Automotive Industry Prepares for In-Vehicle Emergency Services Mandate in Europe and Russia

Spirent launches complete test solution for eCall/ERA-GLONASS-enabled in-vehicle systems

CRAWLEY, UK -- June 10, 2015: Spirent Communications today unveiled its eCall and ERA-GLONASS In-Vehicle Systems (IVS) test solution to verify the functionality and protocol conformance of the eCall and ERA GLONASS enabled vehicular systems. eCall and ERA GLONASS will soon become mandatory in new vehicles in Europe and Russia.

“Our solution will help vehicle makers and IVS vendors verify their systems ahead of the upcoming legal requirements. It offers a scalable approach that is both highly controllable and flexible, which ensures the accurate and repeatable test results that will reduce product development time.”

eCall and ERA-GLONASS are, respectively, European and Russian initiatives that combine mobile communications, navigation and information technologies to provide rapid assistance to vehicle occupants in the event of a collision. The initiatives are anticipated to cut emergency services response time by 50-60 percent and to decrease road fatalities by 10 percent per year. To ensure these services meet government-mandated requirements, the eCall/ERA-GLONASS IVS must be tested for all possible real world scenarios, which requires highly accurate GPS and/or GLONASS simulation.

With a modular design, the Spirent solution can simulate selected elements of the real automotive environment to enable IVS testing, or the whole environment for closed loop testing. It also enables designers to optimize their emergency and location systems with performance testing that helps ensure better sensitivity or greater resilience in weak signal areas. The solution also meets the Russian GOST-R specifications with all 17 GOST-R 5534-2013 test cases pre-programmed.

“eCall and ERA-GLONASS represent a huge opportunity to save lives but it also represents a time-sensitive challenge for the automotive industry to have the systems ready,” said Pete Nicholson, general manager of Spirent’s Automotive division. “Our solution will help vehicle makers and IVS vendors verify their systems ahead of the upcoming legal requirements. It offers a scalable approach that is both highly controllable and flexible, which ensures the accurate and repeatable test results that will reduce product development time.”

The Spirent eCall and ERA-GLONASS IVS test solution builds on Spirent’s long-established leadership in satellite navigation and mobile communications test. It uses the industry-leading and highly accurate Spirent GSS6700 or GSS6300M global navigation satellite system (GNSS) simulator to evaluate location performance, and the eCall/ERA GLONASS Simulator Platform, which provides fast, simple and repeatable test execution and analysis.