The University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory, a facility receiving increasing acclaim from service providers and major vendors for its role in testing and certifying various kinds of broadband equipment for commercial interoperability, hosted a major testing event last week designed to help encourage the deployment of applications in multi-technology, bridged-network enterprises.

The tests involved dozens of vendors and focused on applications that included wireline voice over IP (VoIP), wireless VoIP, roaming between 802.11 networks, multi-network bridging and security, and other Ethernet applications, according to Gerard Goubert, one of the engineers leading the test event for UNH-IOL. Among the largest companies scheduled to attend were Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, IBM, HP and Motorola, but several smaller Wi-Fi and testing companies also joined in, including Azimuth Systems, Veriwave, Proxim and Aruba Wireless Networks.

In each of the technology test areas, companies focusing on wireless, VoIP and network-bridging technologies tested various protocols and standards interoperability independently from each other. Then, each of the technology areas on the UNH-IOL test floor were connected together to build larger network topologies. In addition to conducting continued protocol and interoperability testing, this is where the firewalls, routing, wide area network emulation and voice quality testing across the network took place, Goubert said.

Goubert said the goal of the second phase was to create four distinct networks running all of the interoperability scenarios attempted during the earlier phase. The second phase of the test event was due to end late Friday, and results were not available at press time.

UNH-IOL also has conducted DSL standards tests, IPv6 testing with carriers such as MCI and, just last month, expanded its wireless local area network testing capabilities. The 17-year-old agency is based in Durham, N.H.