Integrity Indicator

Integrity Indicator

Last updated: June 19, 2006

Description

The test set can evaluate its own performance and make a determination as to the validity of a measurement result. The test set evaluates the conditions surrounding a measurement and reports to the user its evaluation of these conditions in a parameter called the measurement integrity indicator. A measurement integrity indicator value is returned for every completed measurement. It is recommended that the user take advantage of this feature in every measurement.

The returned value defines whether or not a problem was encountered by the measurement process. It is not, however, guaranteed to be the only or root cause of the measurement problem. This is because some of the conditions surrounding a measurement may interact, and the test set may have insufficient information to determine the root cause of the measurement problem. However, in most cases, the value returned is the most likely cause of the problem.

Not all of the integrity indicator values are available for each measurement or test application, if a value doesn't apply it will not be available.

Integrity Indicator Values

   
NOTE
GSM, GPRS and EGPRS measurements return integrity indicators (8, 9, 11) when the measurement synchronization is set to midamble.

   

Integrity Indicator Number

Integrity Indicator Message

0

Normal: Indicates the measurement completed successfully without error and the result is accurate.

1

No Result Available: Indicates that there is no measurement result and returns NAN (not a number).

2

Measurement Timeout: Indicates that a measurement has timed out. The measurement timeout state must be set to ON.

3

Hardware Not Installed: Indicates that a piece of hardware is not installed in the test set, or the hardware has failed in a way which leads the instrument controller to believe it isn't installed.

4

Hardware Error: Indicates that a hardware failure has occurred. These include failures such as a phase lock loop out-of-lock, defective DSP samplers, or power detectors that can not be calibrated.

5

Over Range: Indicates that the input signal is over range. The amplitude of the device-under test's (DUT's) signal is causing the voltage at a DSP sampler to be above its maximum input level or the frequency is too high or the voltage measured is beyond the maximum voltmeter range, either positive or negative.

6

Under Range: Indicates that the input signal is under range. The amplitude of the DUT's signal is not high enough for the DSP sampler to produce accurate results with the measurement algorithm.

7

Burst Short: Indicates that the burst duration is too short, or part of the burst was not sampled due to improper triggering.

8

Trigger Early or Fall Early: Indicates that the DUT's burst amplitude fell prematurely or, due to an early trigger (early relative to a transmitted burst) the measurement sampling operation terminated before the falling edge of the burst.

9

Trigger Late or Rise Late: Indicates that either the rising edge of the DUT's burst was late or, due to a late trigger (late relative to a transmitted burst) the measurement sampling operation didn't start until after the rising edge of the transmitted burst.

10

Signal Too Noisy: Indicates that the measurement algorithm has found the signal measured to be too noisy to provide accurate results.

11

Sync Not Found: For the GSM/GPRS/EGPRS power versus time measurement, indicates that the midamble was not found therefore the measurement was not synchronized. For the W-CDMA BER and BLER measurements, indicates that the test set has lost synchronization with the UE.

12

Oven Out of Range: Indicates that a temperature controlled oven (other than the internal timebase oven) is outside of its operating range. The power meter's oven is checked and its condition reported with this value. (The internal timebase generates a temporary error message (out of lock) that is sent to the system error queue and the display. This is not an integrity indicator value, it is an error message.)

13

Unidentified Error: Indicates errors which are not covered by the other integrity values. Examples include: parameter errors, algorithm memory errors (too many measurements), measurements unavailable (unable to control), autorange unable to converge, default calibration data used.

14

PCM Full Scale Warning: Indicates that the PCM signal has reached plus or minus full scale. The measurement made will be accurate on the PCM signal but would typically indicate an overdriven or oscillating element in the DUT.

15

Questionable Result for Phase 1 Mobile: Indicates that the user attempted to make an FBER measurement in a phase 1 system. FBER is only possible in a phase 2 GSM system. This indicator is available only when the selected broadcast band is PGSM.

16

Questionable Result:
1. Indicates that the channel mode was NOT set to Full Rate Speech while a Decoded Audio measurement was active. Decoded Audio is only supported for FS Speech.
2. For the cdma2000 lab application, this integrity indicator is used to indicate that the Digital Average Power measurement result is questionable if the reverse channel is in 1/8 rate gated transmission in radio configuration 3 and above or the test set can not determine whether the reverse channel is in gated transmission (for example, while in a voice call).
3. For the GPRS Bit Error and GPRS Block Error measurements, this integrity indicator is returned when the Connection Type is set to an invalid parameter, i.e. SRB Loopback.

17

Can not Correlate: Indicates that the test sets internally generated reference signal does not correlate with the received signal.

Some conditions that could cause this integrity indicator result include the following:

  • an input signal that is corrupted
  • the input signal is extremely distorted
  • the input signal is off by more than 10 ms.
  • the frequency of the input signal deviates more than allowed
  • something is wrong with the long-code mask coming from the mobile ID

18

Frequency Out Of Range: Indicates that a Channel Power Measurement was attempted at a frequency for which there is no calibration data. The test set display will indicate 4 dashes.

19

Uncalibrated Due To Temperature: Indicates that the ambient temperature changes more than 10 degrees C since latest calibration, when attempting a Channel Power Measurement.

20

Potential Receiver Saturation: Indicates that an input signal immediately prior to the measured input was high enough to potentially saturate the receiver hardware.

21

Parameter Error: Indicates that a measurement setup parameter has been set in a way that gives invalid measurement results.

22

Unsupported Configuration: Indicates that some parameter, other than a measurement setup parameter has been set so that it causes an invalid measurement result. Typically this would be a base station emulator parameter.

23

Call Processing Operation Failed: Indicates that a call processing operation, (base station emulator) needed in the course of making the measurement could not complete.

24

Calibration Error

25

Burst Not Found
26 Missing Loopback Packets or AT Buffer Overflow: Indicates that Loopback Packets are missing, or the Access Terminal had an overflow. This integrity indicator was added for the 1xEV-DO Packet Error Rate measurement.

27

No AT Loopback Packets: Indicates that no Loopback Packets from the Access Terminal were detected for a period of several seconds. This integrity indicator was added to provide an early termination criteria for the 1xEV-DO Packet Error Rate measurement.

28

Questionable MS-to-Cell Data: Indicates that a condition exists on the uplink or reverse channel that has caused the measurement results to be in question. In the case of the WCDMA Loopback BER measurement, an example condition that could cause this integrity indicator would be detection of a CRC error in an uplink transport block.
30 Trigger Missed: Indicates one or more triggers were missed during the measurement. In the case of the CDMA TX dynamic power measurement, an example condition that may cause this integrity indicator would be GPIB or LAN activities occur during the measurement. This integrity indicator was added to prevent the CDMA TX dynamic power measurement from hanging forever and provide an early termination criteria for the measurement.

31

Dual Measurement Request: Indicates that a request has been received for a measurement type that is already running.

32

Measurement Not Licensed: Indicates that the required feature license for the measurement is not present. See

http://www.keysight.com/find/8960upgrades

for details on hardware and software requirements to run a specific feature.

Example Program

 
10  OUTPUT 714;"INITiate:DAPower" !Start Digital Average measurement
20  OUTPUT 714;"FETCH:DAPower?" !Request measurement results.
30  ENTER 714;Integrity,Ave_power !Read measurement results.
40  IF Integrity = 0 THEN !Permits measurement to be printed if integrity indicator
50                        !indicates a successful measurement
60  PRINT "Digital Average Power =";Ave_power!if 0 then measurement was successful
70  ELSE
80  PRINT "Measurement integrity questionable, integrity value = ";Integrity !If
90                                                                           !integrity
100                                                                          !not zero
110                                                                          !then print
120                                                                          !integrity
130                                                                          !value.
140 END IF
150 END

Related Topics


Error Messages

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