Test and measurement company Spirent Communications has launched Spirent TestCenter WLAN 802.11ac Wave 2 testing tool.

Engineers can use Spirent TestCenter WLAN Wave 2 solutions for functionality and performance testing of IEEE 802.11ac Wave 2 Access Points (APs) and testing of WLAN ecosystems that include access controllers and gateways.

Spirent Communications said a single 802.11ac Wave 2 test module can emulate up to 256 realistic WLAN clients. It validates a greater than 1Gbps maximum aggregated throughput with both the in-chassis 2.5G/5G Ethernet and Wave 2 WLAN test ports.

Shanghai Telecommunications Technological Co Research Institute (STTRI), a division of China Telecom, has utilized Spirent TestCenter WLAN 802.11ac Wave 2 testing tool to complete the first multi-vendor 802.11ac Wave 2 Public Hotspot AP evaluation in China.

STTRI tested validation of the latest IEEE 802.11ac Wave 2 performance enhancements with multi-user multiple-input, multiple-output (MU-MIMO) technologies for wireless communications. It delivered test benchmarking capabilities and results for China Telecom’s STTRI lab to quantify enhanced WLAN performance with the new 802.11ac access points (APs).

“Spirent test solutions are capable of simulating various combinations of endpoints from all of the vendors participating in the test, setting a solid foundation for the advancement and deployment of ongoing operations for 802.11ac Wave 2 APs,” said Gao Bo, senior staff engineer of the Shanghai Telecommunications Technological Co Research Institute.

“The results will be instrumental in the future planning, designing, deployment and optimization of 802.11ac Wave 2 APs,” said Spirent’s Tan Hao, general manager of Greater China and East Asia.