The expansion of the broadband infrastructure in Germany is a declared objective of the German government (e.g. campaign “Zukunftsoffensive Gigabit-Deutschland”), whereby a basic distinction is made between fixed line access (mainly xDSL variants, cable network connections and fiber optic connections) and wireless network connections (mobile radio, WiFi and satellite).

The new technological and market-relevant trends towards industry 4.0, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication or V2X (Car2Car) communication are made possible by the expansion of communication infrastructures, whereby wireless communication systems such as smartphones, notebooks, tablets or wearables are already widespread today.

The Annual Report 2016/17 on "Breitbandmessung" of the Bundesnetzagentur (national regulatory agency in Germany) provides an initial overview of the nationwide measurements of broadband connections. Valid measurements were mainly carried out on wired network connections.

However, the study showed in detail that quality measurements of broadband connections via WiFi end devices cannot be included in a valid analysis today, since the transmission characteristics of the wireless network can influence the measurement on the broadband connection.

This problem increases with higher transmission data rates at broadband connections. Investments in broadband infrastructure with higher transmission rates and fast WiFi hotspot installations and, in parallel, the increasing use of mobile devices in Germany will intensify the problem of broadband line measurements. This will make it more and more difficult to verify the promised properties of broadband accesses.

The international trend report "Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2016-2021" expects WiFi offload traffic in mobile networks worldwide to rise from 10.7 exabyte/month today to 83.6 exabyte/month in 2016-2021.

The share of WiFi traffic compared to cellular mobile traffic is rising from 60% to 63%. The number of WiFi hotspots worldwide is rising from 94 million to 541.6 million. Finally, several German service providers have announced the expansion of their WiFi network infrastructure.

Recent studies have shown that measurements of broadband connections with WiFi end devices cannot be carried out reliably and validly. The goal of wiam.tools is the development of a measurement system with two product characteristics, which addresses this limitation to wired measurement methods.

Possible impacts of the WiFi connection are to be recognized, analyzed and evaluated. For this purpose, a detailed quality analysis is performed based on performance parameters of the WiFi access network used, which in turn allow conclusions to be drawn about possible interference influences of the network.

For quality measurements in broadband networks and on NGN accesses, zafaco's kyago product provides a powerful platform for continuous monitoring of broadband connections.

The product portfolio also includes QoEPDN (Quality-of-Experience Plug Device for NGN), a distributed QoS measurement system based on Linux embedded IoT devices that can be used specifically by end customers for benchmarking campaigns on their broadband connections and infrastructure.

In the area of crowdsourced benchmarking, zafaco also provides apps (Android/iOS) and web applications such as “Breitbandmessung” from Bundesnetzagentur (national regulatory agency in Germany).

wiam.tools helps to connect this measurement system wirelessly, taking into account the WiFi performance quality.

On the one hand, wiam.tools is to be used to perform crowdsourced measurements for the validation of ad-hoc quality measurements on broadband connections using apps by end users.

On the other hand, measurements with a fully controlled and distributed QoS measurement system will be used as a supplement based on embedded IoT measurement systems.

The wiam.tools measurement system for mobile devices should work on usual mobile devices (smartphone, tablet and notebook) in order to be easy to install and thus have a low hurdle for mass application by private users according to the crowdsourcing approach.

For reasons of acceptance and security requirements, no "rooted" WiFi end systems may be assumed.

In the context of a distributed and fully controlled QoS measurement system, wiam.tools validates the measurement results for automated quality measurements using embedded IoT sensors connected via WiFi. Here, established hardware components with OS and software architecture adapted to wiam.tools are used, which allow the recording of performance parameters at kernel / driver level.

Both measuring systems use a backend system with a common database to evaluate the measurement results. For the continuous improvement of the central database, the two product characteristics complement each other regarding the quality and quantity of the collected data, which they transfer back to the backend system. For this purpose, KPIs are evaluated with the aid of big data analysis methods in order to continuously optimize the reference matrix.

Validation of QoS measurements from WiFi end devices (smartphone, tablet, notebook and embedded IoT measurement sensors) within the scope of quality monitoring of promised properties according to German “TK-Transparenzverordnung” - Telecommunications Transparency Ordinance (minimum, normally available and maximum data transmission rate for download and upload) for stationary broadband connections.

Validation of QoS measurements by WiFi terminals (smartphone, tablet, notebook and embedded IoT measurement sensors) as part of quality monitoring of WiFi hotspot installations in the process of the nationwide expansion of broadband networks.