Wirepas

CUSTOMER CASE

How Wirepas solved the challenge of scalable low-power validation in IoT mesh development with Otii

In a world rapidly moving toward ubiquitous connectivity, Wirepas, a software company based in Tampere, Finland, focuses on solving one of the most challenging problems in the Internet of Things: connecting thousands, and sometimes millions, of devices in a single network without costly infrastructure. But that doesn’t come without a challenge. Pioneering a decentralized mesh wireless communication protocol that enables devices in the network to act as routers without relying on centralized infrastructure, while maintaining ultra-low power consumption and robust connectivity performance, is not for the faint-hearted. The low-power aspect must be addressed not only across a wide range of mesh network conditions, but also across multiple platforms and hardware configurations that their customers are building for digitalizing cities and buildings, industrial monitoring, asset tracking, and smart metering.

What makes Wirepas succeed in overcoming this challenge? Low-power mindset and Otii Product Suite.

Power efficiency as a base for reliable and scalable mesh network design

Wirepas required a scalable method to accurately profile the power consumption of its software-only mesh stack during early development. This capability is crucial for achieving design targets for ultra-low-power operation and maintaining high network reliability. For Wirepas, power efficiency is not just a performance metric — it’s a hygiene factor, fundamental to delivering scalability and reliability to its customers.

The engineering team faced several challenges: maintaining ultra-low-power performance across ongoing software releases, validating power profiles under real mesh traffic conditions, and doing so at scale across multiple MCU platforms and hardware reference designs. While previous validation methods combined various measurement tools and manual setups effectively, they were slow, fragmented, and difficult to scale as the team’s rapid development pace accelerated.

Automating power efficiency validation

To standardize and scale their power validation processes, Wirepas turned to Otii Product Suite, quickly executing a complete automated strategy using Otii instruments (Otii Ace Pro and Otii Arc Pro) for precise energy consumption measurements and Otii Automation Toolbox to enable the Otii TCP server for Jenkins CI integration, Python scripting capabilities, and data analysis.

Ultra-resilient mesh networks that scale infinitely.

Founded: 2010

HQ: Tampere, Finland

Main markets: Europe, the US, India, Australia

Number of employees: ~100

Wirepas' setup of Otiis for automated firmware validation

“Maintaining a balance between quality, low-power consumption, and development efficiency is essential. A unified measurement solution ensures consistency between development and test automation, enabling comparable results and more effective debugging during troubleshooting.”

— Kari Pihl, Head of Software Releases at Wirepas.

By integrating Otii in their workflow, Wirepas engineers created a fully automated power testbed.

Here’s how it works for their firmware validation:

Devices forming a live mesh network (routers and non-routers) are connected to Otii instruments.
The Otii TCP Server, enabled through the Otii Automation Toolbox, is integrated with Wirepas’ Jenkins test automated server.
When a new firmware build is pushed, Jenkins automatically triggers the Otii Automation Toolbox, which starts current consumption tests while simulating real data traffic within the mesh network.
Each test runs for 12 to 24 hours, during which Otii collects detailed power consumption logs across multiple hardware platforms.
After the run, logs are automatically analyzed, and results are compared against predefined current thresholds.
The system generates a test report and flags any regressions associated with the test case, with pass/fail outcomes based on whether consumption stays within the expected limits.

This fully automated setup eliminates the need for manual intervention, reducing the risk of human error. Tests are run overnight, allowing the team to quickly detect any regressions by the following morning before proceeding with a new deployment. This ensures each release consistently meets the performance expectations set for customers and partners.

Scalable setup for automated power measurements with Otii at Wirepas

Otii Product Suite is also used during development, ensuring a standardized framework across the R&D team and enabling everyone to speak the same language. This standardization accelerates debugging and improves collaboration, both internally and with external stakeholders, by providing reliable, reproducible benchmarks for validating performance.

When low-power automation delivers real results

What the company demonstrates isn’t just a successful tooling adoption; it’s a blueprint for energy-aware software development at scale, enabling the creation of a wireless network of millions of battery-driven devices.

Otii power measurements in CI set up at Wirepas.

“The main result is that we now have one unified way to perform measurements and generate reports through test automation. The key is being able to compare results across devices after each mesh firmware update, so we can detect regressions or confirm current consumption optimizations against previous baselines.”

— Kari Pihl, Head of Software Releases at Wirepas.

In short, the result is a faster and more consistent validation process that strengthens their commitment to ultra-low power, enabling them to deliver with confidence, backed by real data rather than assumptions. Key outcomes:

Power measurements and reporting are now fully automated and unified under a single tool.
Results are consistent and comparable across firmware updates, enabling fast detection of regressions or verification of optimizations.
Daily regression tests have replaced manual measurements, saving significant time and increasing development efficiency, eliminating over 12 hours of validation work each day.
Faster response to anomalies thanks to automated reporting and historical baselines.
Otii’s affordability and dedicated expert support have made it easy to scale validation without added complexity.
The automated process reinforces Wirepas’ commitment to ultra-low power IoT connectivity, providing partners and customers with confidence in system performance. It has also influenced several customers to adopt Otii for conducting in-depth power consumption validation across their own hardware in real-world conditions.

Get started with Otii

As Wirepas’ Mom says, “We challenge, we innovate, and we get shit done. If you want to save the world from bad IoT, you should join our club.”

Well, if you want to save your business from battery life surprises and costly maintenance calls, you’d better start measuring every damn day, just like Wirepas does. Because brilliant engineers don’t just optimize, they automate, validate, and ship products they can stand behind.

Explore the Otii Product Suite or get in touch to start building very, very good IoT devices.

“We challenge, we innovate, and we get shit done. If you want to save the world from bad IoT, you should join our club.”

— Wirepas’ Mom