Wireless LAN Design Tools

OPNET Technologies, Inc. (OPNET) and its subcontractor Wireless Valley, Inc. provide products that possess strong off-the-shelf capabilities for WLAN network simulation and propagation modeling, respectively. During Phase I of this SBIR program, two key objectives were realized: (i) the development of an automatic design capability to optimize placement of access points (APs) for a given WLAN deployment site plan; and (ii) development of an import and export capability to exchange data between OPNET and Wireless Valley products to demonstrate interoperability, product-line integration, and seamless workflow. In Phase II, the working prototype delivered in Phase I will be developed into a complete solution for WLAN design with a rich set of input parameters, optimization algorithms, propagation modeling, and network simulation capabilities. The design input data will include site plans, user density, usage profiles describing applications, service level information such acceptable response time and throughput, cost constraints, and security requirements. Optimization algorithms will be researched and developed to account for throughput requirements, network security, redundancy, and survivability. Propagation and network performance modeling will be provided by means of multi-path ray tracing algorithms and detailed discrete event simulations. In addition, the two disparate product lines from OPNET and Wireless Valley will be fully integrated to provide a WLAN design tool with a seamless workflow and a simple to use graphical user interface.