Azimuth Delivers Industry's First Wireless LAN Network Test Platform.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ACTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 10, 2003

Leading Vendors Validate Wi-Fi Performance, Scalability and

Compatibility; Gain Powerful Economic, Time-to-Market and Operational

Advantages

Azimuth Systems, Inc., innovators in scalable, automated wireless network test, today introduced the Azimuth(TM) W-Series 802.11 WLAN Test Platform. Azimuth's W-Series is the first platform that allows 802.11 networks to be tested as dynamic, scalable systems in a laboratory enabling industry leaders to establish consistent performance benchmarks that will help solve the ambiguities of over the air testing and help to expedite the wide spread adoption of 802.11.

"To our customers, the single most important enterprise wireless requirement is reliable, robust performance that can ensure the ongoing stability for their mission critical applications," said Colin Cooper, Director of Test and Validation for Wireless Networks at Symbol Technologies, Inc. "Azimuth is the first vendor that can help the industry to test networks against all of the variables we see in enterprise wireless deployment scenarios. With Azimuth's W-Series Platform we can efficiently derive repeatable test results creating real world test cases that would otherwise be difficult to reproduce in the lab."

Symbol Technologies, Inc. delivers enterprise mobility solutions that enable anywhere, anytime data and voice communication designed to increase productivity, reduce costs and realize competitive advantage. Symbol systems and services integrate rugged mobile computing, advanced data capture, wireless networking and mobility software for the world's leading retailers, transportation and logistics companies and manufacturers as well as government agencies and providers of healthcare, hospitality and security.

"Azimuth was founded to create an off-the-shelf, automated test platform that can produce repeatable test results and can scale to create taxing performance test conditions," commented Fanny Mlinarsky, founder and CTO of Azimuth, "The Azimuth solution facilitates efficient testing, saving time and money, while also providing a platform that keeps pace with the industry, supporting emerging protocols such as security, QoS, and other advances in wireless technology."

The natural, untethered freedom of movement WLAN technology affords users also greatly complicates the test of wireless network products. At best, testing wireless networks for mobility and roaming is difficult and expensive, while many real world scenarios can't be tested. Azimuth is the first to deliver a suitable lab based, test tool that can validate real world performance of wireless networks and devices. The result is a dramatic reduction in test cost with more accurate tests that drive continuous performance improvements in the equipment being tested. The W-Series also gives evaluators and users a critically important, reliable yard stick by which to undertake performance benchmarking.

The Azimuth W-Series: The New Standard for Comprehensive, Consistent Analysis

Purpose-built as the industry's first standardized, off-the-shelf test platform for system level testing of 802.11 wireless access points, clients and other devices the patented W-Series delivers:

-- Repeatability: an isolated and controlled RF environment that

provides consistent correlation of test results between

different organizations and geographically dispersed sites and

from one set of equipment to another. The W-Series eliminates

the need for screen rooms and the ensuing test delays, and

complexities.

-- Scalability: scaling from a single AP with one client to

multiple APs and hundreds of clients, with varying traffic and

client load conditions, and a broad range of test

permutations.

-- Automation: standardizing test procedures and processes across

organizations, geographic boundaries, and the industry itself.

Azimuth lets users realize simple, effective and reusable test

configurations and parameters when and as needed.

"The wired data communications industry responded rapidly to the introduction of standardized, off-the-shelf, performance test tools in the early 1990s," according to Bob Mandeville, President of Iometrix and a pioneer in Ethernet testing, "There has been an identical need in the wireless data communications industry for a consistent performance, interoperability and functionality test methodology which I believe Azimuth's founder Fanny Mlinarsky recognized and the company has now filled." Mandeville was instrumental as an industry leader in the evolution of Ethernet as a mission critical technology. He is now focused on similar issues in the 802.11 space.

The Azimuth W-Series includes:

800W Chassis - designed from the ground up as an off-the-shelf, WLAN Analysis Platform, the 800W is an eight slot chassis that scales up to 16 access points and thousands of clients.

Azimuth DIRECTOR(TM): configures and controls the 800W, and enables dynamic positioning of any network node to analyze the effect of mobility on both device and network performance.

The W-Series is complemented with an array of test modules, including a Windows based Station Test Module (STM), a testMAC(TM) softClient emulation Module (TMM), an RF Port Module (RFM), and an RF Test Head (RTH) as well as a broad library of scripts and test suites. The W-Series is a first of its kind test platform that provides unprecedented scope of validation, and unquestionable economic and time to market advantages. The W-Series solution is reshaping the way WLAN networks and devices are tested.

About Azimuth:

Azimuth Systems, based in Acton, Massachusetts is an innovator in wireless data communications test solutions that test the functionality, interoperability and performance of wireless devices and networks. Azimuth is backed by Kodiak Venture Partners and North Bridge Venture Partners and is a leader in defining widely accepted wireless data communications performance metrics and test methodologies. (www.azimuthsystems.com)