octoScope announced that it now supports Wi-Fi 6E in its Pal-6E™ instrument.

A massive portion of new spectrum is made available by regulators around the world for Wi-Fi and other unlicensed uses. A total of 1,200 MHz in the new 6 GHz band increases the number of 80 MHz channels available for Wi-Fi from six to 20, resulting in a 233 percent increase. The Wi-Fi Alliance identifies devices supporting the 6 GHz band as Wi-Fi 6E certified.

The industry is moving aggressively forward with products that support Wi-Fi 6E. Consumer routers, phones, enterprise access points are expected to support this new band shortly. Wi-Fi 6E will complement 5G wireless service and unleash a wave of innovation for the IoT.

A new generation of Wi-Fi test equipment is required to verify the operation and performance of devices supporting Wi-Fi 6E. 

To create Pal-6E, octoScope added a 6 GHz capable radio to its existing Pal-6 instrument. With the addition of this radio, the Pal-6E now supports all Wi-Fi standards, 802.11b/g/a/n/ac/ax.  

Based on one of the most advanced Wi-Fi chipsets, octoScope’s Pal-6E functions as a traffic partner, sniffer, virtual station emulator and a load generator for testing throughput, capacity, roaming, band steering and more. Pal-6E can be built into octoBox® chambers or used stand-alone. 

“We are excited to announce support for Wi-Fi 6E. Wi-Fi 6 already allows devices to operate much faster and with lower latency. Wi-Fi 6E now extends these benefits to the new 6 GHz band enabling a new wave of innovative devices and services,” said Fanny Mlinarsky, president of octoScope.

About the octoBox personal wireless testbed

Stackable and configurable octoBox personal testbeds are completely isolated from external interference and can be used at an engineer’s office or lab bench. 

Each octoBox testbed is controlled by a dedicated Node.js web server accessible via a browser UI for manual control, or via REST API for test automation. The server provides the time base for the testbed and controls the built-in instruments, DUT configuration, traffic and test flow. Test results are saved in a MongoDB database, enabling multiple teams to easily collaborate by sharing the test automation scripts and test results.