The Azimuth IEEE Access Point Conformance Benchmark Test Suite is an automated script that performs test plans for 802.11 a, b, and g bands over a range of channel frequencies. The test plans were written by the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Lab (UNH IOL) and they scrutinize the content and sequence of packets sent by the Access Point Under Test (APUT) to ensure that it will be able to interoperate with 802.11 products from multiple manufacturers.
The IEEE AP Conformance Benchmark Test Suite enables users to:
- Reduce the AP testing process from days to hours
- Bring higher quality Wi-Fi Access Point products to market faster through sophisticated mobility and traffic emulation
- Ensure accurate, repeatable test results through Azimuth RadioProof™ Enclosures
The IEEE Access Point Conformance Benchmark Test Suite tests include but are not limited to:
- Association State – verifies that the APUT tracks associated, authenticated stations, sends the correct frames to stations with the correct status, and correctly handles frames from unauthenticated stations
- Authentication State – determines that the APUT maintains an authentication state variable for each STA with which it must communicate
- Defragmentation – verifies that the APUT receives fragments of any size and discards duplicates
- Duplicate Detection and Recovery – verifies that the APUT correctly handles duplicate frames and uses proper sequence numbers in its own transmissions
- Fragmentation Procedure – determines that the APUT properly uses the fragmentation procedure to transmit uni- and multi-cast MSDUs
- MAC Frame Formatting – verifies the processing of malformed frames by the APUT
- MAC Level Acknowledgement – determines that the APUT transmits correctly-formatted AKC frames with respect to timing and rates
- RTS/CTS Fragmentation – verifies that the APUT correctly sets the duration field of transmitted packets, properly calculates the duration field where there are multiple rates, uses RTS/CTS when both NAVs indicate the medium to be idle and receives frames from a device with a different RTS threshold
- Reassociation – verifies that the APUT properly handles all aspects of a reassociation request from an STA
- Recovery Procedure and Retransmit Limits – determines that that the APUT increments and resets appropriate retries, resets the retry bit, and properly handles transmission of data frames after a PS-Poll
- WEP Decryption – verifies that the APUT properly decrypts WEP-encrypted frames and not those with an invalid ICV
The suite leverages the W-Series platform’s sophisticated motion emulation and traffic generation capability in a completely isolated environment to ensure accurate, repeatable results. All tests are managed by Azimuth's DIRECTOR™ Test Executive software, and results can be easily shared using Azimuth's STUDIO™ Test Data Management software.