Xirrus Advanced RF Analysis Manager for 802.11n networks

Xirrus announced its RF Analysis Manager (RAM) for testing and troubleshooting of 802.11n wireless networks.

Xirrus’ RAM equips each Xirrus Wi-Fi Array with a set of tools and features to tune and verify an 802.11n installation, as well as give IT administrators the ability to troubleshoot issues that may occur within the wireless environment.

The distributed architecture of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array enables the execution of wireless and networking analysis at the edge of the network where packets traverse the wireless-to-wired boundary. Unlike traditional thin access points that back haul information gathered for analysis – in many cases unencrypted – over the network to a central controller, the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array includes an embedded Wi-Fi Controller with the necessary computing and memory resources to provide these functions securely at the network’s edge.

The key elements of the Xirrus RAM include:

• RF analysis – An embedded Spectrum Analyzer leverages the dedicated threat sensor radio in each Wi-Fi Array to provide a continual view of utilization, interference, and errors across all available Wi-Fi channels.
• Packet analysis – Integrated packet capture provides filterable views of all traffic traversing on the wired and wireless interfaces of the Array.
• Performance analysis – Embedded traffic generation enables the throughput of the wireless or wired interfaces of the Array to be analyzed.
• Failure recovery – Radio Assurance provides an automatic self test and self healing mechanism that ensures continuous system operation.

RAM is part of a family of functionality packages for the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array, which includes the RF Performance Manager (RPM) and RF Security Manager (RSM). RAM is now available at no extra charge in the ArrayOS 4.0.6 release.