2021.03.16 – New testing lab approval for BBF.398 Wi-Fi standard spreads standardization net

New testing lab approval for BBF.398 Wi-Fi standard spreads standardization net

Fremont, California, 16 March 2021 – Growing international demand for the broadband industry’s first performance testing specification for indoor Wi-Fi, Broadband Forum’s BBF.398, has led to Allion Labs (Taiwan) being approved as a new testing lab.

Allion Labs joins Broadband Forum’s existing test lab, University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), to help service providers around the world to select optimal Wi-Fi solutions and deliver guidance to vendors bringing products to market. Network operators and equipment vendors use BBF.398 to evaluate home Wi-Fi device performance across receiver sensitivity, throughput, coverage, multiuser support, anti-interference, and stability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

“Broadband Forum welcomes the expertise of Allion Labs in testing Wi-Fi network equipment and delivering on the requirements of service providers. Allion’s contribution to delivering a standardized Wi-Fi system, and its feedback and recommendations on behalf of its customers on BBF.398, will benefit the wider broadband connectivity ecosystem,” said Broadband Forum’s Managing Director Ken Ko.

A recent BBF commissioned survey showed that over 85% of service providers reported that the majority of subscribers use a Wi-Fi home gateway supplied by the service provider.

“The combination of data-hungry services, like 4K streaming and VR, and users’ tendency to conflate Wi-Fi performance with their external broadband connection means service providers need to optimize Wi-Fi performance as an intrinsic part of their broadband service. A broad implementation of a unified performance testing specification will help ensure the service providers’ end-users have access to a superior customer experience, whilst minimizing operating and maintenance costs”, Mr Ko continued.

“Wi-Fi’s ability to provide near-ubiquitous in-building coverage means its role in expanding home-working, service rich entertainment, smart building services and the IoT enabled home or business is guaranteed. A standardized, service provider managed and assured Wi-Fi market will ensure that this connected ecosystem thrives,” said Allion Labs’ Business Development  Manager and Wireless Expert Thomas Chang.

“BBF.398 is a critical tool for creating a performance network ecosystem to benefit every player – from the equipment manufacturer to the network operators and service providers, right down to the end user – in an increasingly connected environment. We look forward to continuing our close relationship with Broadband Forum and taking an active role in ensuring the requirements of service providers and equipment vendors are met”, Mr Chang said.

Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Allion Labs has branches across the globe, providing customized product testing and validation services for IT, IoT, automotive, and entertainment industries. They join Broadband Forum’s Wi-Fi testing initiative in response to demands from its customers, including original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well as world-leading service providers and consumer electronics companies across Asia, Europe, and America, for a way to effectively validate Wi-Fi performance.

Wireless certification expert Allion has actively participated in outlining the test proposals of BBF.398 and executing the trial runs. Allion will continue to provide BBF.398 consulting and assist worldwide developers to meet the performance standard.

For more information about Broadband Forum, please visit:  https://www.broadband-forum.org/.

To read more about the latest work on BBF.398, visit: https://www.broadband-forum.org/technical/download/TR-398_Issue-2.pdf

For more information about Allion Labs, please visit: https://www.allion.com/

To learn more about Allion’s BBF.398 services, visit https://www.allion.com/aiot/tr-398-test-service/

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About the Broadband Forum

Broadband Forum is the communications industry’s leading open standards development organization focused on accelerating broadband innovation, standards, and ecosystem development. Our members’ passion – delivering on the promise of broadband by enabling smarter and faster broadband networks and a thriving broadband ecosystem.

Broadband Forum is an open, non-profit industry organization composed of the industry’s leading broadband operators, vendors, thought leaders who are shaping the future of broadband, and observers who closely track our progress. Its work to date has been the foundation for broadband’s global proliferation and innovation. For example, the Forum’s flagship TR-069 CPE WAN Management Protocol has nearly 1 billion installations worldwide.

Broadband Forum’s projects span across 5G, Connected Home, Cloud, and Access. Its working groups collaborate to define best practices for global networks, enable new revenue-generating service and content delivery, establish technology migration strategies, and engineer critical device, service & development management tools in the home and business IP networking infrastructure. We develop multi-service broadband packet networking specifications addressing architecture, device and service management, software data models, interoperability and certification in the broadband market.

Our free technical reports and white papers can be found at https://www.broadband-forum.org/.

Follow us on Twitter @Broadband_Forum and LinkedIn.

For more information about the Broadband Forum, please go to https://www.broadband-forum.org or follow @Broadband_Forum on Twitter. For further information please contact Brian Dolby on +44 (0) 7899 914168 or brian.dolby@proactive-pr.com or Josh Wright on +44 (0)7795 615466 or josh.wright@proactive-pr.com.

About Allion Labs

Allion is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited test laboratory and Authorized Test Lab of more than thirty compliance standards, spanning from high-speed interfaces, audio and video certifications, to wireless technologies including BBF.398 (Approved by Broadband Forum in 2021), Wi-Fi (Approved by Wi-Fi Alliance in 2004), Thread (Approved by Thread Group in 2019), Wi-SUN (Approved by Wi-SUN Alliance in 2019) , Bluetooth (Approved by Bluetooth SIG in 2014), and LoRa (Approved by LoRa Alliance in 2018).

For more information on Allion’s certification services, please go to https://www.allion.com/logo-certification/.

Allion also works with tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and companies from rapidly-growing industries such as connected cars and the industrial internet of things.

For more information about Allion, please go to https://www.allion.com/ or contact Thomas Chang on +886 2 2655 7877 ext.1880, thomaschang@allion.com or service@allion.com.