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Other Resources
Asking the Right Questions
When Considering an 802.11n Test Solution
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What questions should you ask when considering and evaluating test equipment to assess complex 802.11n based wireless local area networks.
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IEEE 802.11n Access Point
Quick Evaluation Test Plan
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The 802.11n AP Quick Evaluation Test Plan will help you cut through all the noise and test what really matters. The test plan provides invaluable insight into the major strengths and shortcoming of individual 802.11n Access Points. The test plan is designed to facilitate comparison between legacy 802.11 a/b/g network performance and 802.11n network performance.
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Essential Testing of 802.11n Equipment
The Master Test Plan
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The 802.11n Master Test Plan establishes guidelines, best practices and baseline evaluation criteria for testing the functional behavior and performance of 802.11n infrastructure equipment.
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Performance Measurements on 802.11 Wireless LANs: Can 802.3 Practices be Applied?
Key Differences Between 802.3 and 802.11 LANs
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Performance measurement methodologies for wired LAN equipment have been well documented since 1998 in a number of IETF RFCs, most notably RFC2544 (Benchmarking Methodology for Network Interconnect Devices) and RFC2889 (Benchmarking Methodology for LAN Switching Devices). The key metrics characterizing the quality of wired LANs are throughput, forwarding rate, latency, latency variation (jitter) and loss.
The basis of all metrics governing 802.3 LANs rely on an implicit understanding that the physical medium (either twisted pairs of copper wire, or optical fibers) used to transport information frames between stations connected to the LAN is highly reliable, and relatively independent of the environment. Typical Bit Error Ratios (BER) for Ethernet links range between 1 error in 109 bits for copper to as little as 1 in 1012 for optical fiber. Also, the physical layout of equipment and cables has virtually no impact on the functioning of the system. It is therefore safe to assume that if the equipment is functioning properly, the sending station adheres to the rules of the link-layer protocol, and the MAC addresses used are valid, every transmitted packet will reach its destination.
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Performance Testing of Large Scale Wireless LANs
A New Solution
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Wireless LANs (WLANs) are skyrocketing in popularity, both for enterprise and consumer usage. Its low cost and relative ease of deployment have enabled consumers, enterprises and service providers to deploy it in homes, businesses and hospitality and retail venues. With the advent of the higher speed IEEE 802.11 standards and centrally managed switch-based architectures, WLAN deployments have moved from small cells of coverage to more pervasive deployments that can cover entire campuses. As enterprise and service provider deployments reach 100’s to 1000’s of Access Points, the ability of both vendors and customers to test the ability of a WLAN system to scale to such a large size is limited at best. This paper will explore the need for large scale WLAN testing, current techniques, their challenges and limitations, and discuss new methods that are easier to implement, and offer repeatable, and quantifiable performance metrics.
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The Testing Needs of WLAN Technology
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In order for Wireless LANs to achieve the performance demanded by corporate buyers, equipment and chipset manufacturers will need better test equipment. Current WLAN test equipment and methods do not address the diversity of products in the market, the variety of physical testing environments, and the additional sophistication of the protocol. The business and technical requirements for the next generation of WLAN test equipment are summarized.
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Enterprise Telephony on Wireless LAN
Challenges of Deploying Enterprise Telephony on Wireless LANs
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Voice over IP allows for convergence of traditional telephony networks with enterprise LANs.
Voice over IP over Wireless LANs (VoWLAN) drives further integration by offering low cost
mobility of voice and data users within, and between, enterprise campuses. The promise of
VoWLAN has generated significant interest in the enterprise networking marketplace as a
consequence.
However, the requirements of enterprise users - toll quality voice, seamless integration between
data and voice applications, and reliable and secure communications - are not easily met. WiFi is
a complex protocol, and designing standards-compliant equipment that can meet these
requirements is a challenge. If not properly addressed, this can cause havoc when the equipment
is actually deployed and used in the real world. The results can range from mysterious operational
failures to unexpected performance loss, and even just plain baffling quirks.
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