Nokia Paris-Saclay, France. Jean-Christophe Coiffier, Nokia.
Nowadays, the world is more and more connected thanks to the Internet of Things. Connectivity has become one of the most important elements because we use it and need it every day with our smartphones or smart devices. But how to be sure that all our devices will work well in our network environment? The answer to this question is simple: interoperability.
What is Interoperability and why is it important?
Interoperability describes the fact to test the communication capabilities of a specific device (smartphone, chipset…) before its launch. This means concretely that the device must follow series of tests showing its ability to connect to several networks.
Let’s take a simple example: a smartphone should connect to 2G – 3G – 4G networks on several frequency bands (reproducing/matchmaking the networks bandwidth of European, American, Asian… operators). If the smartphone passes all the tests, it is considered as ready to go to market. If not, the manufacturer should improve its development to ensure the compatibility of the device to its customers, regardless its geographical location.
What happens if the manufacturer decides to go to market without conducting any interoperability tests? Well, it takes the risk to sell a device with a poor connectivity and to impact negatively its brand image.
This is the reason why the biggest names of the telecom industry (operators, chipsets, smartphones manufacturers…) work with infrastructure manufacturers such as Nokia to offer the best devices on the market.
Inside Nokia, this activity is handle by the Device IOT Excellence Center, a unique place for interoperability testing.
Device IOT Excellence Center, the place to be for interoperability
evice IOT Excellence Center is a unique place inside Nokia where customers come to realize interoperability testing sessions before the launch of their products.
On site, they have access to 13 private and fully equipped laboratories. They take benefit from expert advices who supervise tests plan over Nokia infrastructures which are organized as a showroom for visitors.
All Nokia technologies are gathered here, from Core Networks to Radio Access Networks:
- Core Networks available technologies: IMS – IMPACT – eMBMS – IP Core Backbone – NFV SDN Platform – FTP servers…
- Radio Access Networks available technologies: 2G – 3G – 4G – Femto – EC-GSM – NB-IoT – LTE-M – LoRa. Those technologies are available for American, European Middle East Africa, Chinese and Asian networks.
Customers have the opportunity to test their devices on an end-to-end and up-to-date infrastructure available in one place. Moreover, they have a dedicated space for their servers inside this infrastructure to see the behavior of their solutions in a real environment.
Remote services are also available for customers which want to test their device in a specific environment.
In conclusion, this interoperability testing activity is targeting the entire telecom industry, from telecom operators to smart devices manufacturers, from chipsets vendors to smartphones manufacturers. All this ecosystem can benefit from a decade of expertise in interoperability and access to a complete end-to-end infrastructure in ONE place.
Working with this interoperability testing center, the customer can ensure the reliability, the privacy & the efficiency of its devices to the end users. In few words, interoperability is the key for best connectivity.