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Catapult Communications Corporation: Catapult Communications Announces High-Capacity LTE UE Simulation Test System

^{Published on 2009-02-09 11:16:08, Last Modified on 2009-02-09 11:17:01 - Market Wire}
 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - February 9, 2009) - Catapult Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: [ CATT ]) today announced the release of its LTE User Equipment (UE) Simulation test system. Capable of simulating thousands of UEs performing voice, video and data calls over the Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI), the patent-pending system addresses a previously unmet need in the telecom test market for cost-effective, full-capacity LTE UE simulation. This testing was previously performed using large banks of manually operated user equipment, or performance was estimated from low-capacity functional tests. Catapult's new system will help the successful launch of LTE by ensuring that the performance expectations for this newly defined mobile broadband service are met.

Dr. Richard Karp, CEO of Catapult, said "We recognized that there were several test systems available capable of simulating a few dozen UEs for functional testing, but none for the sophisticated high-capacity load tests necessary to validate the capacity of new LTE network nodes. Catapult, with assistance from PA Consulting, has worked over the past year and a half to design and develop this high-capacity test system, a first of its kind in the telecom test industry."

The LTE User Equipment Simulation system is based on Catapult's new t600 microTCA chassis combined as a peripheral with Catapult's flagship DCT2000® m500 platform. Connection to the eNode B under test is accomplished using the CPRI standard, a cost-effective method of optical and electrical connection without the need for LTE radio heads. With its scalable architecture, the t600 chassis supports from one to three sectors with up to 400 connected UEs per sector. For each sector, single and multiple antenna architectures up to 4x4 MIMO are supported.

During recent months, Catapult conducted trials of the new LTE load simulation system with North American and East Asian equipment manufacturers leading up to this global introduction. The LTE UE Simulation system is a major addition to Catapult's portfolio of DCT-based LTE eNodeB testing tools that provide a fully integrated wraparound test configuration with complete control and coordination between the simulated LTE UEs, adjacent eNode Bs and the Enhanced Packet Core.

About Catapult Communications

Catapult Communications is a leading supplier of advanced digital telecom test systems to global equipment manufacturers and service providers, including Alcatel-Lucent, Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Nortel and Nokia Siemens Networks. The Catapult DCT2000 and MGTS systems deliver superior high-end test solutions for hundreds of protocols and variants -- spanning LTE, IMS, WiMAX, UMTS, CDMA, VoIP, GPRS, GSM, SS7, and ISDN. The Company is committed to providing testing tools that are at the forefront of the telecom technology curve.

Catapult is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. International offices are located in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Japan, China, India and the Philippines. Information about Catapult Communications can be found on the Web at [ www.catapult.com ].