User's Guide
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1. Introduction
The
purpose
of
this
document
is
to
provide
the
usage
of
the
applications
for
transmit and
receive
tests
to
evaluate
the
RF
performance
of
the
ALXC28
using
a
test
driver in Linux
e
nvironment.
The
evaluation
board
provides
the
necessary
connectors
so that
you
can
measure
transmit
and receive
performance of
the
PHY,
using
Spectrum
Analyzer
and
Signal
Generator
in
either
2.4GHz or
5GHz
(For
ALXC28
module).
In
general,
transmit
performance
of
a radio
can
be
analyzed
in
three
steps.
Maximum
power:
The
user
can
observe the
RF
output
power
for
a
given maximum gain
supported
by
the
RF.
EVM:
The
user
can
observe
the
EVM
for
a
given
rated RF
power
as
supported
by
the
RF
transceiver.
S
pectral
Mask:
The
user
can
verify whether
the
ALXC28
module
meets
the
spectral
mask
requirements
defined by IEEE
standard
for
a
given maximum RF
output
power,
in
a
particular
mode
of
operation
like
11a, 11b,
11g
etc.
The
receive
performance
of
the
PHY
can
be
analyzed
using
Packet
Error
Ratio
(PER)
test.
The
Rx
performance
is
analyzed
by
the
sensitivities
at
different
data
rates.
In
general,
the
sensitivity
is
observed
as
10%
Packet Error
Ratio
(PER)
point
in
11a
and
11g,
and
8%
PER
point in
11b.
The
document
contains
two
major
sections.
Section
3.1 describes
the
usage
of
the
‘transmit
’
utility,
which
provides
the
options
for
setting
various
parameters
to
carry
out transmit
tests
on
the
ALXC28
device.
Section
3.2 describes
the
usage
of
the
‘receive’
utility,
whic
h
enables
the
user
to
perform
receive
tests
on
the
ALXC28
device.
2.
Test
Setup
Details
The
diagram
shown
below,
illustrates the
test setup
for
evaluating
receive
and transmit
performance
of
ALXC28
WLAN module.
As
shown
in
the
test
setup,
the
ALXC28
evaluation
board
(EVB)
is
plugged
into
Linux
based
laptop
via
RJ45
.
The
board
is
connected
to
a
WLAN
signal
analyzer
through
a
microwave coaxial cable
to
test
the
Tx or Rx
performance.