Over the Air Test Method for Beidou Intelligent Terminals

Abstract

The number of Beidou intelligent terminal is dramatically increasing recently. Only during 2017, there have been More than 200 mobile communication terminals supporting BDS applied for telecom equipment access to network license. It’s important to evaluate the Beidou antenna performance of these intelligent terminals but currently there is neither specification nor common methods. Over-The-Air (OTA) test evaluates three-dimension (3D) radiated antenna performance in anechoic chamber to approach the real user experience. In this paper, an over the air test method for Beidou intelligent terminal is proposed, including standalone mode and communication assisted mode. The test scenarios and test procedures for radiated 3D Carrier-to-Noise (C/N0) pattern measurement and radiated sensitivity measurement are described. An over the air test system is developed in China Telecommunication Technology Lab (CTTL) and a number of intelligent terminals supporting Beidou are tested. The results indicate that although large numbers of terminals are claimed supporting Beidou, its Beidou antenna performance is relatively poor and when Global Position System (GPS) is not available, Beidou positioning cannot meet the user requirements currently. Thus, it is urgent to standardize the Beidou OTA technical requirements and test methods of intelligent terminals.