10 min read
2 Feb 2024
The company has unveiled the latest version of its proven CERNO walk and drive testing platform
Announcement Summary
Ranlytics was founded in 2013 to solve persistent problems with legacy RF testing tools with a complete portfolio of patent pending RF measurement, monitoring, and analysis solutions based on multiple patent pending technologies.
The company has unveiled the latest version of its proven CERNO walk and drive testing platform. CERNO 4.0 adds automated mobile channel scanning and discovery, and simultaneous measurement of 2.4GHz & 5 GHz Wi-Fi to the most reliable, scalable, easiest-to-use, and most cost-effective RF measurement platform in the market.
Post processing of walk test data is simplified with fully-automated, same day generation of easily-customizable walk test reports that combine scanning, mobile UE, and Wi-Fi measurement data.
All drive test data ever collected is instantly available via intuitive RanMaps and RanMaps Analyzer web GUIs – supporting querying, mapping, reporting, and analysis of any combination of RF measurement data recorded at any time.
With CERNO, customers can simplify, accelerate, and reduce the cost of walk and drive testing at scale.
Ranlytics today announced the newest version of its proven CERNO walk and drive testing platform, designed to further simplify, accelerate, and decrease the cost of testing and measuring 2G-5G mobile, and Wi-Fi coverage and service quality.
Mobile channel scanning, and testing & measurement of mobile and Wi-Fi networks has always required separate test equipment from different vendors, personnel with different skills & experience, and different data processing, reporting, visualization, and analysis tools.
This increases complexity, testing & reporting time, resource requirements, and cost. It’s never before been possible to combine cellular scanning with full idle/active testing of 2G-5G mobile networks, and measurement of Wi-Fi networks in a single device for walk or drive testing.
Until now.
CERNO 4.0 is the newest version of our proven, patent pending walk and drive testing platform, and solves these problems with the industry’s first and only RF measurement system that combines user-configurable cellular scanning, idle/active cellular testing, and Wi-Fi testing in a single, portable, self-contained device the size of a laptop computer, and weighing 2.1kg (4.5lb).
All in the most reliable, most extensible, fastest, and easiest-to-use RF measurement platform on the market.
Each CERNO 4.0 unit contains 6 individual mobile UEs, each of which is built on the latest generation of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon mobile system on chip; plus a separate Wi-Fi radio. Each UE can be independently configured to support either cellular channel scanning, or band-locked idle or active testing of any 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G band. Easily customized test scripts can be built quickly using our simple drag-and-drop script builder, and run on each cellular UE – supporting any combination of active voice & data throughput testing, and idle testing that’s required.
When testing 4G, the tester requires detailed knowledge of spectrum allocation, and must manually program every channel to be tested. This often creates problems when the channel numbers provided don’t match those actually deployed, and when channel numbers are programmed incorrectly.
These problems are exacerbated with 5G, as synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) can be positioned anywhere within the channel bandwidth, and those positions can vary between cells. This complicates testing as it can require re-programming of SSB channel numbers from location to location.
Our new automated mobile channel scanning and discovery feature eliminates these problems, and the delays they cause.
CERNO 4.0 identifies, programs, and tests all channels deployed –automatically. At a scanning rate that’s equivalent to – or better than – dedicated scanning receivers. No more channel programming errors!
Testing is now even easier, and even faster with CERNO 4.0.
Separate onboard radios are dedicated to testing 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi networks, and support measurement of Wi-Fi networks at the same time as measurement of cellular networks.
With the new lightweight Ranlytics backpack accommodating up to 3 linked CERNO units, you can now scan or test up to 18 mobile bands, plus all available Wi-Fi networks during a single walk test.
CERNO can be instantly re-configured to operate in drive testing mode, enabling scanning and testing of up to 36 cellular bands plus Wi-Fi on a single drive test using a Thule roofbox installed on any standard car.
When multiple CERNO units are cascaded in a walk or drive test configuration, all mobile and Wi-Fi test functions are configured and managed through a single administration screen – simplifying and speeding testing.
And because of CERNO’s industry-leading reliability and operational simplicity, walk and drive testers don’t require specialized technical skills – eliminating resource bottlenecks and further reducing cost.
Complemented by Ranlytics’s fully-integrated cloud-based data processing system, easily-customizable and customer-ready walk test reports combining cellular and Wi-Fi measurement data are auto generated after upload on the day of the walk test.
Post processing and manual report generation are eliminated – improving report consistency & quality, and employee productivity. Time-to-report and costs are dramatically reduced.
With the uniquely powerful Ranlytics hyperscale datastore and the RanMaps and RanMaps Analyzer drive test data visualization GUIs, all 2G-5G cellular and Wi-Fi drive test data you’ve ever collected is instantly available for querying, reporting, mapping, and analysis. And seeing changes that have occurred over time is now fast and simple.
Orderable now, CERNO 4.0 dramatically simplifies testing and measurement of multiple RF network types, improves walk and drive testing speed and consistency, improves productivity, eliminates bottlenecks, and reduces costs.
