The released scenario-based WLAN performance certification standards by the World WLAN Application Association (WAA), marks a key step in ensuring a high-quality WLAN user experience across a broad range of applications including industrial and medical scenarios, as well as in the home.
Critical to these new standards and the upgrade of the WAA’s test and certification program is the partnership between the industry body and globally recognised test and certification organizations that can verify compliance with the standards in terms of both products and performance, for markets around the world. With this in mind, the WAA has added TÜV Rheinland, a world-renowned test and certification organization, as an authorized laboratory partner. This demonstrates that the test and certification system relating to the new standards is increasingly powerful and provides new impetus for the standardisation and high-quality development of the WLAN industry, says the WAA.
TÜV Rheinland provides a one-stop shop from testing to certification, operates in 56 countries around the globe, and is in partnerships with both regional and national standards institutes, explains the company’s Managing Director in Hungary, Zsolt Pesze. With advanced technology and equipment and a global network of laboratories, the company can provide customers with efficient and reliable certification services and help products quickly enter the global market.
The company’s testing and certification activity covers WiFi not just in the home, but in segments such as industrial and medical, as well as in public networks. Its services cover performance tests, security evaluation, and compatibility checks of WLAN devices to ensure that products comply with international and industry specifications. “In these areas we test for critical factors such as network speed, stability and coverage, and the performance evaluation process helps to identify and resolve network problems and any bottlenecks, to ensure seamless connectivity for users,” says Pesze.
Focusing on the User Experience
For WAA certification, the process must effectively address the WLAN performance evolution and the certification of what is specific to the WAA standards family, Pesze explains. WAA is not only considering the network characteristics and the technical parameters of the networks, but also focusing on the user experience which can be influenced by these metrics.
“We developed our testing services so that certified products can deliver a stable and efficient network platform in a real-life environment, as defined in the WAA standards,” Pesze explains. “For example, reliability is one parameter which we observe and measure, and there are others such as latency and bandwidth, but different characteristics and attributes must be optimized for different applications, such as with an application for online video streaming compared to one used in an industrial segment.”
So in the industrial context, robustness may not be the one and only attribute, but it may be the most important, says Pesze. Similarly, for applications in the home, robustness is also important, but so too is coverage and the handover between networks while the user is moving, and changes in the technology from WiFi to 5G, or from 5G back to WiFi depending on the needs of the application.
Globally Harmonized WLAN Certification
The WAA’s aim is to have a globalized approach, and what TÜV Rheinland can provide them with is one of the key, leading players in the certification services area for market access, says Pesze. As for example, if a manufacturer from China would like to enter the EU market or the US, then we can enhance our policies with the right focus and direction for access to these markets. The aim is to have a globally harmonized effort and a common approach to defining the standards, the verification criteria, the test methods, and the certification process.
The process has already started says Pesze. In the past year WAA has already issued seven certificates and they have nineteen standards already defined, all directing different aspects of the user experience improvement. By certifying products this not only helps the users to find which are the trusted solutions among the numerous, variable products available on the market, it also fosters innovation and development on the manufacturers’ side as well.
TÜV Rheinland’s technical expertise and global resources will help WAA certification roll out faster globally, especially in emerging markets, says Pesze. In addition, our entry will drive the innovation of WLAN performance test technologies, further improving user experience and industry standards.
“We provide credibility and international acceptance of the WAA standards and certification, combining technical precision with user-centric certification criteria to strengthen mobile market access through a trusted partnership, and accelerating industry-wide advancements in performance and reliability.”
