octoScope introduces a new test solution to address field to lab replay testing

Littleton, Massachusetts, November 22, 2020 - octoScope®, the leader in accurate, repeatable and automated wireless personal testbeds, has announced Tracker™ - a Wi-Fi test solution that enables recording of an environment such as a house for playback in the octoBox personal testbed.

As Wi-Fi has become the technology of choice for accessing the internet, it is used in increasingly rich consumer scenarios. Wireless gaming, video streaming, and remote work require high throughput performance, often in the presence of motion. Mesh Wi-Fi deployments with multiple access points, either in the home or in the office have unique challenges related to motion that require optimization. To operate well, it is important that Wi-Fi devices are connected to the access point that can best serve them. Until today, the Wi-Fi industry has been lacking a test system that is able to test the complex steering and load balancing algorithms involved.

The Tracker works by capturing a motion profile while walking through a house. The user can then replay this walk in an octoBox testbed to test the performance of wireless devices. Mesh networks, stations and access points experience the walk in the testbed just as recorded in the real world.

The solution combines the benefits of real-world testing with the repeatability that only a controlled testing environment can deliver. The result is the speed and cost of in-the-lab testing with the confidence that the test results represent realistic end user scenarios. The system is especially useful with testing of mesh networks to study roaming behavior.

Tracker supports replay in any Wi-Fi band, including the 2.4GHz, 5GHz and the new 6GHz bands. It can be used to test any radio technology operating on these bands.

The octoScope fieldPal™ can also be used to easily record a walk in any house or office. The process is simple with only a few minutes of actual field setup and capture time.

The recording is then imported into the octoBox testbed which stores it for future testing in a library of virtual test house walks.

“In the octoBox testbed, you can set up any mesh devices on any frequency bands and with a variety of traffic and interference patterns. You can then replay the walk for a variety of traffic and interference scenarios while carefully monitoring the device roaming behavior and performance,” said Leigh Chinitz, octoScope’s CTO.

The Tracker™ technology works in octoScope’s STACK-MAX testbed and in subsets of this testbed.

octoScope makes available a library of pre-recorded test houses for replay in order to test the mesh performance and vital capabilities such as steering and load balancing.

“The ability to replay motion scenarios recorded in homes across the world in a controlled testbed is a key enabler for the Wi-Fi industry. It allows equipment vendors and ISPs to validate the performance of their mesh systems in the controlled yet real-world environment of our octoBox testbeds”, added Fanny Mlinarsky, President of octoScope.

For a video demonstrating the power of the Tracker, please follow this link.

About the octoBox personal wireless testbed

Stackable and configurable octoBox personal testbeds are completely isolated from external interference and can be used at an engineer’s office or lab bench.

Each octoBox testbed is controlled by a dedicated Node.js web server accessible via a browser UI for manual control, or via REST API for test automation. The server provides the time base for the testbed and controls the built-in instruments, DUT configuration, traffic, and test flow. Test results are saved in a MongoDB database, enabling multiple teams to easily collaborate by sharing the test automation scripts and test results.

About octoScope

octoScope is the market leader in isolated, repeatable and automated wireless personal testbeds. Our patented technology redefines the accuracy, stability, economics and value of over-the-air wireless testing. The octoBox testbed is configurable for automated regression test sequences with a range of airlink conditions and interference scenarios. The octoBox testbeds are scalable to support a single DUT or multi-node mesh systems under test.

The testbeds feature powerful technologies to evaluate the behavior and performance of a broad range of wireless devices and systems. The tested capabilities include protocol monitoring, test traffic generation, motion and multipath emulation, interference generation and device emulation.