and measure uplink data throughput;

The processing module is configured to obtain the total network data traffic during the test period according to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, and calculate the wireless air interface data throughput.

The device for testing the wireless air interface throughput of the WLAN terminal device to be tested according to the present invention comprises at least one WLAN terminal device to be tested placed in the microwave shielding dark room by including a wireless integrated tester, a software control platform, and a microwave shielding darkroom. The wireless integrated tester and the WLAN terminal device to be tested are connected by using a radio frequency signal, and the WLAN terminal device to be tested transmits an uplink data frame to the wireless integrated tester through a distributed competitive channel access mechanism, and the wireless comprehensive test is simultaneously performed. The device participates in channel competition through the contention channel access protocol, and sends downlink data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested. The wireless integrated tester and the software control platform are connected by a communication cable, and the software control platform is used to send the wireless integrated tester. The meter controls the signal and receives the test data fed back by the wireless integrated tester to calculate the wireless air interface data throughput, so that the present invention can simultaneously test the air interface throughput of single, two or more devices under test. More efficient than the measurement method, the test process takes a short time

The method for testing the wireless air interface throughput of the WLAN terminal device to be tested according to the present invention comprises the steps of: the WLAN terminal device to be tested establishes a communication connection with the wireless integrated measuring instrument through scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol; the software control platform controls the wireless The integrated measuring instrument sends a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measures downlink data throughput; each WLAN terminal to be tested transmits a certain number of data frames to the wireless integrated measuring instrument, and measures uplink data throughput; According to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, the total network data flow during the test time is obtained, and the wireless air interface data throughput is calculated, so that the present invention can perform air interface throughput for single, two or more devices under test. Simultaneous testing is performed, and the efficiency is high compared to the measurement method, and the testing process takes a short time.

The test system for the wireless air interface throughput of the WLAN terminal device to be tested according to the present invention comprises: a communication connection module, configured to establish a communication connection between the WLAN terminal device to be tested and the wireless integrated measuring instrument through scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol a downlink data throughput test module for controlling a wireless integrated tester to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested by the software control platform, and measuring downlink data throughput; and an uplink data throughput test module for The WLAN terminals to be tested are sent to the wireless integrated measuring instrument to transmit a certain number of data frames to measure the uplink data throughput; and the processing module is configured to acquire the network data in the test time according to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput. The total traffic, and calculate the wireless air interface data throughput, so that the present invention can simultaneously test the air interface throughput of single, two or more devices under test, compared with the measurement method, the efficiency is high, and the test process takes a short time. .

DRAWINGS

The present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the drawings and specific embodiments.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an example of a device for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to the present invention;

2 is a flowchart of an example of a method for testing a wireless air interface throughput test of a WLAN terminal device according to the present invention;

3 is a block diagram showing a system structure of an example provided by a test system for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of a packet head overhead structure of different sublayers of a wireless network;

Figure 5 (a) is a schematic diagram of the competition mechanism in the CSMA/CA mode;

Figure 5(b) is a schematic diagram of the competition mechanism in the RTS/CTS mode.

The object, features, and advantages of the invention will be further described in conjunction with the embodiments.

detailed description

The invention will now be further described with reference to the drawings and specific embodiments. The terms "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "intermediate" and "one" as used in the preferred embodiments are for convenience of description and are not intended to limit the invention. The scope of the implementation, the change or adjustment of the relative relationship, is also considered to be within the scope of the invention.

1 is a schematic structural diagram of an example of a device, a method, and a system for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a device for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device includes The wireless integrated tester, the software control platform, and the microwave shielding darkroom, the at least one WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in the microwave shielding darkroom, and the wireless integrated tester and the WLAN terminal device to be tested are connected by using radio frequency signals. The WLAN terminal device to be tested transmits an uplink data frame to the wireless integrated tester through a distributed contention channel access mechanism, and the wireless integrated tester participates in channel competition through the contention channel access protocol, and sends the data to each WLAN terminal device to be tested. The downlink data frame, the wireless integrated tester and the software control platform are connected by a communication cable, and the software control platform is configured to send the instrument control signal to the wireless integrated tester, and receive the test data fed back by the wireless comprehensive tester to calculate the wireless air. Interface data throughput.

In a specific implementation, the wireless integrated tester includes a vector signal analyzer and a vector signal generator, a vector signal analyzer is used for transmitter verification, and a vector signal generator is used for extended receiver testing.

In a specific implementation, the wireless integrated tester is based on an IEEE 802.11 communication protocol.

2 is a flowchart of an example of a method for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the method includes the following steps:

Step 21: The WLAN terminal device to be tested establishes a communication connection with the wireless integrated measuring instrument through scanning, authentication, and associated communication protocol;

Step 22: The software control platform controls the wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain quantity to each WLAN terminal device to be tested. Data frame, measuring downlink data throughput;

Step 23: Each WLAN terminal to be tested sends a certain number of data frames to the wireless integrated measuring instrument, and measures uplink data throughput;

Step 24: Obtain total network data traffic within the test time overhead according to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, and calculate a wireless air interface data throughput.

In a specific implementation, the WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in a microwave shielding darkroom.

In a specific implementation, in step 22, downlink data throughput is measured by:

In a specific implementation, when the number of WLAN terminals to be tested is two or more, in step 23, the downlink data throughput is measured by:

3 is a block diagram of a system structure provided by a test system for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, a test system for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device includes:

The communication connection module 31 is configured to establish a communication connection between the WLAN terminal device to be tested and the wireless integrated measuring instrument by using a scanning, authentication, and associated communication protocol;

The downlink data throughput test module 32 is configured to, by the software control platform, control the wireless integrated tester to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measure downlink data throughput;

The uplink data throughput test module 33 is configured to send each WLAN terminal to be tested to the wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain number of data frames, and measure uplink data throughput;

The processing module 34 is configured to obtain total network data traffic during the test period according to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, and calculate a wireless air interface data throughput.

In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand and implement the technical solutions of the present invention, the working principle of the present embodiment is briefly described below.

A wireless integrated tester based on the IEEE 802.11 communication protocol standard records the MAC address of each WLAN terminal after the air interface is associated with a plurality of WLAN terminals. These WLAN terminals are connected through a distributed contention channel The incoming mechanism, that is, CSMA/CA sends uplink data frames to the wireless integrated tester, and the wireless integrated tester participates in channel competition through the protocol, and transmits downlink data frames to each WLAN terminal. In the process of competing for transmission opportunities, the wireless integrated tester and multiple WLAN terminals detect channel idle time within a DCF frame interval, and each selects a random backoff time to reduce the possibility of collision of the transmitted data frame, that is, distributed. Coordination function.

To elaborate on the throughput calculation process, Table 1 lists some of the key metrics involved throughout the calculation process.

Table 1 calculates the key indicators of throughput:

T_SIFS T _SIFS	短时帧间距Short time frame spacing
T_DIFS T _DIFS	DCF帧间距DCF frame spacing
CW_min CW _min	最小退避(Backoff)窗口时间Minimum backoff window time
T_PHYhdr T _PHYhdr	物理层前导码与头信息的传输时间Physical layer preamble and header information transmission time
T_ACK T _ACK	ACK的传输时间ACK transmission time
T_PSDU T _PSDU	一个PSDU单元的传输时间Transmission time of a PSDU unit
ττ	无线信号传播延迟时间Wireless signal propagation delay time
T_RTS T _RTS	RTS传输时间RTS transmission time
T_CTS T _CTS	CTS传输时间CTS transmission time
T_BO T _BO	退避(Backoff)时间Backoff time
R_PHY R _PHY	物理层传输速率Physical layer transmission rate
L_MSDU L _MSDU	MAC-PDU的大小(字节为单位)MAC-PDU size (in bytes)

The IEEE 802.11 communication protocol standard covers the MAC layer of the media access control and the physical PHY layer. When calculating the maximum throughput of the WLAN terminal, it is first necessary to analyze the data frame sent or received by the WLAN terminal to perform calculation. A protocol data unit in the PHY layer is defined as the length of the transport unit containing the PHY header overhead in the layer, that is, the PPDU, and one service data unit is defined as the size of the payload unit in the layer, that is, Payload, and the payload is the upper layer. PPDU. As shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a packet head overhead structure of different sub-layers of a wireless network, which shows a structure of a packet and an overhead during a process of forwarding a data frame.

As shown in Figure 5(a), Figure 5(a) is a schematic diagram of the competition mechanism in CSMA/CA mode. In addition, on the basis of CSMA/CA, the WLAN terminal can also select the transmission mode of RTS/CTS to avoid hidden nodes. Collision, Figure 5(b) is a schematic diagram of the competition mechanism in RTS/CTS mode, which describes the process of data frame delivery.

a throughput calculation method for a single data frame;

In order to calculate the maximum throughput (bits per second), in the present invention, all time overheads in each sublayer are first converted into a common time unit. In the calculation process, the service data unit (SDU) of the MAC layer, that is, the MSDU, is segmented by using a similar time division multiplexing method, and then an effective maximum throughput calculation model is established for the payload:

Where τ is the time at which the signal is transmitted over the wireless medium, L _MSDU is the payload (ie, the amount of valid data, in bytes), and T _PPDU is all the time overhead required to transmit the _PPDU of the MSDU, including listening to the idle channel DCF The frame spacing begins, competing for transmission opportunities during the backoff time, until the transmission of the entire data frame, and receipt of an ACK acknowledgement. The time overhead of the T _MSDU includes the following specific contents:

T _PPDU =T _DIFD +T _BO +T _PHYHfr +T _PSDU +T _SIFS +T _ACK (2)

Where T _PHYhdr is a fixed time, and PSDU transmission time T _PSDU = L _PSDU / R _PHY is equal to PSDU length (bits) divided by physical layer transmission rate R _PHY . R _PHY varies with different modulation and demodulation techniques, see Table 1. If the transmission mode of RTS/CTS is adopted, the calculation method of T _PPDU is as follows:

T _PPDU =T _DIFS +T _BO +T _RTS +T _SIFS +T _CTS +T _SIFS +T _PHYhdr +T _PSDU +T _SIFS +T _ACK (3)

In practical applications, WLAN terminals may work at different rates and protocol standards, thus generating different delays and overheads. T _PPDUs are composed of these delays, overheads, and valid service data units. Control frames such as RTS, CTS, ACK, use the lowest rate 1 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band and 6 Mbps in the 5 GHz band, which is for the backward compatibility of the 802.11 standard to ensure different terminals during the detection process. There is good compatibility between them, which is also in line with the needs of actual engineering.

When different WLAN terminals do not have conflicts during the test, the size of the Contention Window (CW) does not increase exponentially. Therefore, CW can always be equivalently equivalent to the size of the minimum contention window (CW _min ) in a WLAN with only one WLAN terminal, because there is no contention conflict, CW is always at a minimum. In a wireless local area network having multiple WLAN terminals, considering the backoff time (T _BO ) obeying a uniform random distribution, the value of T _BO can be selected as CW _min /2 when calculating the throughput of each WLAN terminal air interface.

The throughput calculation method of the WLAN terminal;

In the technical solution disclosed by the present invention, the wireless integrated tester can calculate the uplink and downlink data throughput of each WLAN terminal according to the source MAC address and the target MAC address in the MAC layer header information of the data frame. In the actual measurement process, the wireless integrated tester sends M _k data frames to the kth WLAN terminal, and the downlink throughput of the WLAN terminal can be calculated by dividing the total transmitted payload data by the total time overhead.

Similarly, the upstream air interface throughput of this WLAN terminal can also be calculated using the above formula. Therefore, the data throughput of the network can be converted into the uplink and downlink data throughput of each WLAN terminal through calculation.

A throughput calculation method in a non-ideal channel environment;

On a non-ideal wireless transmission channel, some of the data frames may be lost or not correctly decoded by the receiver, which may result in a decrease in the data throughput of the actual air interface. Assume that during the measurement process, the wireless integrated tester sends M _k data frames to the kth WLAN terminal, wherein the number of lost or erroneous data frames is N _k , then the downlink data throughput of the WLAN terminal can be expressed as:

The above calculation ignores the wrong or lost data frame when counting the amount of payload data, but the actual time overhead needs to account for the error or lost data frame transmission time. The uplink throughput of the WLAN terminal can also be calculated using equation (5).

While the invention has been described with respect to the preferred embodiments of the embodiments of the invention, the invention may be The scope of protection is only limited by the appended claims.

Claims

A device for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device, comprising: a wireless integrated tester, a software control platform, and a microwave shielding darkroom, and placing at least one WLAN terminal device to be tested in a microwave shielding dark room, The wireless integrated tester and the WLAN terminal device to be tested are connected by using a radio frequency signal, and the WLAN terminal device to be tested transmits an uplink data frame to the wireless integrated tester through a distributed competitive channel access mechanism, and the wireless integrated tester Participating in channel competition through the contention channel access protocol, and transmitting downlink data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, the wireless integrated tester and the software control platform are connected by a communication cable, and the software control platform is used to send the instrument to the wireless integrated tester. The control signal is received and the test data fed back by the wireless integrated tester is received to calculate the wireless air interface data throughput.
The apparatus for testing wireless antenna interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to claim 1, wherein said wireless integrated tester comprises a vector signal analyzer and a vector signal generator, and the vector signal analyzer is used for transmitter verification. The vector signal generator is used for extended receiver testing.
The apparatus for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the wireless integrated tester is based on an IEEE 802.11 communication protocol.
A method for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device, comprising the steps of:

The WLAN terminal device to be tested establishes a communication connection with the wireless integrated measuring instrument through scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol;

The software control platform controls the wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measures downlink data throughput;

Each WLAN terminal to be tested transmits a certain number of data frames to the wireless integrated measuring instrument, and measures uplink data throughput;

According to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, the total network data traffic within the test time overhead is obtained, and the wireless air interface data throughput is calculated.
The method for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the WLAN terminal device to be tested is placed in a microwave shielding darkroom.
The method for testing a wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the downlink data throughput is measured by:

For each data frame that is correctly received by the WLAN terminal to be tested, the WLAN terminal returns an ACK frame to the wireless integrated tester as a confirmation that the data frame is correctly received within a short time frame interval; for data that is not correctly received Frames, wireless integrated meters will not receive ACK frames within the short time frame interval, and data frames that are not correctly received will be retransmitted until they are received correctly.
The method for testing the wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device to be tested according to claim 6, wherein when the number of WLAN terminals to be tested is two or more, downlink data is measured by the following method Throughput:

The data frame sent by the WLAN terminal to be tested to the wireless integrated measuring instrument avoids collision and mutual interference by using a carrier channel multiple access mechanism with collision avoidance through a distributed competitive channel access mechanism, and simultaneously, each wireless integrated The data frame correctly received by the tester, the WLAN terminal device to be tested corresponding to the data frame receives an ACK frame as confirmation in the short time frame interval.
A test system for wireless air interface throughput of a WLAN terminal device, comprising:

a communication connection module, configured to establish a communication connection between the WLAN terminal device to be tested and the wireless integrated measuring instrument by using a scanning, authentication and associated communication protocol;

a downlink data throughput test module, configured to be used by the software control platform to control the wireless integrated tester to send a certain number of data frames to each WLAN terminal device to be tested, and measure downlink data throughput;

An uplink data throughput test module, configured to send each WLAN terminal to be tested to a wireless integrated measuring instrument to send a certain number of data frames, and measure uplink data throughput;

The processing module is configured to obtain the total network data traffic during the test period according to the downlink data throughput and the uplink data throughput, and calculate the wireless air interface data throughput.