Touring the UNH Interoperability Lab

What do telecom geeks in the Northeast do in the bitterest part of winter? Mostly, hunker down and think deep thoughts about telecom, of course. But in late February, FierceTelecom editors Sean Buckley and Sam Bookman took time out from shoveling snow and flattening out their rrr's to visit the University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab (UNH-IOL).

The UNH-IOL is a neutral, third party laboratory that tests networking and data communication products. Opened in 1988, the lab is perhaps best known for hosting Plugfests, week-long group test events where participants can collectively test their equipment to make sure it functions to a specific standard--or more simply, to make sure various communication components can actually communicate. Results of the Plugfests are collected and submitted as anonymous statistics to the Broadband Forum.

More information about the UNH-IOL can be found at http://www.iol.unh.edu/. A video interview with Jason Walls, UNH-IOL Senior Technologist, can be found here.

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