Testing for WiFi

WiFi, the leading communication protocol for enabling wireless local area networks (WLANs), is rapidly replacing the wired LANs in both enterprises and homes. More households today prefer WiFi broadband access over the traditional wired access. The proliferation of public WiFi hotspots and several WiFi-enabled devices has enabled WiFi to win favor with consumers around the world. And to keep pace with these new WiFi applications telecom equipment manufacturers (TEMs) are building innovative solutions that need to be tested and certified against several criteria to ensure interoperability and robust connectivity across a diverse WiFi networking landscape.
Aricent’s ‘Testing for WiFi’ services help equipment manufacturers to deliver solutions across the entire WiFi ecosystem, quickly and efficiently. Our state-of-the-art WiFi testing lab is equipped with test tools, hardware, and software from leading industry vendors; and serves multiple turnkey WiFi projects, functional and end-to-end testing for partners and customers, and pre-certification tests for TEMs.

Aricent’s WiFi Test Lab

Our WiFi test lab leverages test equipment and suites from leading vendors. Inventory is upgraded, maintained, and the lab is updated based on regular feedback from the WiFi alliance and other associations. Equipped with access points, WLAN controllers, laptops and smart phones with different capabilities (a/b/g/n), scripting, automation and pre-certification suites, and remote access, our lab provides proper customer isolation and personnel support.

Lab Hardware

Chassis – Veriwave WT90 and WT20 with Management cards
 Line Cards – Veriwave 3x3 MIMO cards, Veriwave SISO cards, Veriwave Ethernet cards, high power MIMO card for open air testing
WiFi Access Points
WLAN Controllers
RF Isolation Chambers – MIMO capable chambers from Veriwave
Attenuators and RF Cables– Agilent
WiFi (802.11a/b/g/n) Capable Client Devices – Laptops, smart phones, and other hand held devices running different operating systems such as Linux, Windows, MAC IOS, Android, and Symbian.

Lab Software

Veriwave Test Suite – WaveAppSuite, WaveDynamix , WaveAgent, WaveQoE, WaveVideo, WaveInsite, WLAN Roaming, WaveGen, WaveDFS, VoIP QoS Service Assurance Test Suite, WaveClient, Wireless Mesh Test Suite, WaveAutomation
Qualcomm Atheros Test Suite – Atheros Radio Test (ART) tool

Testing Expertise

Platform/Manufacturing Testing

·         Continuous transmission tests – dynamic change of channel frequency, data rate

·         Continuous reception tests – dynamic change of antenna, channel, and receive gain

·         Link tests – measurement of parameters such as Packet Error Rate (PER), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) for various radio configurations

·         Throughput tests – throughput with different packet sizes, packet types, and retries (until 802.11 ACK from receiver) for various configurations

·         Testing at various frequencies such as 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz (OFDM modes)

·         Manufacturing and calibration tests – between DUT and a golden (known good) system

·         Noise immunity tests – testing various noise immunity parameters such as Noise Immunity level, Barker Immunity level, Spur Immunity level etc.

WiFi Feature Testing

·         RF configurations – SSID, channel, auto channel select feature, signal power, frequencies for different geographical locations, fragmentation threshold, RTS threshold, Beacon Period, Data Beacon Rate

·         VLAN configuration, AP discovery, and client association

·         Roaming – using 2 or more controllers with 2 to 3 APs per controller

·         WiFi Multimedia (802.11e)

·         Interference behavior

·         Channel validation (comprehensive matrix based on country code, allocated channels/frequency bands, power levels)

·         Wireless IPS/IDS, Wireless QoS

·         Spectralink SVP

·         Data forwarding – wireless-to-wireless and wireless-to-wired

·         Virtual Service Communities/Virtual Access Points

·         WiFi Security – 802.1x, WPA, WPA2 security

DFS Validation Testing

·         Compliance of WiFi APs to DFS regulations

·         Veriwave WBW1104N card and WaveDFS suite used

·         Radar pulses defined by FCC, ETSI, and Japan (MIC) used for testing

·         Detection Probability Test

·         Bandwidth Detection Test

·         Radar Pulse Functional Test

Voice and Video Testing

·         Voiceand video mixed flow – HTTP downstream (Video, HDTV, and SDTV), UDP upstream and downstream, voice bi-directional, video MDI, loss, jitter measurement, voice and video MOS measurement (upstream and downstream), video QoE measurement

·         VoIP QoS service capacity test – maximum voice calls at a specified call quality (R-value/MOS) – with and without background data traffic, voice traffic of different types used (differentiated by Layer 2 802.11e/WMM and 802.1q user priorities and Layer 3 TOS/DSCP priorities)

·         VoIP service assurance test – maximum data traffic than can be present without causing the call quality to drop below a minimum service level threshold

·         VoIP roaming test – measurement of call quality when roaming voice handset between multiple APs, measurement of roaming delays and packet loss, support for WMM operation, testing under variation in voice codecs and number of voice clients

Security Testing

·         WPA, WPA2 support

·         Key and certification configuration

·         Local wireless client-to-client filtering

·         802.1x port-based user authentication for EAP MD5, TLS, TTLS, and PEAP

·         Testing with AES, TKIP, static/dynamic WEP encryption

Interoperability Testing

·         Interoperability between different types of WiFi client (a/b/g/n) equipment like laptops, and smart phones from different manufacturers, running different OS (Windows, Android, Apple IOS, Linux)

·         Interoperability with different APs

·         Interoperability with WLAN controllers

Performance and Scalability Testing

·         UDP throughput – upstream, downstream, and bidirectional traffic, different packet sizes, multiple clients, open and secure clients; measurement of maximum forwarding rate at zero packet loss for different packet sizes in each direction, maximum packets per second (of small packets), 802.11n downstream aggregation efficiency, and penalty for security encryption

·         TCP application throughput – upstream, downstream, and bidirectional traffic using MSS of 512 and 1460 bytes, multiple clients

·         Latency measurement – upstream, downstream, and bidirectional, UDP traffic, constant packet size, multiple clients

·         Roaming delays – multiple APs, multiple open and secure clients

·         Mixed traffic nominal performance verification – combination of voice, video, and data traffic, multiple clients (802.11a/b/g/n mixture), all radios of AP loaded, service level measurement for different traffic types and clients

·         Mixed traffic maximum performance verification – gradually increasing load/clients to maximum, increasing load until first SLA failure

Soak Testing

·         48 to72 hours

·         Configuration and operation with maximum features enabled

·         Maximum client associations

·         Maximum client association rate

Stress Testing

·         Repeated failed conditions like authentication, DHCP renewals

·         Repeated connection and disconnection of WiFi

·         Repeated connect and disconnect of WLAN controller connectivity

Robustness Testing

·         Power on and power off of APs with consistent boot

·         Roaming interchange between APs by switching off one AP

·         File system consistency across intermediate power failures

·         Re-initialization on soft or cold reboot

Pre-certification Testing

·         Conformance to IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n standards, IEEE 802.11i (WPA2) security, IEEE 802.11e - WMM(r) Quality of Service

·         System interoperability test plan (Wifi Alliance 802.11n – specific to APs)

·         WMM system interoperability test plan (Wifi Alliance 802.11n – specific to APs)

Open Air and Field Testing

·         Key client device performance testing – load with maximum traffic, measurement of upstream, downstream, UDP and TCP forwarding rate, measurement close to AP making fixed distance increments up to maximum AP spacing, perform rate vs. range test with both client and AP under stress, range traversal until packet loss and traffic forwarding stops

·         Single and multiple client coexistence and speed test (optimum location) – different traffic mix at optimum wireless locations with the client configured as per the IT policy of target deployment

·         Single and multiple client coexistence and speed test (challenging location) – different traffic mix at challenging wireless locations with the client configured as per the IT policy of target deployment

·         Simultaneous multiple clients roaming from one AP to another

·         QoE measurement in real-world deployment scenarios – various real-world deployment scenarios with specific traffic profiles per scenario; measurement of end user QoE, VoIP MOS scores, video MDI scores, HTTP/FTP goodput levels, FTP file transfer times, total intended load, offered load, achieved load, percentage of traffic flows of traffic types that satisfied the SLA, percentage of clients of each client type that satisfied the SLA

WiFi Client Testing

·         Client testing under real-world scenarios – real-world scenarios in controlled environment with appropriate traffic profiles and configurations; measurement of data forwarding rate, latency, jitter, voice quality (MOS and R-Value), video quality (MDI score), roaming delay, client rate adaptation vs. attenuation or distance, total intended load, offered load, and achieved load

·         Interoperability tests – 802.11a/b/g/n APs with different radio configurations

·         Speed tests

WiFi Mesh Testing

·         Mesh client capacity– maximum number of clients at which the mesh can support a given SLA

·         Mesh VoIP call capacity– VoIP QoS capacity test with an additional capability to configure different amounts of background traffic load on each mesh node

·         Mesh throughput per hop– unicast throughput test, with the addition of reporting the throughput for each hop in the mesh

·         Mesh forwarding rate per hop– unicast throughput test, with reporting the forwarding rate for each hop in the mesh

·         Mesh latency per hop– latency test, with reporting the latency for each hop in the mesh

·         Mesh backhaul failover (self-healing)– controlled RF interference injected by changing BER; measurement of time taken to re-route packet when the backhaul is impaired, throughput per hop, aggregate throughput, latency per hop, and aggregate latency