A TFR-based method for the quality assessment of UMTS signals: an application on the First Italian Experimental Network

This paper presents a measurement method set up to quickly evaluate the quality of the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS) mobile communications. The method is based on the use of a time-frequency representation of the UMTS QPSK modulated signal, suitably down-converted and digitized. Starting from the method, a virtual instrument has been developed and tested on the first Italian UMTS experimental network supplied by Ericsson to TIM on the premises of the Centro Studi e Laboratori Telecomunicazioni (CSELT), Torino, Italy. The results of the field measurement campaign, carried out in order to evaluate the capabilities of this new communication system, have also been used to evaluate the method capability in confirming the results of complex and expensive test benches.