Introduction:

This case study provides an overview of how one of our customers, a Government contractor, solved their mesh network testing challenge with DEV/Quintech’s testing expertise and products.
Challenge:

The Government contractor wanted to test their wireless mesh equipment with many different applications such as LTE Direct, Wi-Fi Mesh Router, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), ad-hoc and sensor networks. The sheer amount of radio links required in the mesh topology posed a daunting challenge to test managers tasked with testing cellular and Wi-Fi products. Finding a scalable, controllable and cost-effective wireless mesh network test solution was critical to the success of testing these technologies.

Solution:
The solution consists of two off-the-shelf Quintech products, the NEXUS QRB4000 and the QRC.
  • The QRB3000 is an industry proven non-blocking RF matrix switch that can connect any A port to any B port.
  • The QRC is a splitter array that enables any node to any node connectivity to fully implement the mesh network topology.
  • The Quintech solution is an inherently modular design that provides excellent scalability and can be configured to support 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 nodes.
  •  Link parameters such as free space path loss and connectivity (on/off) for the entire mesh network can be changed in milliseconds
Result:

The Quintech mesh network test bed solution enabled the customer to verify performance of their mesh network and achieve the following:

  • Emulation of joining, leaving, grouping and splitting of mesh networks using the Quintech system’s ability to provide real time switching and attenuation of all the radio links individually.
  • Development, testing and verification of the upper layer protocols in realistic scenarios that stressed the mesh networks resilience
  • Performance testing of packet loss, latency and throughput.
  • Parallel development using multiple test systems which are integrated for larger mesh networks when needed, reducing development and testing time.
Conclusion:

This case study provides an overview of how one of our customers, a Government contractor, solved their mesh network testing challenge with Quintech’s testing expertise and products.

Wireless mesh networking is used in many different applications such as LTE Direct, Wi-Fi Mesh Router, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), ad-hoc and sensor networks. Quintech’s mesh network test bed solutions provide scalable, controllable and cost-effective testing. This testing provides critical performance verification to LTE Direct device manufacturers, wireless router manufacturers, university research institutes and Government contractors who are working on developing and deploying wireless mesh network capabilities.

While mesh networks bring some unique advantages against other networks, it also poses unprecedented challenges in testing. Quintech’s off-the-shelf product based solution is solving these challenges today in a cost-effective way and providing test managers superior ROI.
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Testing Wireless Mesh Networks using a Matrix SwitchTesting Wireless Mesh Networks using a Matrix Switch