Asa Atallah (CEO) and Cecil Taylor (VP of Sales and Product Management)

WiMax.com: Please tell us how Mobile Metrics came to be founded and where it is today?

Asa:  I've always been a big believer in using great tools, and back in 2003 it became pretty clear that the tools available in the wireless data space, just weren't designed to do the kinds of the things we needed them to do.  I also noticed that the companies that were producing them weren't specialized in wireless data, or wireless technologies for that matter, and didn't seem very responsive to our needs - so I set out to try to change that.

Today, we're very fortunate to be working very closely with some of the world's best known wireless companies to help them achieve their testing objectives. It's something that I'm both honored and humbled by, as it really was my main goal for the company, and continues to be.

WiMax.com: What are your testing systems designed to do and how does that work in practice?

Asa:  Generally, our systems are designed to simulate an end-to-end network with hundreds of thousands of mobile subscribers with one of the elements being the system under test.   For example, in our first WiMAX offering, the primary focus was ASN gateway testing, so we simulated the mobiles and base stations on one end and the CSN and internet on the other.

One of the key themes across the Torrent product line is realism, so our mobiles have real TCP/IP stacks in them and our protocol implementations (e.g. HTTP, SMTP, POP3, DNS, etc.) have been interoperability tested with commercial and open source servers.  In practice though, most folks use our own NTS application server because it's more convenient than configuring and starting numerous application servers by hand.

The other key theme is flexibility, so we've designed the system to allow users to create both very simple test scenarios and also very sophisticated scenarios with relative ease.  For example, they can ask just a single mobile to perform a network entry sequence, or they can have thousands of mobiles performing HTTP operations, push-to-talk calls, and handovers in parallel.

In practice, as you would expect, the simpler scenarios are where most of the interest is at initially, but we know from experience that as a technology evolves, the more complex traffic profiles become increasingly important.

WiMax.com: Both of you have a deep background in cellular technologies. For example, Asa was an architect of the GGSN and SGSN systems. How much did that play a role in your early product lines --- also what role does GGSN and SGSN play in the WiMax universe as these are not terms we commonly see?

Cecil: Well, you first start with what you know. Our first product was a GGSN test system. But we saw WiMAX as a bigger opportunity. That cellular experience has been invaluable in WiMAX, of course, for many reasons. For example, we were in environments where specs were new and changing all the time. That experience guided us in how to become first-to-market in WiMAX in September 2006, even though the NWG specs weren't solidified. By the way, you may recall that we shared how to handle an uncertain specifications environment in our October 2006 webinar on WiMAX.com.

Also, the WiMAX specs for access and core networks build on concepts that were used in cellular. The back end of the network is not revolutionary, it's evolutionary. So the cellular background was helpful.

Of course, looking ahead to when these two technologies start to converge with evolutions like LTE / SAE, it will be useful to understand how both WiMAX and 3GPP specs work.

WiMax.com: There are a lot of testing firms out there that are very general; but your systems seem specifically targeted to the wireless industry. How can that be an advantage for carrier customers?

Cecil: We believe that specialization leads to better service for the customer, because we deeply understand wireless data technologies and can share that expertise through both our products and our interactions with the customer.

I'll give you just a simple example. When working with our lead WiMAX customer, we were able to provide insight into the specs as they were developing their product. There was actually a lot of give-and-take between the two companies, as we discussed different issues and holes in the specs and how to handle them. Our interpretations and input definitely helped this customer develop a better product, and they were very appreciative. This is an example of something that happens a lot around here, responding to customer needs in a way that a generalist company might not.

I just think there's a difference dealing with a specialist company. A generalist company might not know some of the things going in a wireless data arena, or might not have the passion for it that we do. Generalist tools companies tend to buy smaller tools companies, and you wonder if the original expertise is even there anymore. I feel that the passion really shines through in everything we do, from the way we build terrific products that emerge from our deep expertise, to the way we treat customers. At our booth at CTIA, people told us that's how they saw us, as a passionate, enthusiastic company.

WiMax.com: What specific platforms do your products support testing for?

Cecil: For WiMAX, we test all of the NWG-recognized nodes: ASN Gateway, CSN and Base Station. The Torrent 7100 WTS exercises traffic and conformance capabilities of ASN Gateways and CSNs on R6, R4 and R3. Our new Torrent 7200 WTS exercises R6 conformance of Base Stations, and also pushes Base Stations to the limit with thousands of simulated mobiles sending traffic over real or simulated R1 interfaces. You can also use the 7200 to test end-to-end WiMAX networks, since it comes in at the R1 interface. Other than R1 conformance and performance, which involves the radio layer and is not in our expertise, we feel that these two products cover nearly everything needed to completely test your WiMAX network.

We've also introduced a new product, the 4100 XTS, which tests WiFi and Mobile IP networks. You can imagine that this is useful groundwork for combined WiMAX and WiFi testing. Then, of course, there's the original, the Torrent 5100 GTS for GGSN testing.

WiMax.com: Mobile Metrics' theme is "First. Focused. Flexible." What do you mean by this?

Cecil: First indicates leadership. We were first to market with the Torrent 7100 for WiMAX access and core network testing in September 2006. But we have also demonstrated leadership along the way. I mentioned the webinar earlier. We basically shared information, even with our competition, that was useful to the community for developing specs. Right now, we're wrapping up an upgrade to Wireshark to enhance it for WiMAX tracing on R6, R4 and R3. A lot of companies will charge you money for doing something simple like tracing and protocol analysis. We feel that it's better to give to the whole community by providing tracing in easily accessible freeware.

Focus really speaks to our specialization in wireless data, which we talked about earlier. As for flexibility, the system is highly programmable and configurable, although you don't have to program it in order to use it.

People love how much they can do with the system, and it just got better with our patent-pending filtering layer. The filtering layer lets you capture and modify messages entering and exiting any of our simulation nodes. So you can create your own sequences, create additional tracing filtering, capture and replay scenarios, inject errors, and so forth. It's the heart of our built-in conformance testcases coming out soon. You can see where it would be a tremendous advantage to a test department to be able to really stress a system under test with the filtering layer.   Another area of flexibility is with respect to hardware. Since the Torrent system runs on commercial PCs, customers can easily trial it and deploy it and ride the technology curve for best performance.

WiMax.com: The NWG specifications have finally reached a complete 1.0 status. Yet, Mobile Metrics was implementing the specifications before they were finalized. How could that work?

Asa:  That's actually the question we get asked most often.  We knew that although there were a number of holes and inconsistencies in the specifications and that leading companies would be out there trying to develop WiMAX products anyway and we wanted to try to be there to help.

Fortunately for us, we were able to do just that and working with these companies we were able to agree on how to handle the gray areas and the inconsistent areas until the specs settled down.  In some cases, we even worked through our customers to influence the specs; for example, to streamline the WiMAX transport protocol.

WiMax.com: With no certified Mobile WiMAX gear yet in the field what are carriers with that preferred approach to their networks doing now to deploy and test? Are they using pre-certified systems---and if so, how do you expect certification to impact performance for these networks?

Cecil: Yes, we're working with vendors who are going forward with Profile A or Profile C ASNs, which have open interfaces and will be the choice in the long run. For some companies, the first approach in the ASN is to develop what's called a Profile B ASN that has a closed R6 interface between the Base Station and the ASN Gateway. While there'll probably always be settings for Profile B ASNs, like remote areas or single-vendor settings, the trend will be toward interoperability, and that's where certification comes in. Certification will provide a way to assure interoperability of equipment. Frankly, I think certification is more important in the device arena. Most network vendors are going to adhere to the standards and work out tricky details during interoperability testing.

WiMax.com: What is your vision of how WiMAX will be used, as opposed to cellular?

Cecil: I think it's pretty clear that broadband data traffic will be very important to WiMAX. Cellular will primarily remain voice with data added on, while WiMAX will primarily be data with voice added on. We expect a lot of different WiMAX form factors to emerge, a lot of creativity on how to use this medium. Businesses will find new ways to use it once it's there. I remember when PCs first started getting more and more memory. Developers first were wondering, how are we going to use all that memory? Then their eyes lit up, and they began to define more sophisticated applications with higher performance demands. I think WiMAX will be like that. Some applications are obvious, others are harder to see, but once developers realize how the boundaries have moved, you'll see more creativity.

WiMax.com: Please tell us your vision for the future of your company over the next five years?

Asa:  It will be great if over the next five years we can continue to grow, innovate, and hopefully lead in the wireless data test field. I anticipate that packetized voice and streaming video will grow in importance in the wireless domain during that time, so I'd like for us to expand on the testing capabilities we currently have in that area.  Ultimately though, our focus on wireless data will remain the same, as will our goal of helping our customers achieve their testing objectives with greater ease and efficiency.

_{Picture of Mobile Metrics Booth and Staff at this years (2007) CTIA}