Testing the Replacement for Mobile Serial Numbers

Spirent Communications says that its AirAccess C2K Network Emulator now includes the ability to perform accurate and repeatable Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) testing for CDMA2000 1X handsets.

The successful deployment of Pre-release D MEID technology is arguably the single most urgent issue facing the CDMA2000 community today. Devised in response to the rapid depletion of Electronic Serial Numbers (ESNs), the MEID initiative has a significant impact on network operators, handset manufacturers and mobile subscribers alike.

The implementation of MEID is not only critical and urgent, but requires simultaneous changes to multiple layers of the protocol stack. Traditionally, mobile phones have used ESNs as a way to uniquely identify each and every mobile device manufactured for use on a CDMA network. While there are theoretically 4.2 billion ESNs available, ESN assignment issues have nearly exhausted the available pool of ID numbers and some experts believe that heavy demand for CDMA2000 mobiles could cause this point to be reached as early as the first quarter of 2006. With 56 bits, compared with the 32 bits of ESNs, MEID provides for more than 16 million times as many unique numbers, helping to ensure the industry will not run out of unique numbers in the future.

"Avoiding problems with the implementation of MEID technology is critical to the continued success of CDMA2000," states Mike Keeley, CDMA Market Segment Manager for Spirent Communications. "The enhancements we have added to AirAccess enable our customers to thoroughly evaluate the impact of MEID on handset performance, ensuring that this major change will be transparent to handset users."

Posted to the site on 22nd June 2005