A solution from Azimuth Systems enables vendors to perform certification testing according to the new Wi-Fi Alliance Test Engine architecture. The AzCert Wi-Fi Certification Test Suite for Test Engine-enabled devices will be used by Wi-Fi Alliance Authorized Test Laboratories (ATLs) and allows product vendors, device manufacturers and semiconductor vendors to pre-test their Station Devices using the same approach. The new solution is expected to streamline the certification process for a broad range of products with embedded Wi-Fi connectivity such as phones, handheld games, cameras, TVs and MP3 players, and also for standard Wi-Fi equipment such as notebooks and network cards.

Article Tools

• 

The Test Engine methodology was originally architected by the Wi-Fi Alliance task group for Application Specific Devices (ASDs), and Azimuth Systems was chosen by the Alliance to develop tools required to execute the methodology. There are five primary components of the methodology for certification, including (1) Device Under Test (DUT) Software that enables the DUT to generate traffic; (2) Control PC Software that allows vendors to control their DUT; (3) a Capture Engine that captures the packets generated by the DUT for analysis; (4) a management tool that executes the Wi-Fi Certification test plan; and (5) the Wi-Fi Alliance Test Bed required to verify interoperability.

Sample source code for the DUT agent software and the control agent software are provided free-of-charge by the Wi-Fi Alliance to its members. Azimuth provides the AzCert Wi-Fi Certification Test Suite for Test Engine-Enabled Devices as a basic certification package that includes the ADEPT capture engine and the Azimuth Test Engine Management Tool. Products successfully tested using this methodology at an ATL achieve the “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED” mark.