The Customer
Xirrus, Inc. manufactures the high performance Wi-Fi Array – a fully distributed dense radio Wi-Fi architecture that is the most powerful Wi-Fi solution in the industry with enough capacity and performance to replace switched Ethernet to the desktop – ideal for offices, cubicles, conference rooms, auditoriums,campuses, warehouses, remote users, emergency response, and more. The Xirrus architecture delivers RF innovation and wireless performance on a per access point and system-wide basis, requiring fewer devices, switch ports, cabling, time, and effort to implement and maintain than traditional offerings.
“When we looked into LitePoint and tested their solutions out, they did what they said they would do, and the value proposition was less than half the cost of buying all the discrete parts… With the number of test systems we have now, we would have had to spend close to $2 million worth of discrete equipment. LitePoint solutions are just a fraction of that cost. From our point of view, for a startup company, LitePoint offers a great value proposition.”
– Steve Smith, Vice President, Hardware Engineering, Xirrus
The Need
Xirrus CEO Dirk Gates founded the company in 2004, three years after leading and selling Xircom, a mobility solutions provider, to Intel. An essential part to inventing the Wi-Fi Array was finding a wireless test solution that could match Xirrus’ product vision for testing, calibrating, and developing innovative Wi-Fi radios.
At the time, test equipment was primarily made up of discrete solutions – the spectrum analyzer, power meter, and other equipment. “We ran across LitePoint, that claimed to have an integrated solution that replaced all of those other pieces of equipment,” says Steve Smith, Vice President, Hardware Engineering, Xirrus. “When we looked into LitePoint and tested it out, it did what it said it would, and the value proposition was less than half the cost of buying all the discrete parts. From that point of view, it was a fairly easy decision.”
The Solution
At the time of its founding, Xirrus developed 802.11a/b/g in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Xirrus needed a solution that would cover both frequency bands, which LitePoint did. The next generation radios came out with 802.11n, which was three spatial streams, and LitePoint had a solution for testing that also. Xirrus bought the LitePoint solution for their engineering lab. In working with LitePoint, Xirrus figured out that the existing LitePoint products they were using for a/b/g could still be used in a manufacturing environment for calibration.
“With some minor upgrades to LitePoint software and other things, we were able to transition from doing just a/b/g radios to a/b/g/n radios and manufacturing at a pretty low cost. In manufacturing we have several custom designed calibration stations for calibrating and testing our Wi-Fi radios. We continue to expand manufacturing and are testing tens of thousands of radios per month. Going forward, I fully expect that LitePoint will support our deep product roadmap,” says Smith.
The Benefits
Fits the start up model – easy transition from development to manufacturing and only does what you need: “LitePoint had a product, LitePoint IQview, that was good in the engineering lab for doing development, and also had a product, LitePoint IQflex, that was good for the manufacturing environment. We could see the growth path once we got into production – we’d be able to use the same equipment in manufacturing as we were for engineering,” says Smith. “We liked the LitePoint solution best. It seemed to do a better job and was more the model we were looking at, providing just the things that we needed to accomplish.”
Lower cost of manufacturing and test – great value proposition for a start up company: In order to develop the technology they were working on, Xirrus was expecting to invest some “pretty serious capital” for a start up company. When they investigated options, the choices were to buy $150,000 worth of discrete equipment or a LitePoint solution at a fraction of the cost to get the same functionality. “With the number of test systems we have now, we would have had to spend close to $2 million worth of discrete equipment. The LitePoint equipment is a fraction of the cost. Just from that point of view, for a startup company, LitePoint is a great value proposition.”
Faster testing and product improvement due to ease of use and access to information: “The ease of use and the information that we get out of the LitePoint system allow us to very rapidly go through and test our radios and new designs and changes and see how good an effect we are making to the product. Are we improving it? Is it getting worse? We can check mask, EVM, power levels, and a lot of things that are a lot more tedious testing discretely.”
Easy for manufacturer to use – accurate, repeatable results: Xirrus has customized LitePoint software and has written the user interface to allow its manufacturer to easily use the LitePoint test system. “Our manufacturer basically drops the product in a box, hits the go button, it comes back, and says pass or fail. We use LitePoint for all of the measurements for calibration, measuring power mass, EVM – all of those types of things.” Xirrus maintains discrete solutions – spectrum analyzer, power meters, and other equipment – to back check results. “The accuracy in the LitePoint system is very good. We get repeatable results.”
