Carrier Aggregation is the most promising feature of LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) technology, mainly intended to achieve higher internet speed. The only way to accomplish this under the Carrier Aggregation is to combine two or more carrier components from one or more operating bands there by increasing the overall bandwidth. However, combining carrier components often results into numerous possible test point combinations.
What needs to be considered for testing purposes is that there are a lot of restrictions defined per test case as well as certification regime and PICS restrictions.
Putting all the carrier component related test points, test case restrictions, certification regime and PICS restrictions into a single page to receive all the valid test points is provably too complex in nature.
But there is help available: The mentioned complexity has been thoroughly analyzed by Carrier Aggregation and TOM experts within CETECOM leaving no room for any kind of errors. Besides enriching carrier aggregation knowledge within TOM, the experts have also designed a validator, an online tool called Carrier Aggregation Validator (CAV).
Carrier Aggregation testers can now utilize the CAV tool to verify if the chosen test points are correct or not. Using CAV, the correctness of the carrier aggregation test plan can be maintained and kept up to date with every 3GPP release thereby reducing the testing efforts only to the valid combinations.
The Carrier Aggregation Validator is free for use and available at https://cav.cetecom.com