CN111988094A

CN111988094A - Wireless performance testing device, system, method, equipment and storage medium

Info

Publication number: CN111988094A
Application number: CN202010988460.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 漆一宏
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: GENERAL TEST SYSTEMS Inc
Priority date: 2020-09-18
Filing date: 2020-09-18
Publication date: 2020-11-24
Anticipated expiration: 2040-09-18
Also published as: CN111988094B; CN116366172A

Abstract

The present disclosure provides a test apparatus, system, method, device and storage medium for wireless performance, wherein the test apparatus includes: testing the antenna; the scanning mechanism is used for controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points; and at least one universal joint arranged on the scanning mechanism, wherein the universal joint is suitable for installing the test antenna and is used for controlling the test antenna to point to a target position or/and controlling the test antenna to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction for each test point.

Description

Wireless performance testing device, system, method, equipment and storage medium

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a device, a system, a method, a device, and a storage medium for testing wireless performance.

Background

With the development of communication technology, various wireless devices are becoming indispensable tools in people's work and life. Most of the current wireless performance test methods refer to the OTA performance test method of the mobile communication device proposed in CTIA (american wireless communication and internet association) specifications. The method requires that the tested device is arranged at the center of a test system, and the performance of the three-dimensional antenna of the tested device is tested through the test antenna.

Disclosure of Invention

The present disclosure describes a device, system, method, apparatus, and storage medium for testing wireless performance.

According to a first aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a test apparatus for wireless performance, including: testing the antenna; the scanning mechanism is used for controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points; and at least one universal joint arranged on the scanning mechanism, wherein the universal joint is suitable for installing the test antenna and is used for controlling the test antenna to point to a target position or/and controlling the test antenna to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction for each test point.

According to a second aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a test system of wireless performance, including: the rotary table is used for controlling the rotation of the tested piece; and a test device for the wireless performance.

According to a third aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a method of testing wireless performance, including: controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points; for each test point, controlling the test antenna to point to a target position and reach a preset polarization direction; and obtaining the test values of all the test points, and obtaining the test result according to the test values.

According to a fourth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided an electronic apparatus including: a processor; a memory for storing a computer program executable by the processor; the processor implements the method for testing wireless performance when executing the computer program.

According to a fifth aspect of embodiments of the present disclosure, there is provided a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program which, when executed by a processor, implements the aforementioned method of testing wireless performance.

According to the embodiment of the disclosure, under the condition that the phase center of the tested piece deviates from the center of the test system, the test result of the wireless performance of the tested piece can be accurately obtained by controlling the pointing direction and the polarization direction of the test antenna.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a testing device for wireless performance shown in the present disclosure according to one embodiment.

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a testing device for wireless performance shown in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a testing device for wireless performance shown in the present disclosure according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a test system for wireless performance shown in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 is a flow chart illustrating a method of testing wireless performance according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating a method of testing wireless performance according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a test system for wireless performance shown in accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of an electronic device according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present disclosure are described below with reference to the drawings. It should be understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale. The described embodiments are exemplary and not intended to limit the disclosure, which features may be combined with or substituted for those of the embodiments in the same or similar manner. As used in this disclosure and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It should also be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.

In the present disclosure, the test object is a wireless device, and the wireless device refers to a device capable of performing wireless communication, and may be a small device such as a computer, a mobile phone, a tablet, a wearable smart device, and a wireless router, or a large device such as a base station, a large antenna, a vehicle, and an airplane. The performance of a wireless device refers to the wireless signal transmission capability of the antenna of the wireless device, including the transmission performance or/and the reception performance. It will be appreciated that for large devices, a device may have multiple communication modules, and depending on the testing requirements, each module may be tested separately to obtain the corresponding wireless performance.

An embodiment of one aspect of the present disclosure is a device for testing wireless performance, including: testing the antenna; the scanning mechanism is used for controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points; and at least one universal joint arranged on the scanning mechanism, wherein the universal joint is suitable for installing the test antenna and is used for controlling the test antenna to point to a target position or/and controlling the test antenna to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction for each test point.

Optionally, the scanning mechanism is any one of:

the universal joint can move along the guide rail;

the rotating arm is suitable for driving the universal joint to rotate around a preset rotating shaft;

the universal joint is arranged at the tail end of the mechanical arm.

Optionally, the testing apparatus further comprises a moving component for controlling the movement of the scanning mechanism, as an example, the moving component may be a movable platform carrying the scanning mechanism, for moving the scanning mechanism to a desired position during testing, or/and for controlling the scanning mechanism to rotate around the tested piece during testing.

As shown in fig. 1, according to an embodiment of the testing apparatus, the testing apparatus includes an arc-shaped guide rail 100, 2 universal joints 200 are installed on the arc-shaped guide rail 100, and a testing antenna 300 is installed on the universal joints 200. The arc-shaped track 100 controls the universal joint 200 to make an arc-shaped motion along the track, so that the test antenna 300 makes a corresponding arc-shaped motion and reaches a plurality of preset test points, and the arc-shaped motion track of the test antenna 300 is the scanning track of the spherical scanning test. When the test antenna 300 reaches each test point, the universal joint 200 controls the test antenna 300 to point to a target position, or/and controls the test antenna 300 to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction. It should be noted that the testing apparatus of this embodiment has 2 testing antennas, and can perform sampling at two preset testing points at the same time, for example, the positions of the 2 testing antennas can be set to the angles that satisfy the interval between adjacent sampling points. In this embodiment, the arc-shaped guide rail is in a half arc shape, the test antenna moves on the arc-shaped guide rail once, the sampling of a plurality of test points can be performed on the half arc, and the scanning test value of the upper half spherical surface of the tested piece can be obtained by repeating the sampling for a plurality of times in combination with the rotation of the turntable bearing the tested piece at certain angle intervals or the movement of the arc-shaped guide rail. The shape of the arc-shaped guide rail is not limited to the half arc exemplified in the present embodiment, and may be, for example, a quarter arc.

The foregoing "target position" and "preset polarization direction" are explained herein.

The test antenna described in the present disclosure is directed to the target position, and may be understood as the test antenna is directed to the target position with a fixed radiation direction (usually the maximum gain direction or a direction close to the maximum gain direction). In some related arts, the maximum radiation direction of the antenna coincides with the normal direction of the antenna port. The target position refers to the phase center of the antenna of the measured piece, and the phase center of the antenna is the equivalent radiation center of the antenna. It will be appreciated that there may be multiple antennas to be tested on a single device under test and therefore multiple corresponding phase centers. In The related art, The ota (over The air) test requires that a phase center is placed at The center of a test system (i.e., The center of a test area or The center of a test spindle), a three-dimensional wireless performance test is performed on a tested piece with The phase center, and during The test, a test antenna is aligned to The phase center in a fixed radiation direction to obtain a larger transmission energy. When the phase center of the tested piece is not arranged at the center of the test system due to the reasons of large volume, heavy weight, inconvenient movement and the like, the test antenna points to the phase center in different radiation directions at different test points, and the test antenna has different gains in different radiation directions, thereby causing test errors. Especially when the phase center is shifted far from the center of the test system, or in the case of a narrow beam width of the test antenna, the test antenna may point to the phase center with side lobes or even nulls at some test points, further increasing the uncertainty of the test. It should be noted that, in the related art, the geometric center of the antenna is usually determined as its phase center, that is, as the aforementioned target position. But for some antennas the actual phase center is significantly different from the geometric center position, in which case its apparent phase center can be determined as the target position. The apparent phase center is a reference point at which the main lobe of the antenna remains relatively constant in phase with its radiated field over a range. The testing device can solve the problems, when the target position of the tested piece is not arranged in the center of the testing system, the universal joint controls the testing antenna to point to the target position, the radiation energy of the tested piece is accurately obtained, and the testing result can accurately reflect the antenna performance of the tested piece.

In the related art, the test specification of the OTA requires that the polarization directions of the test points are consistent in a single test, so as to ensure the test accuracy. The testing device disclosed by the invention adjusts the polarization direction of the testing antenna through the universal joint so as to ensure that the polarization directions of the testing antenna at all testing points are consistent.

As shown in fig. 2, according to an embodiment of the testing apparatus, the testing apparatus includes a rotating arm 100, 1 universal joint 200 is mounted on the rotating arm 100, and a testing antenna 300 is mounted on the universal joint 200. The rotating arm 100 is adapted to drive the universal joint 200 to rotate around the preset rotating axis L through the rotating joint 101, so that the test antenna 300 performs corresponding arc motion and reaches a plurality of preset test points, and a track of the arc motion of the test antenna 300 is a scanning track of the spherical scanning test. When the test antenna 300 reaches each test point, the universal joint 200 controls the test antenna 300 to point to a target position, or/and controls the test antenna 300 to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction.

As shown in fig. 3, according to an embodiment of the test apparatus, the test apparatus includes a robot arm 100, 1 universal joint 200 is mounted at a distal end of the robot arm 100, and a test antenna 300 is mounted on the universal joint 200. The mechanical arm 100 drives the gimbal 200 to move, so that the test antenna 300 reaches a plurality of preset test points according to a preset scanning track. When the test antenna 300 reaches each test point, the universal joint 200 controls the test antenna 300 to point to a target position, or/and controls the test antenna 300 to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction.

Compared with a guide rail and a rotating arm, the mechanical arm can provide a more flexible scanning mode. However, the robot arm also has application limitations. In the related art, the working space is the range that the end of the mechanical arm can reach, and the working space comprises two types: the reachable workspace, i.e. the spatial area that the end of the robot arm can reach from at least one direction; a smart workspace, i.e., a region of space that the end of the robotic arm can reach from any direction. The robotic arm may control the test antenna to reach multiple test points within its working space, but for a robotic arm with less degrees of freedom, its dexterous working space has a smaller range, and at some test points it may not be possible to adjust the pointing angle and polarization direction of the test antenna. The tail end of the mechanical arm is additionally provided with the universal joint, so that the range of the smart working space of the mechanical arm can be expanded. For the mechanical arm with more degrees of freedom, the range of the smart working space is relatively large, but for a complex scanning track or a large measured piece, application limitation still exists possibly due to reasons such as joint limiting and the like, and the redundant degree of freedom of the mechanical arm can be increased by additionally arranging the universal joint.

An embodiment of one aspect of the disclosure is a wireless performance testing system, which includes a turntable for controlling a tested piece to rotate, and the testing device.

Optionally, according to an embodiment of the test system, further comprising an anechoic chamber. The anechoic chamber provides a test environment for testing, and specifically can be a full-wave anechoic chamber, an EMC anechoic chamber, or a field provided with a wave-absorbing screen.

Optionally, according to an embodiment of the test system, further comprising a test meter. The test meter is used to generate test signals to the test antenna or/and to receive signals from the wireless device to obtain test data.

As shown in FIG. 4, according to one embodiment of a test system, the test system includes: the test antenna 300, the arc-shaped guide rail 100, the universal joint 200, the turntable 400, the anechoic chamber 500, and a test instrument (not shown) connected with the test antenna 300.

An embodiment of an aspect of the present disclosure is a method for testing wireless performance, as shown in fig. 5, according to an embodiment of the testing method, including the following steps:

step S11, controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points;

step S12, for each test point, controlling the test antenna to point to the target position and reach the preset polarization direction;

and step S13, obtaining the test values of all the test points, and obtaining the test result according to the test values.

Optionally, according to an embodiment of the testing method, the preset testing point is located on a virtual sphere.

Optionally, according to an embodiment of the testing method, the target position is a phase center of the tested piece.

Optionally, according to an embodiment of the testing method, as shown in fig. 6, the testing method is a spherical scan test, and includes the following steps:

step S21, controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points in a fixed arc-shaped motion track;

step S22, for each test point, controlling the test antenna to point to a target position and reach a preset polarization direction, and obtaining a test value of the test point;

and step S23, the tested piece rotates a preset angle to obtain an updated target position, the steps are repeated until test values of all the test points are obtained, and a test result is obtained according to the test values.

The testing method of the present disclosure is exemplified below in conjunction with a testing system as shown in fig. 4.

Referring to fig. 4, a test coordinate system is established with the center of the test system as the origin of coordinates, a plane parallel to the plane of the turntable 400 as the XY plane, and an axis perpendicular to the XY plane and facing upward from the ground as the Z-axis forward direction. The arc-shaped rail 100 is fixedly disposed. The center of rotation of the turret 400 is at the origin of the test system. The tested piece 600 is a vehicle, the tested piece 600 has 4 antennas to be tested, the phase centers of the antennas to be tested, namely the target positions are A, B, C and D respectively, and the positions of the target positions in the test coordinate system are known. The target position A is located at the origin of the test coordinate system, and the other three target positions deviate from the origin of the test coordinate system.

The test procedure for target position a is:

step S201, the arc guide rail 100 controls the test antenna 300 to make a fixed one-half circular arc motion along the track, the circular arc takes the origin of the test coordinate system as the center of a circle, and the circular arc motion track comprises a plurality of test points 301 with preset sampling interval angles (for example, 15 degrees);

step S202, controlling the test antenna 300 to point to a target position A and reach a preset polarization direction through the universal joint 200 at each test point 301, and obtaining a test value of each test point 301; it should be noted that, because the target position a is located at the origin of the test system, when the pointing direction and the polarization direction of the test antenna 300 are adjusted at any test point 301, no adjustment is needed at other test points 301;

step S203, the turntable 400 rotates a preset angle on the XY plane of the test coordinate system, the step S201 and the step S202 are repeated to obtain the test value of each test point 301 of the turntable 400 at the rotation angle, the turntable rotates a preset angle again, the step S201 and the step S202 are repeated until the test values of all the test points of the turntable 400 at all the rotation angles are obtained, and the test result is obtained according to the test values. It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the target position a is located at the origin of the test system, so that after the turntable 400 rotates, the coordinates of the target position a in the test coordinate system are not changed. In this embodiment, the preset test point is located on a virtual hemispherical surface, that is, the scan test of the hemispherical surface is performed on the tested piece, so as to obtain the wireless performance in the corresponding direction. In the present disclosure, optionally, the test may be performed in the near-field range of the tested piece, and the far-field performance of the antenna is calculated by performing near-field-far-field transformation on the test value as the test result.

Referring to fig. 7, the test procedure for target location B is:

step S211, the arc guide rail 100 controls the test antenna 300 to make a fixed one-half circular arc motion along the track, where the circular arc uses the origin of the test coordinate system as the center of circle, and the circular arc motion track includes a plurality of test points 301 with preset sampling interval angles (e.g., 15 °);

step S212, controlling the test antenna 300 to point to a target position B and reach a preset polarization direction through the universal joint 200 at each test point 301, and obtaining a test value of each test point 301;

step S213, the rotating platform 400 rotates a preset angle on the XY plane of the test coordinate system to obtain an updated target position B, step S211 and step S212 are repeated to obtain a test value of the rotating platform 400 at each test point 301 of the rotation angle, the rotating platform rotates a preset angle again to obtain an updated target position B, step S211 and step S212 are repeated until test values of all test points of the rotating platform 400 at all rotation angles are obtained, and a test result is obtained according to the test values. In this embodiment, since the target position B is deviated from the origin of the test coordinate system and the arc guide 100 is fixedly disposed, the coordinates of the target position B in the test coordinate system are changed after the turntable 400 is rotated, and the coordinate values of the target position B need to be updated before repeating the steps S211 and S212.

The testing steps for target locations C and D are similar and will not be described further herein.

It should be noted that, for the test in which the phase center is deviated from the center of the test system, for example, the test of the target positions B, C, and D, the distances between each test point and the target position may be different, and in the step of obtaining the test result according to the test value, as an example, for each test value, the test result is obtained after performing compensation calculation of the gain and the path loss of the test antenna according to the polarization direction of the test antenna and the distance between the test antenna and the target position.

Corresponding to the foregoing embodiment of the method for testing wireless performance, another embodiment of the present disclosure is an electronic device, including: a processor; a memory for storing a computer program executable by the processor; the processor implements the method for testing wireless performance when executing the computer program, which is not described herein again. Fig. 8 shows a block diagram of the present embodiment according to an embodiment of the electronic device. The electronic device can be a computer, a mobile phone, a tablet device, a message receiving and sending device and other terminal devices. The electronic device may include a memory 1001, a processor 1002, and a computer program stored on the memory 1001 and executable on the processor 1002. The processor 1002, when executing the computer program, implements the method of testing wireless performance provided in the above-described embodiments.

Optionally, the electronic device of this embodiment further includes: a communication interface 1003 for communicating between the memory 1001 and the processor 1002. Memory 1001 may include high-speed RAM memory and may also include non-volatile memory (e.g., at least one disk memory). If the memory 1001, the processor 1002 and the communication interface 1003 are implemented independently, the communication interface 1003, the memory 1001 and the processor 1002 may be interconnected via a bus and communicate with each other. The bus may be an Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, a Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus, an Extended ISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture) bus, or the like. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc.

Optionally, in a specific implementation, if the memory 1001, the processor 1002, and the communication interface 1003 are implemented by being integrated on a single chip, the memory 1001, the processor 1002, and the communication interface 1003 may complete mutual communication through an internal interface.

The processor 1002 may be a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), or one or more Integrated circuits configured to implement embodiments of the present disclosure.

In accordance with the foregoing embodiments of the method for testing wireless performance, another embodiment of the present disclosure is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, and when the computer program is executed by a processor, the method for testing wireless performance is implemented, and will not be described herein again.

In the description above, references to the description of the term "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "an example," "a specific example," or "some examples," etc., mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one implementation or example of the present disclosure. In the present disclosure, schematic representations of the above terms are not necessarily directed to the same embodiment or example. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

Furthermore, the terms "first", "second" and "first" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include at least one such feature. In the description of the present disclosure, "a plurality" means at least two, e.g., two, three, etc., unless explicitly limited otherwise.

Any process or method descriptions in flow charts or otherwise described herein may be understood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code which include one or more executable instructions for implementing steps of a custom logic function or process, and alternate implementations are included within the scope of the present disclosure in which functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understood by those reasonably skilled in the art of the embodiments of the present disclosure.

The logic and/or steps represented in the flowcharts or otherwise described herein, e.g., a sequential list of executable instructions that may be thought of as being useful for implementing logical functions, may be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that may fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. For the purposes of this disclosure, a "computer-readable medium" can be any means that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection (electronic device) having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette (magnetic device), a Random Access Memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber device, and a compact disc read-only memory (CDROM). Further, the computer readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via for instance optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory.

It should be understood that portions of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or a combination thereof. In the above embodiments, the various steps or methods may be implemented in software or firmware stored in memory and executed by a suitable instruction execution system. If implemented in hardware, as in another embodiment, any one or combination of the following techniques, which are known in the art, may be used: discrete logic circuits with logic gates for implementing logic functions on data signals, application specific integrated circuits with appropriate combinational logic gates, Programmable Gate Arrays (PGAs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), etc.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the steps carried by the method for implementing the above embodiments may be implemented by hardware that can be related to instructions of a program, which can be stored in a computer-readable storage medium, and when the program is executed, the program includes one or a combination of the steps of the method embodiments.

In addition, functional units in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing module, or each unit may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one module. The integrated module can be realized in a hardware mode, and can also be realized in a software functional module mode. The integrated module, if implemented in the form of a software functional module and sold or used as a stand-alone product, may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium.

The storage medium mentioned above may be a read-only memory, a magnetic or optical disk, etc. Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described above, it is understood that the above embodiments are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the present disclosure, and that changes, modifications, substitutions and alterations may be made to the above embodiments by those of ordinary skill in the art within the scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A wireless performance testing apparatus, comprising:

testing the antenna;

the scanning mechanism is used for controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points; and

and the universal joint is used for controlling the test antenna to point to a target position or/and controlling the test antenna to rotate to reach a preset polarization direction for each test point.

2. The testing device of claim 1, wherein the scanning mechanism is any one of:

a guide rail along which the universal joint is movable;

and the universal joint is arranged at the tail end of the mechanical arm.

3. The testing device of claim 1, further comprising a movement assembly for controlling movement of the scanning mechanism.

4. A system for testing wireless performance, comprising:

the rotary table is used for controlling the rotation of the tested piece; and

a test device according to any one of claims 1-3.

5. The test system of claim 4, further comprising an anechoic chamber.

6. The method for testing wireless performance is characterized by comprising the following steps:

controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points;

for each test point, controlling the test antenna to point to a target position and reach a preset polarization direction;

and obtaining test values of all the test points, and obtaining a test result according to the test values.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the target location is a phase center of the piece under test.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the method of testing is a spherical scan test comprising:

controlling the test antenna to reach a plurality of preset test points in a fixed arc-shaped motion track;

for each test point, controlling the test antenna to point to the target position and reach the preset polarization direction to obtain a test value of the test point;

and controlling the tested piece to rotate by a preset angle to obtain the updated target position, repeating the steps until test values of all the test points are obtained, and obtaining a test result according to the test values.

9. An electronic device, comprising:

a processor;

a memory for storing a computer program executable by the processor;

wherein the processor, when executing the computer program, implements the testing method of any of claims 6-8.

10. Non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, on which a computer program is stored, which, when executed by a processor, implements a testing method according to any one of claims 6-8.