How to implement the national wireless standard through testing? NETSCOUT explained the implementation case in detail at the "Wireless LAN Test Specification" publicity meeting

[51CTO.com original article] On November 22, the Beijing station of the national standard GB/T 32420-2015 "Wireless LAN Test Specification" was successfully held. This meeting was guided by the Information Technology Equipment Interconnection Subcommittee of the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee, hosted by the General Cabling System Working Group and Shandong Provincial Computing Center, and co-organized by NETSCOUT of the United States. It aims to promote the already promulgated wireless LAN test national standard GB/T 32420-2015 (hereinafter referred to as "wireless national standard"). The scene attracted more than 100 industry professionals from Wi-Fi organizations, enterprises, industry associations, etc., who actively asked questions and had in-depth exchanges with the speakers.

Zhou Mingle, the chief drafter of the wireless national standard, first introduced the background of the compilation of the "Wireless LAN Test Specification". He humorously said that this was a ten-year project. According to the arrangement of the 2007 national standard revision plan of the National Standardization Administration, the Shandong Provincial Computing Center was responsible for leading the drafting of the national standard "Wireless LAN Test Specification", which was managed by the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee.

In August 2009, the General Cabling Standards Development Working Group was established, and the Wireless LAN Test Specification Working Group was formally determined at the meeting. The main contents of the research are wireless LAN engineering design and planning, equipment selection, system deployment, testing and acceptance; the division of wireless LAN products, relevant technical standards, test indicators, and operating specifications and guiding documents in the actual operation of testing institutions.

Feng Zhengqian, a member of the standard drafting team, interpreted the standard clauses of the Wireless LAN Test Specification one by one on the spot, so that the participants could master the actual test methods and examples on the basis of understanding the theoretical content of the standard. He also introduced that as the first national standard for wireless LAN testing in my country, GB/T 32420-2015 Wireless LAN Test Specification solved the problem of lack of relevant test standards in the actual operation process, and it was implemented on January 1, 2017.

In order to make it easier for industry practitioners to understand national standards and operating specifications, the Standards Committee led the Shandong Provincial Computing Center (National Supercomputing Jinan Center) to cooperate with NETSCOUT and other units to write the "System Engineering Test Implementation Guide" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Guide"). The Guide uses the NETSCOUT handheld network tester as an example tool to explain the testing methods and processes of WLAN networks, and provides clearer operating instructions for the implementation of wireless international.

Bai Qing, technical consultant of NETSCOUT, said in his speech that the implementation guide provides a complete set of national standard implementation specifications for WLAN engineering projects from planning, deployment, acceptance to operation and maintenance methods. In the actual operation process, it is also particularly important to have advanced network testing tools. In the different life cycle stages of planning, deployment and certification, acceptance, and operation and maintenance mentioned in the guide, NETSCOUT can provide accurate network testing tools to meet the needs of different stages.

"We will adhere to four major principles in testing." Bai Qing said that from the perspective of testing methods, we must insist on collecting data from the terminal; from the perspective of test equipment selection, we must avoid using performance-limited terminals for wireless testing; from the perspective of interference assessment, if conditions permit, it is recommended to do environmental assessment tests in advance; and from the perspective of concurrent volume assessment, it is recommended to conduct the assessment in a laboratory environment or a shielded environment.

At the site, Bai Qing also explained in detail many people's misunderstandings about wireless signals, such as a strong signal does not mean a good network, and IP physical transmission rate is not equivalent to actual network throughput, etc. According to him, when deploying wireless devices in reality, many situations will cause interference to wireless signals. What NETSCOUT can do is to restore the real network environment as much as possible, whether it is network function testing, signal strength testing, transmission performance testing, or system security testing, it must fully and holistically reflect the real situation of the wireless network.

In China, NETSCOUT has been committed to meeting the network performance management needs of different customers. Through in-depth and comprehensive understanding of user problems and continuous market investment, the update and iteration of products and solutions can timely solve network performance problems and maximize the satisfaction of end users. It also provides practitioners with comprehensive tools from planning, deployment, acceptance to operation and maintenance for the implementation of the wireless national standard, an industry standard.

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