What started as a simple wireless network analysis engine is incorporating ever more features as networks grow and customers demand more from applications.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [February 22, 2007]

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based WildPackets is the type of security company making the news, offering a product that can help every aspect of your network. WildPackets' version of Universal Threat Management (UTM) is called OmniAnalysis.

The product is known to ISPs (and especially WISPs) because the company specialized early on in securing wireless networks. Now, like many other companies, it specializes in protecting any network, not just wireless networks.

WildPackets just released version 4.1 of OmniAnalysis, so we're talking to John Bennett, the company's vice president of marketing, to learn more about it.

The network must be measured
"Everything's going on the network," he says.

ISPs need to be able to deliver what their customers want. "ISPs need to be able to deliver IM, video, SAP, and of course e-mail remains important. Now, many are adding VoIP, and they're concerned not just about how other applications are affecting VoIP but also how VoIP is affecting those other applications."

OmniAnalysis incorporates VoIP performance analysis technology from Duluth, Ga.-based Telchemy.

The product has been connected to a database to provide a new feature the company calls the OmniReport Service. The service is using new metrics to report on the extent to which applications are able to function on the network. Data such as Mean Opinion Score for applications in general and R-Factor for VoIP specifically help service providers find network bottlenecks.

But WildPackets has not abandoned the wireless world, and many new features focus on troubleshooting wireless networks.

The wide wireless world
A laptop-based OmniAnalysis product, OmniSpectrum, Bennett says, can identify almost any source of interference. It uses interference profiles to identify objects not connected to any IP network, such as microwave ovens. It can also scan packets. "In many cases, we can identify the device, say an AT&T cordless phone."

The product can read 802.11n, and is compatible with Intel's latest 3945 Centrino chipset, which operates in 802.11a/b/g.

Integrators, he says, often start with a site survey but end up troubleshooting a customer's network. "One customer is doing satellite telemetry, tracking cargo ships. They have a port management application. When there's a problem, what they have to do is go in and troubleshoot their customer's wireless network. If I'm responsible for a specific application, but it has to run on a customer's network, I have to be able to see if that network is set up correctly."

Another feature of OmniSpectrum is that when it detects a source of interference it can beep like a Geiger counter to show you how far away the object is. "You can walk around and home in on a device that's causing interference," says Bennett.

Customers love this feature, he says. "There's a hospital network—I love this story—and suddenly, it wasn't working. People were getting knocked off the network, but nobody had changed anything. Somebody came in with OmniSpectrum and found that the security department had hidden tiny wireless cameras around the hospital pharmacy because they were concerned about theft, and these tiny wireless cameras were knocking out APs. They hadn't told anyone. The IT department didn't know, and without our product, would never have figured it out."

Pricing and availability
OmniAnalysis 4.1 is available now. It is a free upgrade for existing subscribers.

Pricing for new customers starts at $995 for a starter configuration of the OmniPeek analyzer. Service Providers will use the enterprise level products, which start at $4,995 for the engine, and either $6,995 for OmniPeek Enterprise or $8,995 for OmniPeek Enterprise with the enhanced voice option.

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