Sapphire Eyes

Sapphire System is based on fixed RF sensors called Sapphire Eyes consisting of 7 (6+1) powerful and directional (beam-steered) sector antennas which can monitor large wireless coverage areas, typically 4-7 APs. The Sapphire Eyes are typically unobtrusively mounted throughout the WLAN area. In addition to monitoring spectrum analysis (radio environment administration), the Sapphire Eyes are programmed to perform both passive and active testing of wireless WLAN, transmitting the test data wirelessly to the Sapphire Workstation management application. The Sapphire Eyes are self-contained in compact units, take power from Power over Ethernet (PoE) and, for security, their wireless communications are encrypted.

Sapphire Sonar

Sapphire Sonar is a surrogate quality of service (QoS) application, which provides the source of QoS-type traffic for the Sapphire Eye - Sapphire Sonar connection (active end-to-end measurements of data traffic through the LAN to and from end-user wireless devices). Sapphire Sonar applications are used to emulate the installation’s real application servers without distracting them from their primary duties or putting additional load on the network’s hardware. Together, the Sapphire Eyes and the Sapphire Sonar applications initiate uplink and downlink exercises, while measuring simulated voice calls, file transfers, and other live-session traffic. Sapphire Sonar server applications are located with the end-user application on the hardwire LAN, so that Sapphire System measures the health and performance of the entire network (helps healthcare organizations meet ISO 80001 standards) end-to-end, not just the function of the wireless segment.

Sapphire Workstation

Sapphire Workstation is an integrated DB2 database, measurement, user-interface and reporting tool for IT administrators. The Sapphire Workstation gathers the wireless activity transmitted by the “always-on” Sapphire Eye’s for real-time (proactive management enables action before end-users experience a problem) analysis and graphical display. The Sapphire Workstation also has protocols to allow IT administrators protected access from non-secure, remote locations (flexibility for 24/7 monitoring).

WQA testing

WQA is comprehensively measured through automated passive and active testing. Passive testing consists of standard, live, protocol and spectral capturing. During active testing, the Sapphire Eyes operate like typical QoS client devices. Typically, each Sapphire Eye is individually associated to an average of 6 APs in the network, depending on layout, and performs various test functions, including QoS communications through the entire network to a Sapphire Sonar server. The test scripts can be easily customized by IT support staff.

Key performance indicators (KPI)

The Sapphire System can be programmed to gather performance data from up to 200 KPIs of the network. KPIs can be categorized for review in the Sapphire Workstation server. Active testing KPIs include L1-L4 Access Success and Failures (18 tests), L2 - L7 Session Retainability (12 tests), Cell Handover Quality (6 tests), Application Quality (9 tests), Round Trip Time (4 tests), IP Traffic Behavior (6 tests), and Radio Signal Quality (9 tests). Passive testing consists of monitoring the live network traffic and identifying KPI’s from Access Point Availability (4 indicators), Access Point Radio Signal Quality (9 indicators), Access Point Security (4 indicators), AP and Client Traffic (19 indicators), and Spectrum Analysis (3 indicators).

KPI’s are converted to intuitive graphical reports and charts that display Radio Attach Success Rates, VOIP Test Success Rates, MOS Uplink and Downlink scores, AP Beacon Availability, Client Signal Levels and Client SNRs, amongst others.

Dashboard view

The Sapphire Workstation graphical reporting interface offers an intuitive dashboard-view with color-coding for quick recognition of “Normal”, “Warning” or “Trouble” events. Since the reporting engine is browser-based, remote administrators can login securely and view the network performance through an Internet connection using Sapphire Remote Viewer. The graphical reports can also be output in text, CSV, or PDF formats.

Sapphire Remote Viewer

Sapphire Remote Viewer is a (HTTP browser based) monitoring and reporting tool for displaying the graphical data presentations and analysis available at the Sapphire Workstation. Sapphire Remote Viewer allows access from a number of remote sites without the need for software installation. Communications are encrypted for security compliance.