BGAN Physical Layer Tester (BPLT)

Testers & Simulators

The BGAN Physical Layer Tester (BPLT) supports the testing of physical layer performance and protocol implementation of Radio Access Nodes (RANs) and User Terminals (UTs) implementing Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN), Fleet Broadband and Swift Broadband services.

The BPLT application runs on multiple hardware platforms, including the original PLT-H, which supports multiple services, and the PLT-M, which supports only the BGAN and IDP applications. The version of BPLT that runs on Square Peg’s generic MCP-based Physical Layer Tester (PLT-M) platform is referred to as BPLT on MCP (BMCP).

The BGAN Network Emulator can also be used with the BPLT to provide emulation of the end-to-end network.

Specifications

Transmit Capabilities
Physical channels	4 simultaneous; 1-4 bearers per physical channel depending upon bearer type
Channel Types	LESP (8.4, 33.6, 84, 168 ksym/s QPSK; 33.6, 84, 151.2, 168 ksym/s 16-QAM; 84, 168 ksym/s 32-QAM; 84, 168 ksym/s 64-QAM) MESP (16.8, 33.6, 67.2, 151.2 ksym/s p/4-QPSK; 33.6, 67.2, 151.2 ksym/s 16-QAM; 5, 20 or 80 ms bursts) Test tones (CW, two-tone, etc.) and raw samples
Channel impairments	Independently-specifiable parameters: Fixed carrier frequency error, burst frequency jitter Doppler rate, peak offset Navigation-based Doppler and path delay Reacquisition carrier offset Adjacent channel interference level and frequency offset Co-channel interference level I/Q gain and phase imbalance Continuous phase noise spectrum, level Discrete phase noise level, frequency offset Fading model, bandwidth, C/M ratio, differential delay, path Doppler for up to 5 paths Phase and/or amplitude jump distribution, magnitude, interval Blockage depth, interval, duration Transmission path delay, burst timing jitter Symbol rate error HPA non-linearity AWGN
Receive Capabilities
Physical channels	4 simultaneous
Channel types	LESP (as per transmitter) MESP (as per transmitter) Unframed
Channel modes	Analysis (auto-identification of burst types, optimized for transmitter performance testing) SDM (fully compliant performance in noise, PLT-H only)
Signal analysis	Signal capture (raw samples and soft decisions) Signal replay (from raw samples) Selectable pass/fail limits for measurements: Carrier frequency offset Average power, power rate of change Phase change Integrated phase noise Burst timing offset Symbol clock rate error I/Q gain and phase imbalance Constellation mean-squared error, EVM HPA compression and AM/PM Eb/No loss Uncoded errors Power profile Spectral shape Out-of-band emissions Phase noise spectrum
Ethernet Interface Capabilities
Medium	10/100/1000BaseT
Functionality	Protocol Tester interface, remote control interface (e.g., to LabView™), UT control interface, voice codec interface, GPIB interface (with Ethernet-to-GPIB converter), ARINC-429 interface (with USB or Ethernet-to-429 converter)
Logging Capabilities
General	Protocol Tester interface messages Transmitted/received user or channel data Test sequence progress and outcome System events, faults, and abnormal conditions
Signal analysis	Signal analysis measurements Signal analysis statistics Raw input samples Demodulator soft decisions
Script Capabilities
General	Procedure-based (like Basic, C or Pascal) Functions for string processing, math, user interaction, logging, I/O (serial, TCP/IP, GPIB) Integrated development environment
BPLT-specific	Configuring and controlling modems Sending and receiving user data Controlling channel simulator Sending and receiving BPT and UT messages