Spirent rolls out “Send Us Your Device” Test as a Service for Wi-Fi devices

Spirent Communications announced the launch of a new “Send Us Your Device” Test as a Service (TaaS) option for Wi-Fi customers. The first of its kind from a manufacturer of advanced Wi-Fi testbeds, the service allows access to the advanced capabilities of Spirent’s OCTOBOX emulation and testing solution to organizations where the capital expenditure and considerable expertise required to own and manage such complex test setups may not be an option.

The growing complexity of Wi-Fi technology is requiring developers and manufacturers to rethink their approach to performance testing for new Wi-Fi enabled devices. The progression of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, growth of mesh multi-point access networks, and expectations around 5G and Wi-Fi convergence are creating new application and business models which require fresh approaches to testing.

“Owning and managing complex test setups for rapidly evolving Wi-Fi technologies may not make business sense for some manufacturers and developers,” says Doug Roberts, General Manager of Spirent’s Lifecycle Service Assurance business. “As the recognized market leader in Wi-Fi emulation and test capabilities, this new Spirent service addresses the needs of these businesses by providing instant access to advanced testing and failure analysis that will greatly reduce their time to market and increase quality of performance.”

The new service is targeted at companies with Wi-Fi testing needs but little or no onsite test facilities of their own, as well as organizations like chipset developers, IoT and consumer device makers, and network equipment manufacturers that need to perform regular Wi-Fi testing but may not have the in-house expertise to create, deploy and efficiently execute the range of performance tests the industry now requires. It is anticipated that Spirent OCTOBOX owners and others with existing labs will also find the service beneficial when they experience occasional bandwidth overflow at their own testing facility.

Available to customers globally, the service is based at Spirent’s Massachusetts research facility where OCTOBOX testbeds are developed and manufactured. This allows Spirent to easily scale up and down testing services for customers based on their ever-changing needs and leverage the company’s unrivalled Wi-Fi emulation and testing expertise. The Spirent lab also provides test environments that are engineered with optimized hardware to ensure all devices are validated against the highest quality standards accepted for deployment by carriers and enterprises, such as TR-398 and RFC 2544.

“While many test facilities use software-based testbeds, these are unable to perform realistic test scenarios that model actual deployments,” said Roberts. “They often lack the ability to produce deterministic results which is essential for repeatability. By utilizing our OCTOBOX testbeds along with our automation framework, we emulate real world scenarios such as congestion, interference, distance, and movement – all of which affect the quality of the user experience.”