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WildPackets (News - Alert), a provider of network and application analysis solutions, has announced a major enhancement to their OmniPeek network analysis product. As a result, this product is now the first in the industry to simultaneously capture and analyze wireless data from multiple channels in real time.

Considered a breakthrough, this enhancement is an important step forward in monitoring and maintaining wireless networks, especially for the promising Wireless VoIP market led by Cisco, Avaya and Vonage (News - Alert).

Wireless VoIP is considered to be very sensitive. In fact, more than a few hundred millisecond delay leads to unacceptable quality and even dropped calls. Delays and dropped calls can both occur when mobile wireless devices, such as laptops and phones, roam from one channel to another.

To this point, solutions have only been able to scan one channel at a time in a round-robin fashion, leaving as much as 90 percent of wireless data unmonitored at any one period, making the analysis of the data for troubleshooting and optimization almost impossible.

Never before commercially available, the latest extensions to OmniPeek now offer real-time multi-channel capture, aggregation and analysis of wireless networks.

"The issues are connection-disconnection problems, less signal strength, dropped transmissions either on the phone in VoIP Wi-Fi environments or with laptops," said Tony Barbagallo, vice president of marketing at WildPackets, in a Wednesday statement.

"The latest extensions to OmniPeek now offer real-time multi-channel capture, aggregation and analysis of wireless networks to pinpoint the root cause of these issues and keep wireless networks running smoothly."

 

WildPackets formed a partnership with Ralink (News - Alert) Technologies, an innovator and developer of wireless LAN chipset solutions. This partnership was formed in an effort to develop OmniPeek’s support for USB wireless cards, which serve as the wireless packet capture devices.

 

OmniPeek interfaces directly to multiple wireless cards configured to capture data from individual channels. The solution executes multiple captures concurrently, as well as aggregates the channel data in a rolling graphical display.

Ralink’s patented MIMObility technology is designed to extend WiFi applications from traditional PC networking to a range of digital multimedia and handheld devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, cameras, print servers, HDTV and video game players.

The functionality and cost effectiveness of VoIP have helped to drive the demand for this technology in both the residential and commercial sector. While it is gaining ground in adoption, the quality and security of the technology is still a key focus for organizations.

 

This latest enhancement to the OmniPeek solution should better position the technology for further deployment, while also advancing the performance. In doing so, it will not only drive demand for WildPackets, it will also open up new opportunities for vendors throughout the global industry.