LoRa Testing | Lora test,Certification,compliance testing

LoRa Testing | Lora test, Certification, Compliance testing

This page describes LoRa testing and Lora test and certification. It describes LoRa compliance testing for LoRa Transmitter and LoRa Receiver part. It mentions LoRa certification test providers.

Introduction: As we know there are two main types of tests viz. manual and automated. In the manual testing, all the test cases are run by the engineers manually. In the automated testing, all the test cases are automated using programming languages such as python and engineers need to just start the test and the system does everything required to conduct the test successfully. The automated test system controls the RF equipments and also store the results in a file.

Based on the protocol stack of the DUT (Device Under Test), tests are being performed for all the protocol layers. In the LoRa DUT, there are four protocol layers viz. RF, PHY, MAC and application layers. Hence compliance tests need to be performed on these layers of the stack. Refer typical Physical layer(PHY) measurements>> and RF layer measurements>> performed on Physical layer and RF layer testing of the DUT.

LoRa Tests for LoRa device transmitter part

Following table-1 mentions LoRa test cases for the LoRa transmitter part.

Transmitter Test case	Description
RF Carrier frequency accuracy	This test will make sure that LoRA carrier frequency is not deviating more than desired.
Transmit Power spectrum i.e. Band Edge Limit Testing	This test will assure that radiations from transmit part is within desired channel bandwidth and below the desired RF power level to meet regulatory requirements. In this test, band edges are measured in compliance with spectral band edge masks defined. The mask vary based on different LoRa frequency bands. Reference: SX1272/3, ETSI Compliance doc. from SEMTECH
Transient Power Tests	In order to perform power measurement, modulation bandwidth is set to one of the three LoRa BW settings i.e. 125 KHz, 250 KHz and 500 KHz.
Peak RF Output Power	The test will assure that how much is the deviation in the peak output of LoRa DUT compare to the settings made. Refer ERC-REC 70-03 for the requirements of the test.
Spurious and harmonics test	This test will assure that there is no unwanted frequencies present in the output along with desired center frequency. Spurious refer to non integer multiples of the input frequencies. Harmonics refer to integer multiples of the input frequencies. Refer Spurious vs Harmonics>> and Harmonics measurement>>.

Table:1 LoRa Transmitter Tests (LoRa Testing)

LoRa Tests for LoRa device receiver part

Following table-2 mentions LoRa test cases for the LoRa receiver part.

Receiver Test case	Description
Sensitivity	This test will assure that LoRa receiver will work with desired performance at minimum power level as per specification. It is performed at different Spreading Factors, Bandwidths and code rates.
PER (%)	It is Packet Error Rate. The tests is done to determine number of packets received in error with respect to the total transmitted bits under certain channel conditions. The test is performed at various code rates, Spreading factors and bandwidths. The fixed number of packets are transmitted with fixed payload size for the test.

Table:2 LoRa Receiver Tests (LoRa Device Testing)

LoRa Test and measurement equipments for LoRa product testing

Keysight technologies and Rohde & Schwarz are working on to develop test and measurement equipments are used for LoRa Device Testing at various stages of the protocol layers.

LoRa certification test providers for LoRa testing

Following table mentions LoRa certification test providers. There are authorized test service providers from LoRa alliance who help for conducting LoRa testing. Hence tests are conducted by these service providers and certificate will be issued from LoRA Alliance.

Company	Description
IMST GmbH	Website: https://www.imst.com/ It is LoRa® certified Lab. Address: Germany
TUV	Website: www.tuv.com Address: germany, Japan, USA
AT4 wireless	Website: www.at4wireless.com Address: USA, Spain, Taiwan, Japan
7Layers	Website: www.7Layers.com Address: USA, Germany
Espotel Oy	Website: www.espotel.com Address: Finland