The STA Automation Package automates testing that provides repeatability while minimizing manual intervention.
Octobox with a webcam under test surrounded by PCB log-periodic antennas.
The latest flavors of Wi-Fi bring a significant jump to performance over previous iterations. Testing, however, proves difficult because every Wi-Fi installation is different. Spirent Communications has introduced the Octobox STA Automation Package, which automates Wi-Fi 6/6E and 7 over-the-air (OTA) testing. Yes, it’s compatible with previous Wi-Fi versions.
The Octobox is a test chamber that contains several log-periodic antennas that you can use to transmit or receive signals from the equipment under test (EUT), which can be any device with Wi-fi that fits in the chamber. This includes cell phones, IoT devices, AR/VR glasses, and routers. External signal sources and attenuators let you create test signals and attenuate transmitted and received signals to signal-power conditions, which lets you test your EUT for performance as a function of signal strength. The diagram shows a two-chamber configuration for testing a device with a router. The Octobox STA Automation Package lets you test devices that use multi-user MIMO (MU-MIMO)
This Octobox configuration uses two chambers, one for cell phone and other for a router.
Because every installation is different, testing Wi-Fi in devices is difficult. The Octobox and STA Automation package streamline tests and provide repeatability. Even with automation, there’s still a degree of manual testing. That is, you must manually adjust antenna locations within the Octobox. RF propagation is, after all, nonlinear.
Automated tests include:
- Maximum throughput for channel widths of 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 80 MHz, 160 MHz, and 320 MHz.
- Data rate as a function of range by attenuating signals both to and from the EUT.
- Fixed MCS Sweep: test runs devices through a predefined set of modulation and coding schemes.
- Muti-user MIMO for Wi-Fi 7’s MU-MIMO capabilities.
- OFDMA testing for optimizing channel usage.
- Roaming reliability including testing for 802.11r protocols.
- Backward compatibility to previous Wi-Fi standards
- Security protocol testing.
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