Methods and apparatus for performance testing of cordless telephones

A system for automated performance testing of an analog cordless telephone, comprising:

• a handset for communicating with a matching base station, the handset being operative to transmit a plurality of test packets to the base station, the test packets comprising opcodes similar to opcodes used for signaling between the handset and the base station;
• a base station for communicating with the handset, the base station being operative to receive the plurality of test packets and output a signal indicating receipt of each properly received test packet to a test access port;
• and
• a test controller adapted to connect to the test access port of the base station, the test controller being operative to count signals received from the test access port, to compute an error rate based on a difference between the number of signals received and signals expected and to evaluate communication performance between the handset and the base station based on the error rate.

A system for range testing of a cordless telephone, comprising:

• a first shielded enclosure for enclosing a cordless telephone handset, the first shielded enclosure containing a first sensing antenna;
• a second shielded enclosure for enclosing cordless telephone base station, the second shielded enclosure containing a second sensing antenna;
• an attenuator connected between the first sensing antenna and the second sensing antenna, the attenuator adapted to introduce a predetermined attenuation equivalent to a specified distance;
• the cordless telephone handset, the handset being adapted for designation as a sending unit or a receiving unit, the handset being adapted to transmit a plurality of range test packets to the base station when designated as the sending unit, the handset being adapted to receive a number of range test packets from the base station and to report each successful receipt of a range test packet when designated as the receiving unit;
• the cordless telephone base station, the base station being adapted for designation as a sending unit or a receiving unit, the base station being adapted to transmit a plurality of range test packets to the handset when designated as the sending unit, the handset being adapted to receive a number of range test packets from the handset and to report each successful receipt of a range test packet when designated as the receiving unit;
• and
• a range calculator adapted to compute the range performance between the sending unit and the receiving unit based on an error rate comprising a difference between the number of range test packets sent by the sending unit and the number of range test packets received by the receiving unit, and a distance equivalent to the attenuation introduced by the attenuator.

A method of range testing for an analog cordless telephone, comprising the steps of:

• (1) enclosing a cordless telephone handset within a first shielded enclosure, the first shielded enclosure also containing a first sensing antenna;
• (2) enclosing a cordless telephone base station within a second shielded enclosure, the second shielded enclosure also containing a second sensing antenna, the second sensing antenna being connected to the first sensing antenna through an attenuator, the attenuator having an attenuation set to be equivalent to a specified distance;
• (2) designating one of the cordless telephone handset and the cordless telephone base station as a sending unit and the other of the handset and the base station as a receiving unit;
• (3) sending a plurality of range test packets from the sending unit to the receiving unit;
• (4) detecting each reception of a range test packet by the receiving unit;
• and
• (5) computing an error rate based on a difference between the number of range test packets sent from the sending unit and the number of range test packets received by the receiving unit;
• and
• (6) computing range performance from the sending unit to the receiving unit based on the error rate and the attenuation.