Tracker is a Wi-Fi test solution that enables recording of an environment such as a house for playback in the octoBox personal testbed.

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 2.4-GHz, 5-GHz and the new 6-GHz 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.