Editor’s Note: The ability to test network and device features and functions is an important piece of technology development and deployment. RCR Wireless News looks weekly at the test and measurement space to see what’s afoot.
—Test and measurement company Ixia has named a new president and CEO: Bethany Mayer, who comes to the company from HP, where she was deeply involved in HP’s SDN and NFV initiatives.
Mayer has more than 25 years of tech experience and held several executive positions at HP, most recently serving as its senior vice president and general manager of HP’s NFV business; she has previously led HP’s networking business unit, and also spent time as its VP of marketing and alliances for its enterprise servers storage and networking group. She held marketing leadership positions at Blue Coat Systems, Cisco Systems and Apple Computer. Mayer has a Bachelor of Science degree from Santa Clara University and an Master of Business Administration degree from California State University, Monterey Bay.
Errol Ginsberg, Ixia’s chairman and acting CEO, said that Mayer “possesses a deep knowledge of the network equipment and security markets” that will be instrumental to the company’s path forward.
“Virtualization is playing a key role in the transformation of service provider and enterprise networks around the world. Therefore, it was paramount for Ixia to find a candidate intimately involved with these new networking technologies, and we believe Bethany is the ideal executive to build upon Ixia’s industry leading foundation,” Ginsberg said.<p>
The selection of a new CEO continues Ixia’s recovery after discovering financial errors in the wake of the resignation of its former CEO, who had falsified some credentials. No deliberate financial errors were found, but the company’s CFO also ended up resigning due to flawed processes that led to the company needing to re-state several quarters of earnings.
—A new report from the test and measurement practice at Frost & Sullivan says that open industry standard, modular PXI is changing the test industry. OEMs across industries, wireless in particular, are utilizing PCI extensions for PIX-based instruments due to the technology’s fast measurement speeds, lower power consumption, flexibility and small footprint, Frost & Sullivan said.
The PXI market earned $563.3 million last year and is expected to reach $1.75 billion by 2020, Frost projected. However, the company also noted that engineers’ trust and familiarity with traditional test instruments hampers adoption.
“Besides the uptake in RF wireless communications, the global PXI market will get a leg up from new programs in aerospace and defense and integration of wireless technologies in the industrial and consumer electronics industries,” said Jessy Cavazos, director for Frost & Sullivan’s test and measurement industry practice. “Additionally, it is finding opportunities in the semiconductor automatic test equipment market.”
Cavazos also said that the complications involved in integrating PXI test systems can be a challenge, and vendors are offering integration services and tools in order to mitigate that issue.
—Test lab SGS has chosen Spirent Communications‘ 8100 Location Technology Solution for additional capabilities in AGPS over-the-air (OTA) testing. It’s Spirent’s second AGPS OTA win with SGS and follows on Spirent’s recent announcement that it is adding more location-based testing capabilities for e911 Voice over LTE calls to the 8100. The AGPS OTA testing is performed in an anechoic chamber.
“We consider OTA test methodology to be essential in device performance evaluation, and have placed a priority on providing support to wireless carriers as they evolve their requirements to include AGPS OTA tests,” said Michael Spitzer, who is global wireless manager at SGS.
“When you consider the many features being built into next-gen mobile devices and the complexities of deploying new radio access technologies such as LTE, you can quickly appreciate the many challenges that confront wireless carriers,” said Guy Merritt, VP of wireless products at Spirent. He said that working with SGS is a “strategic move” for Spirent to support wireless carriers and help them understand and adopt test methodologies such as AGPS OTA.
—Ruggedized device provider Sonim said this week that its devices were selected by the U.S. Army for testing to provide LTE smartphone cababilities to combat trainers at the National Training Center and the Joint Readiness Training Center.
