Actiontec Optim Advanced Analytics: Proactive home networks management for providers

Actiontec Electronics has expanded its award-winning Optim Managed Service Assurance Platform, launching a suite of analytics tools and services that enable service providers to optimize their customer’s home Wi-Fi networks and broadband experience.

Optim Advanced Analytics makes it easy and cost-effective for providers to proactively identify and resolve common problems in the home network including poor coverage, router configuration issues, and network congestion.

“Optim’s Advanced Analytics give service providers the ability to be proactive in managing their subscribers’ home networks and broadband experience. By the time a customer calls tech support, they’re already frustrated and have been struggling with poor Wi-Fi and a poor broadband experience for too long,” said Brian Henrichs, Chief Business Development Officer at Actiontec Electronics.

“With Optim Advanced Analytics, it’s easy for providers to proactively identify and resolve Wi-Fi problems to increase overall customer satisfaction. Optim also reduces operational costs with more efficient troubleshooting and management.”

The Advanced Analytics Suite provides remote visibility into service quality across a provider’s service area, enabling them to visualize trends and proactively identify issues.

This powerful, standards-based platform gathers data from all the core network elements and wireless access devices across a provider’s deployment, processing vast amounts of network-level data and presenting it in a flexible, intuitive interface and reports.

With Optim’s software and services, providers can remotely diagnose and resolve common issues in the home network that would have traditionally required a lengthy support call or visit to the customer home. For example:

• Wi-Fi coverage issues: Providers can automatically identify homes with Wi-Fi dead zones or coverage issues. Armed with this information, a provider can proactively recommend a solution, such as relocating the router or adding a network extender, to deliver fast and robust Wi-Fi everywhere in the home.
• Router configuration issues: Providers get remote visibility into the configuration settings of end devices in subscriber homes, in order to identify and remedy configuration issues that may be impacting network performance. For example, providers can find 5 GHz capable devices that are connecting at the slower and more congested 2.4 GHz band.
• Channel interference and congestion issues: Providers can remotely identify issues with Wi-Fi channel interference and congestion that can degrade airtime efficiency and Wi-Fi performance.
• Interference from neighboring networks: Providers can remotely identify those households that are experiencing possible interference from a nearby Wi-Fi network and recommend that the subscriber changes the Wi-Fi channel for better performance.

Optim is currently used to optimize Wi-Fi performance in more than five million households. The hardware agnostic platform is currently running on a variety of Wi-Fi routers and gateways and works with any of the leading Wi-Fi radio chipsets including Broadcom, Quantenna, and Mediatek.

This gives providers a single standards-based platform to optimize Wi-Fi performance across their territory even with a mix of CPE devices and vendors in subscriber homes. Optim is a fully virtualized solution that can be hosted by Actiontec or the service provider.