NETWORK INSTRUMENTS AND SYMBOL TECH TO PARTNER IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS NETWORK ANALYSIS TOOLS.

Network Instruments, LLC, a provider of high-performance protocol analyzers and device mapping software, announced that it has entered into an agreement with Symbol Technologies, Inc. to co-develop wireless network analysis tools. These tools will provide network analysis and troubleshooting for WLAN (wireless local-area network) management, based on the IEEE 802.11b protocol standard for wireless communications. Symbol Technologies is a global leader in mobile data transaction systems, using wireless local area networking for data and voice, application-specific mobile computing and bar code data capture.

"Symbol Technologies' bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs are utilized worldwide in a wide range of markets, and we're very pleased to be partnering with them on a new and rapidly evolving technology -wireless network analysis, expert problem identification, statistics and long-term trending," said Douglas Smith, President, Network Instruments.

The Network Instruments/Symbol Technologies agreement will marry 802.11b wireless protocol decoding with Network Instruments Observer 8 network analysis software, a Windows-based real-time network monitoring and troubleshooting tool. Network managers will be able to use the co-developed software to manage wireless traffic, to analyze higher-level protocols, to design wireless infrastructures, and to identify security risks and other potential network problems.