Wireless Performance Testing

The NTS Performance Wireless Certification allows companies developing wireless solutions to test their products against various competitive products in standard test environments to measure throughput vs. distance for their products. Each test environment is selected to measure particular commonly encountered wireless situations. In order to measure performance, NTS has developed three (3) typical "real-world" test environments in which we measure performance:

• Commercial Business environment, line of sight
• Indoor Office environment, non-line of sight, and
• Open Field environment, line of sight testing.

The Commercial Business environment configuration uses a line of sight connection between the wireless device and the wireless access point. Although this is an optimal internal environment (due to the lack of obstructions like walls, desks, doors, floors, etc. and lack of outdoor environment influences, such as temperature, humidity, etc.), performance issues still may be encountered due to wireless leakage (e.g., from microwave ovens, other wireless products like cellular phones, poorly shielded computers, etc.). Testing in this environment allows NTS to measure the effect of these data-points on the wireless product-under-test.

The Indoor Office environment configuration provides more of a typical "real-world" measure of product performance as used in the corporate world. Testing is performed using a non-line-of-sight environment which negatively effects the performance between a wireless device and a wireless access point. Testing is performed in non-optimal conditions to evaluate the product performance when it encounters reflections, cancellations, and other distortions in the wireless signal.

The Open Field environment uses a line of sight configuration which is an almost ideal performance throughput testing environment. The purpose of conducting this testing is to determine the effect on performance with various outdoor environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, humidity, altitude, wind, etc.).

Testing is typically performed using tools such as IxChariot, an industry-standard tool used for emulating real-world performance scenarios for performance measurements. Measurements are typically performed using a long file send/receive which allows time for a "ramp" at the beginning of the connection and ultimately steady-state performance. These measurements are repeated at regular intervals (e.g., every 10 meters from the wireless access point) until the signal drops off completely.

Let NTS evaluate your wireless product in our independent testing facilities to provide you with true and accurate results on how your wireless products perform.

Benchmark, Load & Stress

NTS can also perform testing to evaluate the performance of your product. Benchmarking, load/stress testing and scalability all fall under the umbrella of performance testing.

Performance and benchmark testing typically includes evaluating a hardware or software product to determine how effective it is at performing is functionality. For example, a graphics adapter can be measure in frames per second in a popular game, number of smooth shaded triangles per second or similar measures. Compare the performance of multiple products against each other typically falls under the heading of "competitive analysis testing" (see Competitive Analysis page for more information).

Load and/or stress testing typically deals with testing a product to verify that it functions correctly when many users (virtual and/or real users) are using your product simultaneously. Load and stress testing allows you to discover the maximum performance for your product or to uncover anomalies or instabilities that may only become apparent over an extended period of time or under high usage. Testing can be performed on software products like database software, web server software, etc. Even applications like word processors and spreadsheets can be load/stress tested to uncover memory leaks, etc. that may only appear over time.

Scalability testing is an off-shoot of load/stress testing and typically deals with how many theoretical users a product can support. For example, how many users a particular server configuration with a specific operating system, database, and website can support.

As an independent testing lab, NTS is tool-agnostic, allowing us to use the tool most appropriate for the particular test needs (i.e. functionally, financially, etc.). NTS maintains key relationships with various test tool vendors, allowing NTS to exercise the industries leading high-end software stress and load testing tools on a term licensing basis (i.e. the products are licensed for use on each project based upon the duration of the project and the number of virtual users emulated). Term licensing allows smaller companies the opportunity to test on a one-time basis using highly respected (and very expensive) test tools and affords larger companies an opportunity to evaluate whether or not the tool meets their needs before purchase. There is also, in some cases, a discount afforded to NTS clients who later purchase software licenses. Of course, all test scripts developed by NTS for the project become the property of the client following completion of testing.

Testing can be performed with test tools including: IBM Rational Visual Test, Rational Robot, HP Mercury WinRunner, HP Mercury LoadRunner, RadView WebLoad, Borland SilkTest, and other tools.

Contact NTS today to find out how to get your product tested today!