The Client :
Our client is a world leader in silicon innovation and develops new technologies and products. It is the world's largest chipmaker and is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications protocol.

The Challenge :
Our Client's Wireless LAN solution connects wireless clients (laptops,desktops) with wireless router for an 801.11 a/b/g kind of wireless network . The software application configures the wireless network card for small & enterprise level wireless networks.
The following are the key features of the Software application:

• Enables configuring client station to WLAN
• Indirectly tests network card with Hardware
• Supports different third party authentication and encryption methods from Cisco ACS, Microsoft IAS etc.
• Has an intuitive user interface where, at a glance, the user is provided an overview of the client software such as, all available networks, corresponding signal strength, network type, network name and security status
• Different versions of software are available for different sets of hardware
• Coupled with strong profile management for storing different authentication and encryption properties for network
• Supports 802.11 a/b/g

This application was expected to run on a large number of hardware platforms across small and enterprise level wireless networks. Also a number of new features were added to the application, which were to be tested.
Since the frequency of new feature addition was large through short software build cycles and functionality validation was to be done on a large Test Platform Matrix (TPM), testing process was to be accelerated to meet shorter turnaround timeframes. ennovate proposed an Automated Software Testing approach in a housed hardware setup to meet the above requirements.

The Solution:
ennovate was actively involved in the complete testing cycle right from studying the scope of the release to approval of release candidate.

Following are the highlights of our project execution:

• Setup of a hardware lab for different platforms, previously released platforms and next generation hardware. This included setup of access points (Cisco, Netgear, Linksys)
• Setup of a software lab for different authentication server and a separate network for testing. Authentication server setup included setting up different authentication and encryption methods like EAP-FAST, MD5, PEAP, LEAP, TLS, TTLS, CKIP, TKIP
• Cisco ACS Server
• Microsoft IAS Server
• Testing set of authentication methods for 802.1x
• Functionality testing for the different features such as: GUI Testing, Profile management, Administrator network setting, WMI compatibility, configuration wizard, Help, Installer testing, OEM customization
• Regression testing for different internal versions of the software and hardware (Engineering Samples, Quality Samples)
• Platform testing for different sets of compatible hardware : different OS ( windows 2K, xp, 2003, vista) different Network cards for backward compatibility

Automated testing:

Since the client application had a number of new features added through short software build cycles, manual testing proved to be inefficient considering a large TPM.
ennovate deployed Automation Testing generated from Framwork to Scripting so as to get maximum coverage in Beta stage with every regression cycle.


The Automated tests performed included:

• Sanity Testing
• Functional Testing
• Automating Regression test suites (execution and maintenance)
• API testing

The Technology:

• Automation using Silk Test, PERL, VB Scripts
• Configuration of wireless Networks for EAP-FAST, MD5, PEAP, LEAP, TLS, TTLS, CKIP, TKIP using CISCO ACS, Microsoft IAS

The Benefits:
ennovate's Automated Testing approach ensured that the Wirless LAN application could be tested for all the new features added on a large TPM in record time. This facilitated a timely and successful product release for the Client.