Test & Measurement: Smooth Sailing

Thanks to the quicker revolution and deployment of technologies including 3G and broadband wireless access, the Test and Measurement (T&M) industry has picked up pace in the recent years. The other factors contributing to its growth include WiMax, FTTX, LTE, all-IP networks or convergence concepts, and more specifically, the rising demands for quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE).

The industry has emerged as a key factor influencing all market segments, right from design to development to deployment of a product or solution or technology across verticals. It is growing considerably due to the increasing domestic demands.

Top Players

Agilent Technologies

The company's key verticals are R&D, aviation industry, defense, semiconductors, communications, education, and manufacturing. It also introduced Agilent PXT wireless communications test set in May 2012 for testing voice quality on Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE).

It has invested in integrated circuits using a proprietary process and was able to increase transistors' speed to more than 200 GHz. This investment further enabled the company to give its oscilloscopes a high frequency capability (up to 33 GHz). It has also adopted indirect distribution channels for its mainstream oscilloscope line and the company's high performance application specific integrated circuits contributed to its growing market share in high end and mainstream oscilloscopes.

Amongst the various products offered by the company are oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers and exercisers, EMI/EMC, phase noise/physical layer testing solutions, bit error ratio test solutions, etc.

Rohde & Schwarz

For Rohde & Schwarz (R&S) India the business year 11-12 had been quite successful. While the total order intake of company reached 225 crore. Its quantum jump in T&M came due to high growth in the telecom chipset R&D segment. Texas , Qualcomm, Broadcom, Honeywell, Intel, ConvasM, etc. invested heavily in augmenting their facilities for protocol/ signalling testing in LTE and 3G domains. In the mobile production segment, however, there were no major investments. Indian handset brands are still using china as a base for production and shipping into India.

The company is confident to achieve good market share in the general purpose segment in coming years with its expanded product range and increased market reach by its pan India Channel partner network. Another interesting market was EMC where R&S continued its dominance. This segment for R&S is now poised to grow with high pace during next 3 to 5 years. Besides DRDO Labs and Defence production units like BEL, HALs, ECIL, etc, several companies in the automobile, automotive spares, lighting and medical are planning heavy investments in setting up own EMC labs.

Rohde & Schwarz addresses diverse market segments viz wireless communications, broadcasting and electronics, aerospace and defense, homeland security, and critical infrastructure. It caters to the needs of as many as 70 countries and its exports account for approximately 90% of the revenue. Its products range of R&S include digital oscilloscopes, signal and spectrum analyzers, signal generators, vector network analyzers, etc.

Spirent Communications

In 2011 the company registered growth for its test solutions, driven by high density and next generation data center technologies for cloud computing and mobile broadband. Service assurance needs for Ethernet in mobile backhaul and enterprise business services, growth in applications of global positioning technologies such as GPS/ GLONASS, and increased mobile internet traffic had driven the growth of the company. The parent company has been seeking growth through organic investments and also by acquisitions.

In Asia Pacific region, the company witnessed strong demand from its performance analysis division which included wireless, data center, and high speed ethernet. It registered good sales for its high end and multi-constellation satellite simulators, GNSS simulators and combined GPS, and GLONASS in consumer devices from Asia Pacific region.

From wireline and wireless to satellite networks, Spirent offers a complete portfolio of solutions to enhance the quality of customer's experience. Its major products portfolio include broadband networking, convergence, next generation internet, wireless, enterprise networks, and satellite navigation. The company predominantly caters to telecommunication but is now more inclined towards the market of emulation and validation and does not follow the analyzer companies. In addition, it has also quadrupled its sales to the lab space in India, enabling itself for the 4G data and handset testing market. The vendor's focus this year is largely on the NEM segment.

Aishwarya Telecom

The company gained momentum in the last fiscal, all thanks to the defense sector. Since 2010-11, it has received as many as 12 orders from defense for data lab in various parts of the country. It is also designing Electronic Marker Locating Systems for Indian army and this product has also good demand from sectors like water, sewage, and power from all over the world. It is providing turnkey solutions for defense labs and Indian army. The company manufactures products for telephone service providers, defense, cable TV operators, and railways. It has added Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent to its clientele.

Its products include mobile testers, data testers, fiber optic testers, and copper telephone cable testers. The company is focusing heavily on high end network testers for mobile operators, turnkey solutions for defense and telecom areas, defense related testers, bridging monitoring systems for infrastructure sectors like railway bridges and road bridges, and also on education.

JDSU

JDSU supports communications service providers and network equipment manufacturers worldwide to deploy advanced broadband communication services. Some of its key customers are Bharti airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Dax Technologies, NetSocket, Frontier Communications, Infinera, Verizon, Southern Cross Cable Network, Telstra, and Telefonica. The company will continue to invest in mobility and video. The key investment in FY12 was the acquisition of Vancouver based Dyaptive Systems. The Dyaptive product line provides subscriber emulation systems for wireless technologies including LTE solutions to ensure quality of service performance. The product line of JDSU includes PacketPortal, PacketInsight, Optical Spectrum Analyzer, ONT based SyncE solution, TrueSpeed Automated TCP Test, Trueflex, and Tunable SFP+.

Tektronix

Tektronix offers test and measurement solutions to communications, computers, semiconductors, military/aerospace, consumer electronics, education, broadcast, and other fields all over the globe. It has introduced a complete DDR2 protocol debug and validation solution for the TLA6000 series logic analyzers. The company has enjoyed a notable position in the test and measurement market. The company's instruments contributed significantly to the development of computers, and test and communications equipment to advance the research and development of the high technology electronics industry.

Its product line comprises oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, bit error rate testers, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, frequency counters, Baseband Video test solutions, MPEG Video test solutions, etc.

Fluke Networks

Fluke Networks provides network test and monitoring solutions to speed up deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. It provides testing solutions across seven layers of installed IP infrastructure and for the delivery of applications. In FY 2012, its key customers include Border Security Force, Cognizant Technology Services (CTS) and national Payments Corporation of India.

Fluke Networks provides network test and monitoring solutions to speed up deployment and improve the performance of networks and applications. The company offers solutions to WLAN security, mobility, unified communications, and data centers.

Anritsu

Anritsu has expanded chiefly into the information and communications field. The company is largely into products and services which are indispensable for the development, manufacturing, and maintenance of a range of communication systems. Anritsu's technologies have been incorporated into a range of products in other fields as well, such as IP network equipment, inspection equipment for food and pharmaceutical products, and precision measuring instruments for electronic components.

Its innovations in the field of measurement play a vital role in developing, providing, and maintaining communication networks. Its test and measurement business operations are based on the technological progress at R&D centers in Japan, the US and Europe. Its prominent products are T&M equipment, industrial automation, and information and communications technology. Its key verticals include telecom (R&D, infrastructure, and manufacturing), government, education and research, mobile terminals, optical communication networks, car electronics, and intelligent home appliances.

Toshniwal Systems and Instruments

Toshniwal has expertise in process instrumentation, process vacuum and powder processing equipment, temperature measurement instruments, etc. It caters to pharmaceutical/ biotechnology, transport and packaging, power generation, metal processing, refrigeration and air-conditioning, and chemicals and petrochemical sectors. Its major products are gear meters, turbine flow meters, vortex meters, density meters, cone meters, etc. The company's manufacturing unit is located in Chennai and it covers analytical, process control, and electronics and laboratory product domains through successful international collaborations.

Growth Drivers

Major technological trends driving the T&M industry in India include urbanization, growing infrastructure, cloud computing, wireless intelligence, broadband applications in future, and smart and green technologies amongst others.

To support the increasing number of mobile subscribers, the private and public sector telecom service providers are expanding their networks. This will further rise the demand of mobile and broadband testers. Telcos has increased its investment in T&M equipment procurement due to the high demand of QoS. Services such as internet banking, stock trading, web surfing, and video conferencing which can be availed via mobile networks are also driving the market.

The smartphones boom and the migration from 3G to 4G have been dominating the headlines and will continue to draw attention as wireless carriers strive to meet the needs of the customers. How service providers can overcome quality of service challenges brought on by increasing bandwidth-remains a critical component of 4G migration. Through our collaboration with global carriers, we are able to confront these challenges by providing solutions in effective deployment of next generation networks and prevent network congestion.

Issues that carriers will likely confront with 4G migration include difficult-to-troubleshoot user configuration errors and managing networks for unpredictable data demands from video streaming websites and testing applications. The profound shifting to the cloud for everything from application delivery and security to monitoring is also becoming more prevalent, especially in the enterprise sector. There are management difficulties the cloud brings, but tools are there for the enterprise professionals which will enable a smarter and more economical operation of the network.

Migration of voice and video to IP, infrastructure development, growth in the mobile phone market, and the advent of next generation wireless technologies will fuel the T&M instruments market. It will further derive its growth from service assurance of IP networks, optical and synchronization quality of the network, and carrier and metro Ethernet. India is a hub for electronic manufacturing services (EMS), and the growing demand from this sector will further add impetus to the country's T&M instrument market.

Another trend catching on is that the switch companies and service providers are procuring test and measurement equipment on a rental basis instead of purchasing the equipment. With industry moving towards outsourcing, T&M rentals are increasingly viewed as a way of outsourcing T&M management.

Market Crisis

One of the obstacles in the market is that telecom operators have reduced expenditure on capex and sub-contracting work is increasing. There is much more potential in LTE but, as of now, some operators are holding back on LTE. A very few operators have realized the need for T&M. Customer acquisition and ARPUs are important in India rather than quality. Industry consensus is that 5% of the investment on network should be shifted to T&M. Fluctuation in foreign exchange has also posed a threat.

Opportunities Galore

Currently, operators are planning to expand their respective networks. The government of India and the Department of Telecommunication have plans to provide internet connectivity in all villages under Panchayat Raj department, a potential project in coming years.

In India, the deployment and development of 3G has triggered the applications of IMA, carrier Ethernet technology, the emerging IEEE-1588, and synchronous Ethernet technology in mobile backhaul. Large scale deployments of communication technologies now require large scale emulation. 1588, Sync-E, MEF-18, and MPLS-TP are the new standards for mobile backhaul testing. More sophisticated service provider networks require advanced and economical monitoring solutions. EMF analyzers registered a jump in demand this year. Also, the demand for 3G testers like radiocomm testers, signal generators, analyzers, and power meters is on rise. The test instruments could cater to a variety of verification and conformance tests ranging from SAR, audio, RF, protocol, and IOT.

3G is also picking up pace. The subscriber base is expected to shoot up as some of the operators like Vodafone and Idea Cellular have slashed prices recently. Location based services are also gaining momentum in India. Networks are moving to IP. LTE rollout will also give a boost to T&M segment both from devices and networks. India was primarily a follower of technology but the deployment of LTE technology is happening parallel in India and globally. Hence the test and measurement segment is likely to have an excellent growth in coming years.