Wireless Valley Communications has added RF Manager, a software program that visualizes real-time RF activity to assist network managers in detecting and resolving problems impeding wireless network performance, to its product portfolio. A robust, scalable and readily available wireless network is essential in today’s business environment especially as companies depend on always-on access to mission-critical applications. However, wireless networks are challenging to design and manage because of the invisible, dynamic RF signals and the variety of interference sources that affect network availability and performance.

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The company’s LANPlanner predictive design software understands and accounts for the various factors affecting a wireless signal, enabling users to create a network design with optimal capacity and coverage levels while minimizing interference. RF Manager seamlessly imports the facility model and network configuration data from LANPlanner, providing customers with a visually rich platform for monitoring and managing either local or remote RF activity in real-time. The software alerts IT managers of potential problems by comparing real-time network activity with the design specifications. RF Manager is a platform-independent software solution that enables network administrators to monitor RF activity, detect wireless network issues and resolve problems. The software collects real-time network data from a variety of sources including access points, network management software and sensor overlay systems. It identifies problems by determining the discrepancies between the planned network parameters and actual activity. Using the RF Manager console, the network manager can quickly and easily:

• View a wireless dashboard containing critical network performance statistics.
• Identify deployment and configuration errors.
• View real-time coverage maps and identify coverage holes.
• Discover areas with interference.
• Evaluate bandwidth usage and capacity utilization.
• Monitor and guarantee the availability and performance of mission critical business applications delivered via the wireless LAN.

Unlike many other solutions that are tied to a specific hardware vendor, RF Manager enables management of all access points, regardless of the manufacturer. The company will be demonstrating RF Manager at NetWorld+Interop in Las Vegas next month. The product will be available in early third quarter.