The IoT market has begun to see such a mixed use of multiple communication technologies, take television for example, said Eric Yu, Assistant Vice President, Signal Integrity Business unit, Integrated Service Technology (iST).

As the media industry began to undergo some changes in 2016, people getting use to watch video signals now stream over Ethernet rather than over cable networks. The way it works is that signals coming to the home via external Ethernet are then sent to TV using Wi-Fi through an Access Point (AP). As such, Wi-Fi has become the fourth main test item for TV. For a home theater systems with standalone speakers, signal transmission between the TV and speakers is via Bluetooth connection. Accordingly, the TV sends video signals via both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the same 2.4GHz range, which makes it susceptible to interference. The situation is bad enough for TV. Just think how much worse it will be when a future home is deployed with a complete IoT system and all devices are operating simultaneously Customized testing is the solution to such a problem, proposed Yu.

Yu explained, to test smart home devices, a common current practice is to set up a mockup home environment such as a living room, bathroom, kitchen or bedroom and then install IoT devices there to check how well the devices operate together and gain an understanding on their communication and operation status in the environment. This only checks one particular indoor setting but not able to cover different types of indoor environment which cannot be considered as a quick and effective initial test. In real-world application, IoT systems have to cope with different home settings and decorations and their functions may also vary based on home owner needs. As such, the test practice using a mockup home environment to check interoperability and performance provides little help to manufacturers.

For now, emulator testing will be a cost-effective approach, said Yu. A software-and-hardward-based emulator environment is built wherein throughput capacity, roaming and desense tests are conducted. This is not only a practical method in emulating infinite models of indoor environments but an efficient way to shorten testing hours. So far iST has received many customers’ orders asking for conducting IoT tests with this method.