In mid-September, the global testing service provider TÜV Rheinland heralded the soft opening phase of its recently acquired wireless laboratory in the Swedish city of Lund with a customer event. The acquisition of the laboratory, which also constitutes the foundation for TÜV Rheinland's newly established national subsidiary in Sweden, took place this year during the summer. In doing this, TÜV Rheinland is expanding its global involvement in the field of wireless technologies and is extending its European wireless network to five locations. Apart from Sweden, TÜV Rheinland also operates corresponding IoT labs in Nuremberg (Germany), Cologne (Germany), Leek (Netherlands) and Milan (Italy).
“The laboratory in Lund is equipped with cutting-edge technologies such as Sigfox and LoRa and allows us to offer the latest IoT services on site,” explains Stefan Kischka, Vice President Wireless/Internet of Things at TÜV Rheinland. “With the soft opening of our laboratory in Lund, TÜV Rheinland now has access to the northern European wireless/IoT market,” adds Anders Nordlöf, Managing Director of the national subsidiary, TÜV Rheinland Sweden AB.
The Lund laboratory is located in the heart of a technology cluster consisting of research and development companies, manufacturers and integrators. It is a fully equipped test laboratory that comprehensively covers the wireless needs of all industries. On a total area of 900 square meters, distributed between seven individual laboratories, customers can discover the entire spectrum of wireless testing options. This applies for technologies such as Sigfox and LoRa as well as Zigbee, 3GPP, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread and eCall. In addition, the laboratory is equipped with OTA chambers and SAR systems. Lund is the first European wireless laboratory that covers both short-range and long-range technologies.
Equipped with SAC 5 chamber
In addition, an SAC 5 chamber is planned for the start of 2018. “This will be followed by the grand opening in the spring of the coming year,” says TÜV Rheinland expert Nordlöf.
TÜV Rheinland Center of Excellence Wireless/IoT in Silicon Valley
The acquisition in Lund is just one part of a broad expansion of the testing service provider’s wireless network. As recently as spring 2017, TÜV Rheinland opened its laboratory in Fremont, California. Together with its laboratory for wireless communication technologies in Silicon Valley, which has existed since 1986, the facility forms the “TÜV Rheinland Center of Excellence Wireless/IoT”, which performs wireless communication tests in the North America region, for example.
“The laboratory in Lund is a further milestone that provides an excellent addition to the services we offer and brings us another step forward in the expansion of our global involvement in the area of wireless technologies and the fulfillment of our TÜV Rheinland Wireless Strategy 2020”, reports Stefan Kischka.
Like IoT privacy, cyber security and autonomous driving, the expansion of testing facilities for wireless communication technologies is one of the future-oriented digitalization topics on which the testing service provider will be placing a stronger focus in the future.