Wi-Fi 6 for Virtual Reality

The best VR/AR experience is nowadays by wireless tethered headsets, where Wi-Fi 6 is the most appropriate technology.
Well-defined bandwidth and roundtrip time are required to deliver a good VR/AR experience.
It's mandatory to tune the network to guarantee high bandwidth and minimum delay, and it's essential to monitor to evolve it with the growth of the VR/AR use cases.
VR/AR use for training in education and industry is starting to happen; the Probe for Wi-Fi 6 includes a specific test suite to assess how the wireless network supports the VR/AR applications.

Check and measure video conference

WebRTC is an open standard for real-time communication implemented by Web Browsers as well as by client apps.
Today all the major videoconferencing systems use/support WebRTC.
To assess how videoconferencing works at the edge and through the network, the Probe uses the WebRTC Troubleshooter web app provided by webrtc.org, running the test inside a Chrome Browser.

End-to-End Tests for Observability

The Probe constantly measures the end-to-end availability and performance of the services using scripted tests based on well-defined steps.
The Probe constantly measures the availability and performance of the services using scripted tests.
The set of predefined scripted tests can be extended, creating new scripts that implement interaction and validation of specific items of the customer architecture.
The relevant data for each measure are stored inside a time-series database which by advanced visualization techniques quickly allows pinpointing the source of an anomaly.
Detailed technical logs of the measures and .pcap files are stored and are directly accessible for an effective drill down to investigate the root cause of the behavior.
The test steps support the interaction with multiple web pages capturing their screenshot and .HAR file at the precise time.

Powerful User Interface

The advanced but easy to use web-based UI allows to:

  • Get a geographic view of the probes and their status.
  • View the behavior of the measures over different periods.
  • View the details of the web interaction in the measure.
  • Drill down to the root cause of the anomaly with precise technical details.

Machine Learning enabled diagnostics

Wi-Fi networks operation depends on the correct working of different network components, both hardware, and software. Therefore, Wi-Fi diagnostic can be complex and time-consuming.
WiFiProbe leverages ad-hoc Machine Learning software on the cloud to map the measurement results to a comprehensive ontology for fault diagnosis and remedy.
WiFiProbe can also issue the proper commands to restore the service state or instruct human operators with minimal skill to do the actions needed to fix the anomalies.
With WiFiProbe, you can improve service quality and availability while decreasing the cost of operation.

Edge-to-Cloud Security

The collected data are stored inside the device memory and opportunistically synced to the cloud.
The cloud sync can be activated on the Ethernet connection, via UMTS/LTE, or on the Wi-Fi itself during the measure and does not require any other link.
The complete platform is highly secured by:

  • Elliptic curve ciphers for the dialog between Cloud and Edge.
  • Strong authentication based on digital certificates for both Edge and Cloud.
  • Mandatory strong key of 256bit or more.
  • Containerization of the measure execution for security isolation.
  • Storage encryption for the Edge with TPM based secure boot.
Even in case of physical tampering of the edge device, it's not possible to extract the access credential or any sensitive data.

Inside the Wi-Fi 6 Edge Probe

Different probe hardware models are available for diverse deployment environments: single or multiple radio subsystems, UMTS/LTE, mount fixtures, and power supplies (PoE, 5V, 110/220V).
The Wi-Fi 6 edge Probe model is built as the other Probes on open and well-defined hardware and software elements:

AAEON UP2 Intel-powered computer board with FPGA onboard
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 Wireless Adapter 2.4 Gbps, 2x2 MIMO, 1024 QAM
Linux 5.10
wpa_supplicant v2.9
Chromium 90 for Linux

To get in touch email to: wifi6probe_team@staff.inrete.it