A new partnership helps enterprise IT departments do some of their own radio frequency testing to find interference sources in corporate WLANs. Bandspeed announced this week that its AirMaestro radio frequency spectrum analysis software is being integrated with some of Broadcom’s solutions to allow enterprise IT departments to find and mitigate sources of RF interference that are affecting wireless networks.
With BYOD programs becoming the norm in enterprise environments, Wi-Fi connectivity is ever more important — but because the technology operates in unlicensed bands, interference is common and degrades performance, according to Bandspeed.
Airmaestro RF Spectrum Analysis will be included in Broadcom’s FastPath Unified Access Point and Unified Wireless Switching software products. Â The solution will be available early next quarter.
Bill Eversole, president and CEO of Bandspeed, said that the partnership with Broadcom “helps fulfill our vision of equipping more IT departmetns and solutions providers with the tools needed to effectively manage enterprise-class WLANs in response to disruptive interference.”
Frost & Sullivan’s latest analysis of the Asia-Pacific test equipment market shows good potential for growth, spurred by evolving wireless networks in the region. The market earned $888.1 million in 2012 and will reach nearly $1.2 billion by 2016, according to the analyst firm.
“Technical advancements to efficiently manage growing data traffic and capacity issues create specific requirements in test and measurement solutions, and equipment manufacturers are widening their product portfolios to meet these requirements,” said Susan Sahayan, measurement and instrumentation analyst with Frost & Sullivan. The report also concluded that stand-alone test equipment will see less demand, with customers seeking equipment with multiple, integrated general purpose functions.
The shift of manufacturing and R&D to the Asia-Pacific region, due to lower labor costs, is also a driver for the test equipment market there, according to Frost & Sullivan — but some of the companies there who export to Europe are more cautious on test equipment spending due to the European downturn.
 — Azimuth Systems has released the latest version of its AzMapper app for real world performance testing. AzMapper is part of the company’s Field-to-Lab solution for analyzing drive test data; according to Azimuth, the AzMapper 2.5 update includes new features and support for WQuest and XCAL, new algorithms for TD-SCDMA optimization, enhanced GSM and CDMA 2000 support, and GUI enhancements.
— Agilent Technologies announced a new customer win: Plextek RF Integration will be using Agilent’s software to simulate new high-frequency circuit and MMIC designs. U.K.-based Plextek’s designs are used in products including test instruments, infrastructure equipment and consumer wireless devices.
— Anritsu Co. introduced multi-band receivers for its Link Master drive test tools for field techs and engineers, in order to help locate interference and optimize network performance, as well as a new handheld tool for interference mapping that works in conjunction with other Anritsu solutions.
— Also in network testing, Huawei participated in a interoperability and functionality test through the European Advanced Networking Test Center with its Smart Network Controller for hybrid software-defined/OpenFlow networks, demonstrating its interoperability with the company’s own OpenFlow 1.2 switch and other vendors’ OpenFlow 1.0 switches.
