AirTies enhances its cloud management platform with new “Wi-Fi Experience Index” ratings scale
AirTies, the most widely deployed supplier of managed in-home Wi-Fi solutions to service providers globally, unveiled its enhanced cloud management platform with a powerful new “Wi-Fi Experience Index” ratings scale and new capabilities to help operators better serve their customers.
“Today’s service providers want reliable, quantifiable data about their subscribers’ home Wi-Fi experience, but also need an effective way to interpret and act upon that information, and that’s what we’ve delivered today with AirTies Cloud,” said Philippe Alcaras, CEO of AirTies.
“Our new ‘Wi-Fi Experience Index’ provides actionable insights into customers’ network conditions, while providing common and simple metrics used by customer care, engineering, marketing and even consumers themselves.”
Alcaras continued, “Our new enhancements are a direct result of AirTies’ ongoing software development achievements and the acquisition of Technicolor’s In-Home Wi-Fi Management software business and personnel earlier this year. As today’s announcement demonstrates, we’re fully committed to delivering value-added Wi-Fi solutions to help service providers innovate and differentiate.”
AirTies Cloud is a flexible management platform that continuously optimizes the network and gives service providers real-time visibility into their subscribers’ Wi-Fi performance, allowing remote diagnostics and troubleshooting.
It also provides deeper insights and analysis on connected devices and data consumption patterns within the home, along with proactive recommendations. These principle applications benefit customer care, network operations and installation teams, as well as the decision making of business strategy or customer marketing departments.
Key features and functionality
Wi-Fi Experience Index: Based on years of refinements, this patented approach gives service providers a powerful and precise way to interpret the overall Wi-Fi performance across the service provider’s entire installed base and for individual households.
On a scale from 0-100, based on analysis of a variety of dynamic factors, it allows operators to understand the relative severity of certain issues, predict risks, and implement appropriate solutions.
Data-driven channel planning: Provides dynamic optimization of Wi-Fi through continuous assessment of network conditions. Central to AirTies’ hybrid cloud-edge architecture, this approach combines historical cloud data with off-channel scanning from the real-time local environment in the home.
It includes evaluation of far-end interference data from hidden sources (e.g. non-managed Wi-Fi access points) to proactively select the optimal channels, minimizing interference from neighbouring networks and other sources.
Continuous Wi-Fi speed tests and capacity forecasting: Allows accurate measurements of Wi-Fi link speeds, without having to run intrusive speed tests or load speed test software on CPEs and user devices. These measurements can be used for reporting and anticipating impact of new service deployments.
For example, if a customer subscribes to a new 4K video service, or a faster broadband plan, the system can predict the demands this will make on the home network, enabling operators to take suitable measures in advance, such as including additional Wi-Fi extenders as part of an upgrade.
Prioritization for video/gaming: With simple activation through the AirTies Vision companion app, STBs, game consoles, or other devices can be identified for preferential Wi-Fi handling to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience.
It is accomplished through AirTies’ hybrid cloud-edge architecture embedded in CPE and cloud-based analytics. This capability is particularly useful for applications with low latency tolerance, such as UHD video and live multi-player gaming.
Enhanced privacy and data masking: Builds upon a GDPR-compliant solution designed to protect end-user’s privacy with advanced encryption and anonymization of key data, designed to meet the stringent requirements of today’s service providers.
Other core features of the AirTies Cloud
Wi-Fi visibility and KPI tracking to understand how broadband services are being used in customer homes
- Performance analysis and dashboard reporting on Wi-Fi access points and connected devices (i.e. laptops, IoT/smart home devices, phones, tablets, game consoles, etc.) across entire installed base, or filtered by gateway model
- Proactive identification of customers in need of additional extenders, broadband speed upgrades, or device upgrades based on actual home conditions
- Analysis of connected device profiles and capabilities
Wi-Fi performance optimization
- Wi-Fi load balancing through device management and frequency planning
- Interference prediction and channel optimization
Pin-pointing end-user issues to facilitate customer care
- Remote diagnostics and troubleshooting of Wi-Fi issues in a subscriber’s home without requiring technician call-out
- Proactive alarm detection to allow problem resolution before it affects the customer base
- Support for zero-touch installation through extender pre-provisioning
Integration with operator’s customer support tools and management systems through APIs
- Dashboard data for KPI tracking and management view
- Real-time customer care visibility for operator’s first level technical support
With AirTies Cloud, there is no need to download any client-side software on subscribers’ personal devices. AirTies’ unique hybrid cloud-edge architecture leverages both the embedded intelligence in CPE and cloud-based analytics to maximize responsiveness, scalability and performance.