VeriWave (News - Alert), a vendor of wireless networking functional and performance analysis systems, has announced the integration of WiMix, what company officials call "the industry's first performance prediction tool for wireless Quality of Experience" with an open-air test methodology using VeriWave WT20 Traffic Generator/Analyzer units to load a wireless infrastructure network with traffic from thousands of users.


The test subjects the network to realistic conditions and reports end-user QoE for a wide variety of vertical deployments, such as healthcare, corporate offices, education facilities and retail outlets. This allows for the testing of control variables impacting end-user experience and performance of CRM applications, as well as e-mail traffic, Web browsing, audio and video file transfers and others.

Trapeze Networks (News - Alert), one of the launch customers for VeriWave's WiMix test suite, is using the open-air test methodology to replicate various vertical market environments and test the performance and scalability of its Smart Mobile wireless technology. Prior to deploying this methodology, Trapeze used dozens of laptops to attempt to create large-scale testing in its open-air labs.

The open-air test methodology combined with WiMix, VeriWave officials maintain, "offers the ability to evaluate a realistic network environment in a wide range of conditions, including complex traffic mixes encountered in various vertical industries, various types of security mechanisms and combinations of data, voice and video traffic."

In 2005 the Woodside Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm, announced that they had led the Series B equity funding for Portland, Oregon-based VeriWave, Inc. Existing investors U.S. Venture Partners and TL Ventures also participated in the round.

Woodside Fund Venture Partner Ashish Gupta joined the VeriWave Board of Directors in conjunction with the investment. Venture Partner Rick Shriner also attends Board meetings and supports the company on behalf of Woodside Fund.

The company said at the time they would use the new capital primarily to support product development and sales and strengthen its operational capabilities for international growth as the company extends its leadership in the WLAN test space.

According to the Telecommunications Industry Association at the time of the deal, the market for WLAN-enabled products was "growing dramatically," representing over $5 billion of revenue and "driving the need for comprehensive test products for WLAN development, QA, and manufacturing."

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David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.