Ixia Provides Key Assessment for Life-Critical Wi-Fi

With the growth of BYOD in both enterprise and health care settings, Ixia validates and hardens crucial Wi-Fi networks

CALABASAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA), a provider of test and monitoring solutions to accelerate and secure application delivery, enhances the delivery of critical applications over Wi-Fi networks. As a result of the widespread use of life-critical Wi-Fi devices, including defibrillators, infusion pumps and EKG monitors, in health care and the increasing use of BYOD for voice and video unified communication tools in the enterprise, it is more important than ever that Wi-Fi networks work reliably all the time. Ixia has expanded its market leading Wi-Fi test solution, IxVeriWave, to allow client device manufacturers, enterprises and carriers to optimize their products and services, find problems faster, and meet the growing demand for reliable Wi-Fi.

“Manufacturers can’t afford to offer anything less than the best experience to users, and they must therefore validate performance and quality throughout the entire life cycle of every product.”

With the emergence of BYOD, Wi-Fi carries more business-critical real-time voice and video data than ever before. The medical industry also continues to increasingly integrate Wi-Fi capability into critical patient care devices. Wi-Fi Alliance certification testing focusing only on interoperability is no longer sufficient, and customers will not accept any loss in reliability as poor performance can adversely impact business- or life-critical applications.

Product Highlights

IxVeriWave allows users to quickly and easily simulate live networks, prompt devices to roam, and measure key performance indicators. The Ixia solution’s automated functional and performance analysis system minimizes costs and test time. Ixia optimizes performance by putting devices through a battery of hundreds of specific tests designed to comprehensively evaluate the performance and capabilities of any client device.

With Ixia, both enterprises and carriers can now address challenges unique to Wi-Fi with testing functionality, including:

• Baselining of performance in the lab under ideal and simulated real-world conditions.
• Assessing real-world performance by introducing background traffic, interference and other variables.
• Replicating live network conditions to isolate and address problems prior to product release.
• Range and roaming validation using programmable step attenuators to move devices away from and between access points in a controlled fashion.
• Coexistence / interoperability testing by evaluating devices with multiple APs and mobile clients.
• Application performance / Quality of Experience assessment through generation of voice, video and data traffic to and from the devices using Ixia endpoints.

Industry Commentary

“Wi-Fi enabled devices are becoming central to the mobile ecosystem,” said Craig Mathias, Principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. “Manufacturers can’t afford to offer anything less than the best experience to users, and they must therefore validate performance and quality throughout the entire life cycle of every product.”

“Wi-Fi is no longer a ‘nice to have,’ and more enterprises, health professionals and consumers depend on reliable Wi-Fi for everyday activities,” said Joseph Zeto, director of product marketing for Ixia. “Ixia solutions are recognized as the gold standard for optimizing application delivery over Wi-Fi, and we continue to leverage this expertise and introduce comprehensive new standards for validating Wi-Fi enabled mobile devices.”

For additional information about Wi-Fi device testing and performance with Ixia, please visit www.wifidevicetest.ixiacom.com/ or download our whitepaper on actionable insight into Wi-Fi device performance testing.

Ixia will also showcase Wi-Fi test and performance solutions at the 2013 Mobile World Congress, Feb. 25–28 in Barcelona, Spain. Please visit us at booth No. 6C91 for more information.

About Ixia

Ixia solutions deliver actionable insight through real-time monitoring, real-world testing and rapid assessment. This visibility provides organizations with a complete understanding into user behavior, security vulnerabilities, network capacity, application performance and IT resiliency. From the lab to the network to the cloud, Ixia solutions enable its customers to optimize networks and data centers to accelerate, secure and scale application delivery. For more information, visit www.ixiacom.com.