Spirent launches new in-home Wi-Fi testing solution

Aiming to reduce Wi-Fi network troubles in the home, Spirent Communications today launched a new Wi-Fi service assurance solution for automating installation and troubleshooting of in-home networks.
Many industry experts expect in-home Wi-Fi networks will start to look more like enterprise networks, with multiple access points and/or extenders to ensure good in-home coverage that supports the necessary capacity for the bandwidth-heavy applications that people use at home, from gaming to video streaming.
Existing in-home networks, though, already cause major headaches for consumers and service providers alike, both in complexity and cost. Between 50% and 80% of a service provider’s customer care calls revolve around Wi-Fi issues, according to industry experts, and a 2014 Cisco survey put the cost of truck rolls to address Wi-Fi at $225 to $350 for some companies and even as expensive as $1,500 for complex scenarios or repeat visits. Getting in-home networks set up properly from the start can improve customer experience and reduce costs for the provider.
Spirent’s Wi-Fi In-Home test suite is designed to let technicians check the quality of the Wi-Fi interface and select optimal channels in congested environments or to combat existing interference. Most Wi-Fi routers do not change their channels once set up, so selecting the best available channel is an important step. The test suite also enables techs to view connected devices and identify “rogue clients,” according to Spirent, as well as supporting the ability to identify non-Wi-Fi interference and even sporadic interference.
This is Spirent’s second recent expansion of Wi-Fi testing solutions. The company has also introduced a WLAN emulation testing product for performance testing and complex scenarios with multiple clients.
RCR Wireless News spoke with Spirent at the recent Wi-Fi Now event on the increasing complexity of Wi-Fi networks:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSNva-rG88w[/embedyt]
Other vendors have been boosting their Wi-Fi related offerings for network design and testing as well. IBWave launched its first Wi-Fi-only network design tool this spring. Fluke Networks (part of Netscout) introduced an advanced Wi-Fi testing tool for enterprise on the market since last fall.