New Hampshire-based QA Cafe, a provider of network test and analysis tools, has released an automated tester to improve feature and protocol interoperability of IoT and smart home products.

Called Passport, it should ensure that IoT devices operate as intended before they are deployed.

“Interoperability, connectivity and stability are critical to our smart home products,” said Hans Liu, managing director of D-Link’s IoT strategic business unit. “The ability to test with full automation saves our product teams significant time and money while improving our brand reputation and guaranteeing a high-quality experience for customers of our smart-home solutions.”

Though the number of smart home devices is projected to grow, issues with interoperability and security have slowed consumer adoption of IoT products. Testing basic network functionality is often an oversight but can save companies significant money by reducing support costs and improving the overall end-user experience.

The Passport IoT tester emulates a real home network, enabling repeatable, reliable testing with clear pass and fail results and test coverage for IPv4, IPv6 and wifi devices. Smart home products that use Zigbee, Zwave or Bluetooth can also be tested with Passport through a smart hub, and all devices under test can connect to the cloud services they need while still being tested through Passport.

“Testing IoT and smart home technologies can be difficult and time-consuming,” said Timothy Winters, chief technology officer at QA Cafe. “Current IoT testing is often done manually, which leads to difficulty in reproducing issues in the short amount of time needed for today’s development cycle. That drove us to create Passport. Now, developers can focus on the features and applications that differentiate their products, creating a more successful smart home industry overall.”

QA Cafe is a software company and provider of network testing and analysis tools for broadband access, home networks, consumer electronics and enterprise IT.