A testbed for DECT physical- and medium access-layer

The next generation of cordless telephones in Europe will conform to the DECT (Digital European Cordless Telecommunications) standard. This standard makes a change from today´s analog FDMA (Frequency Domain Multiple Access) transmission to the fully digital FDM/TDD/TDMA (Frequency Domain Multiplex/Time Domain Duplex/Time Domain Multiple Access) system. Also, channels will be assigned dynamically at request of the mobile. For the performance of this transmission and access method under indoor conditions no experimental results have been published. Only a few computer simulations of system behavior have been carried out. The authors have set up a testbed for (i) verification of the DECT standard´s physical- and medium access-layer specifications, (ii) testing of DECT equipment under typical indoor conditions, and (iii) finding the limitations of a DECT link for indoor and outdoor applications especially in a slightly dispersive radio channel. They present the principle of the DECT testbed, its practical realisation and a few illustrative measurement examples