According to ABI Research (News - Alert), voice over wireless local area network (VoWLAN) is estimated to grow significantly through 2012, with a combined annual growth rate of 93 percent. VoWLAN is popularly deployed in healthcare, retail, hospitality and manufacturing, with growing traction in the government, warehousing, and corporate markets.

AirMagnet, a provider of security, performance and compliance solutions for WLANs, announced the new version of AirMagnet Survey PRO to ensure optimized VoWLAN for Cisco and Vocera (News - Alert) equipment.

 

According to AirMagnet, there has been a dramatic increase in organizations deploying voice over their WLAN. The ability to see into the network and measure how performance impacts the voice applications is a key element in the VoWLAN deployment, the company thinks.

 

Stan Schatt, an analyst at ABI Research, says one of the major weaknesses of VoWLAN products is the lack of effective management systems that can track voice traffic specifically and provide troubleshooting capabilities.

 

The new features of AirMagnet (News - Alert) Survey reportedly allow customers to identify problems earlier in the process of deploying VoWLAN ‘the survey phase’ thereby minimizing the issues that might only be found after the equipment has been rolled out to end users.

The wireless network design and deployment verification system of AirMagnet Survey PRO provides a one-click option for the user, to verify if their network is deployed based on the vendor’s requirements for any Wi-Fi based phone, according to AirMagnet.

 

The system verifies different areas including verification for number of access points, signal/interference levels, user capacity and data rates. The system now includes pre-configured VoWLAN policies for the Cisco (News - Alert) 7920 and 7921 phones that have been tailored to Cisco’s recommended deployment guidelines.

 

With the new updates, IT professionals can easily verify ‘in one click’ if the network they are running meets Cisco requirements for voice, enabling them to avoid voice problems from the get-go by ensuring adequate coverage and optimum configuration settings for customers.

AirMagnet Survey’s speed mapping table has been enhanced to allow Vocera users to predict and view expected downlink data rate information from the perspective of Vocera B2000 badges while performing a passive survey, says AirMagnet.

 

“AirMagnet Survey is already the recognized leader in WLAN survey,” said Chia Chee Kaun, CTO at AirMagnet, in a statement. “These new features allow us to see even further into the realm of voice and provide valuable information that will ensure quality of service and usability.”