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Infovista enters strategic partnership for 5G offerings
Mon, 25th Jul 2022
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Infovista has entered a strategic collaboration with PCTEL to co-develop joint 5G network testing use cases for mobile operators and industry regulators.

The joint use cases will combine PCTEL 5G scanning receivers with Infovista's TEMS software to create differentiated and simplified offerings that address specific customer needs.

The initial set of use cases combines PCTEL's scanners with Infovista's AI-powered network testing and assurance software.

These include 5G C-Band interference monitoring, autonomous testing, beamforming configuration validation, automatic site location detection and automated interference detection.

The companies will take advantage of Infovista's NLA cloud platform for automated cross-domain troubleshooting by allowing the offering to use network and service performance data from Infovista Ativa and its AI/ML analytics engine to identify and geo-locate cells affected by interference at speed.

Identifying the approximate area of the interference allows Infovista's precision drive testing algorithms to create an optimal drive route and diagnostics workflow.

A tester is then dispatched with a PCTEL scanner and guided workflow to quickly locate the source of the interference.

Infovista's TEMS Network Testing Portfolio offers the ability to evaluate network and services performance, troubleshoot, and optimise by measuring and benchmarking end user experience.

In addition, TEMS provides network operators and regulators with a way to walk test, drive test and dynamically analyse service performance at any time in real-life conditions, indoors and outdoors.

“Mobile operators and regulators are facing new and specific challenges as 5G spectrum is licensed and networks rolled out,” Infovista global networks president Faiq Khan says.

“Their complexity requires new approaches to network testing, using the latest in AI, automation and cloud-native technologies to reduce the time and cost of network testing and monitoring while also being more accurate and valuable to the business.

“The strategic collaboration between Infovista and PCTEL is driven by this customer need, and we're excited about the future opportunities our combined customer program will unlock.

PCTEL designs, develops and manufactures industrial-grade products that allow customers to provide wireless connectivity.

Its scanning receivers are precision network testing tools intended for drive testing, walk testing, troubleshooting, and monitoring of cellular, WiFi, IoT, and critical communications networks globally.

“Today effective network testing and monitoring requires purpose built scanning receivers to measure hundreds of channels across a broad spectrum including 5GNR and mmWave,” PCTEL vice president and chief sales officer Arnt Arvik says.

“Testing needs to be fast and accurate, conducted in multiple environments, and it needs to be capable of simultaneously testing multiple technologies and operator networks.

“We are delighted that our industry-leading 5G scanning receivers, including our flagship Gflex, will be paired with Infovista's software solutions.

“Together we're bringing the power of two customer-focused teams to co-develop joint 5G testing use cases that solve tangible challenges facing our customers today and in the future.