Xirrus, Inc., the only Wi-Fi "Power-Play" that delivers the most coverage, bandwidth, and user density in the industry, announced today its advanced RF Analysis Manager (RAM) for testing and troubleshooting of 802.11n wireless networks. 802.11n is rapidly becoming the technology of choice for Wi-Fi networks worldwide due to its increased bandwidth and recent ratification by the IEEE. However, the deployment of 802.11n presents a set of unique challenges based on technology differences with legacy 802.11a/b/g networks, both on the wireless infrastructure and client side. Xirrus’ RAM equips each Xirrus Wi-Fi Array with a powerful set of tools and features to optimally tune and verify an 802.11n installation, as well as give IT administrators the ability to troubleshoot issues that may occur within the wireless environment.

The roll out of new network technology standards into production environments typically comes with a set of interoperability, performance, and functionality issues. Though 802.11n was just ratified this month, it has been deployed into production networks for over 18 months since its certification in Draft 2.0 form by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2007. The 802.11n standard will continue to evolve over the next several years with additional performance and optional functions, along with ongoing stream of IEEE 802.11 amendments. This changing wireless landscape mandates that appropriate tools are available to the user to analyze, optimize, and troubleshoot their changing environments.

The distributed architecture of the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array enables the execution of powerful wireless and networking analysis at the edge of the network where packets traverse the wireless-to-wired boundary. Unlike traditional thin access points that back haul information gathered for analysis – in many cases unencrypted – over the network to a central controller, the Xirrus Wi-Fi Array includes an embedded Wi-Fi Controller with the necessary computing and memory resources to provide these functions securely at the network’s edge.

The key elements of the Xirrus RAM include:

• RF Analysis – An embedded Spectrum Analyzer leverages the dedicated threat sensor radio in each Wi-Fi Array to provide a continual view of utilization, interference, and errors across all available Wi-Fi channels.


• Packet Analysis – Integrated packet capture provides filterable views of all traffic traversing on the wired and wireless interfaces of the Array.


• Performance Analysis – Embedded traffic generation enables the throughput of the wireless or wired interfaces of the Array to be analyzed.


• Failure Recovery – Radio Assurance provides an automatic self test and self healing mechanism that ensures continuous system operation.

• Netflow Support


• Network Tools: RADIUS ping, ping, traceroute


• Diagnostics Logs