End-to-end Solution Tests WiFi Mobile Devices from Design through Deployment
PORTLAND, OR, April 13, 2009 - With "can't-fail" devices like patient monitors, retail transaction terminals and printers, and corporate desk phones going wireless, VeriWave now offers the industry's most comprehensive test solution for mobile user, or "client" devices. From design through deployment, the VeriWave Client Test Solution delivers the most extensive performance and interoperability metrics available. By testing early in development how mobile devices will perform and impact the live network, the VeriWave solution speeds product delivery, reduces development costs, and minimizes unwelcome surprises throughout deployment.
"The ‘all wireless' corporate network is now becoming a reality, carrying mission-critical applications such as voice, financial transactions and healthcare data," says Eran Karoly, VP Marketing at VeriWave. "Since many corporate IT managers are only now starting to deal with the challenges of creating and maintaining a fail-safe wireless network, equipment manufacturers and integrators are finding themselves spending more time at corporate sites troubleshooting. The tweaking and finger-pointing can be largely avoided, and products brought to market faster, with comprehensive testing of functionality, performance, roaming and interoperability throughout the lifecycle of the new device. "
VeriWave's new Client Test Solution lets manufacturers of mobile devices such as WiFi smartphones find potential problems earlier in the design and development cycles than they can using competing solutions. The new VeriWave solution is the only system that lets integrators and enterprise customers model devices in the context of their own unique networks to help with vendor selection, network design, device configuration, initial deployment and ongoing performance.
The VeriWave Client Test Solution
The VeriWave Client Test Solution is the only solution that precisely measures the real-world behavior of a mobile device, its impact on other devices and overall network performance, as well as the impact of the network, or ecosystem, on the device's own performance. Obtaining precise metrics early on helps speed isolation of problems to shave months off development cycles and deployment times.
"Zebra Technologies prides itself on offering the most complete range of mobile wireless printers in the market," said Victor Salmons, Director of Application Technologies at Zebra. "The VeriWave Wireless Client Test Solution has played an important role in our development process and enabled us to bring products to market faster."
The VeriWave Client Test Solution consists of three components:
WaveClient - the WaveClient application runs on a VeriWave traffic generator controlling RF distance and path emulation, generating client traffic and collecting performance metrics from the device under test. The VeriWave generated devices with their varying traffic mixes, create an ecosystem of traffic consisting of "copies" of the DUT itself, as well other devices on the network. By generating client devices with characteristic of various vendors' equipment, testers can see how specific combinations of devices will interact.
WaveAgent - A small software utility loaded onto the mobile device being tested. At just 64 kbytes, WaveAgent is the only test utility small enough not to interfere with the performance of the device being tested thus skewing test results. As the VeriWave system generates different mixes of traffic and conditions, WaveAgent measures the performance of and from the perspective of the mobile device. WaveAgent reports performance metrics as well as the configuration state of the mobile device back to the VeriWave system. WaveAgent is supported on a wide range of operating systems including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Mobile, and Linux.
RF Distance and Path Simulation - Through a complete set of RF isolation chambers and programmable attenuators, WaveClient lets testers experiment with and precisely measure the effect of varying distance and paths on client device performance
Working together, the three components measure the impact of varying configurations on the both the device under test and the overall network so that hospital network administrators, for example, can gauge the impact of a specific brand and model of a patient monitor on their current network. Testers can "stress" the network with both real world and "worst case" scenarios, and establish vendor interoperability and device optimal configurations using new and existing equipment. The entire solution is highly automated, simplifying testing procedures, speeding up test cycles and reducing overall cost of test (COT) and R&D.
"Wireless networks can be something of a new frontier for manufacturers of medical devices incorporating these technologies," says David H. Hoglund, veteran healthcare and medical connectivity consultant. "The device manufacturer's challenge in adding WLAN (802.11a/b/g) capabilities to FDA 510K approved devices like infusion pumps and patient monitoring is mitigating risk for themselves as well as the healthcare enterprise. They have to be able to demonstrate that defined and internally validated and verified approved configurations will be able to scale and perform consistently in the real and dynamic healthcare environment. To date, there is no way to accomplish this with traditional lab testing. Only a solution like VeriWave can validate designs in varying conditions and deliver that certainty."
Optimized for Seamless Mobility
Bridging and addressing the gaps in traditional lab testing and live testing, VeriWave's Client Test Solution overcomes the limitations of alternative test systems. In addition to the main advantage of being able to generate thousands of actual, specific clients instead of cobbling a handful of devices together, the VeriWave solution is distinguished by:
Small Footprint: The tiny WaveAgent utility fits inside allows performance measurements of mobile devices without interfering with their intended function. And while supporting a wide range of operating systems, WaveAgent does not drain the resources of the host operating system, another major detractor in other platforms.
Most advanced roaming tests: Using WaveClient, testers can control and vary attenuation to measure how well the mobile device under test performs as it roams between Access Points. This capability is crucial for mission critical networks which cannot allow the mobile device to disconnect even momentarily from the network.
Vertical industry applications: VeriWave offers pre-set tests modeling typical industry networks for retail, healthcare, government, education and wireless enterprises. Testers can use the VeriWave tests as starting points or guidelines for what and how to test, and can also alter the configurations to more closely match their own live environments.
Speed and Optimization Earlier in Design Cycle
Where competing solutions end with showing that something has failed to perform, WaveTest offers granular insight into why things don't go as expected. This includes over-time graphs and trace logs that help pinpoint the exact point of failure.
During development, the VeriWave Client Test Solution helps optimize communication chip selection, driver development and debug, driver Quality Assurance (QA), and hardware/software integration. VeriWave offers the only solution enabling testing early in the development cycle, before the operating system is "stitched up" to the device, as well as performance testing of the client's 802.11 subsystem independent of applications
About Zebra Technologies
Zebra Technologies Corporation helps companies identify, track and manage assets, transactions and people with on-demand specialty digital printing and automatic identification solutions. In more than 100 countries around the world, more than 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies use innovative and reliable Zebra printers, supplies, RFID products and software to increase productivity, improve quality, lower costs, and deliver better customer service. Information about Zebra and Zebra-brand products can be found at http://www.zebra.com [1]
About VeriWave
Testing with VeriWave ensures maximum performance for mobile networks, devices and applications in the real world. From development through deployment and beyond, VeriWave helps leading manufacturers, service providers and users measure, analyze and improve speed, quality, interoperability, compliance and other pivotal aspects of mobile performance. For more information about VeriWave, call (503) 473-8350, or go to www.veriwave.com [2]
Media Contacts:
Ally Entin Liza Kurtz
VeriWave Inc. VeriWave, Inc.
(818) 889-2075 (928) 282-6929
aentin@veriwave.com [3] liza.kurtz@veriwave.com [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.zebra.com/
[2] http://www.veriwave.com/
[3] mailto:aentin@veriwave.com
[4] mailto:liza.kurtz@veriwave.com