Network testing vendors are going all out this week, with a series of announcements focused on several of the hot network topics of the moment — voice over LTE — as well as new approaches to testing encompassing both device-to-device and applications.
Spirent Communications launched a major new testing framework called Elevate, an open test architecture with initial test offerings focused on VoLTE and Rich Communications Services (RCS). Elevate makes use of virtualization for sharing test resources.
Saul Einbinder, VP of venture development at Spirent, said traditional test equipment has become increasingly expensive and unwieldy to the point that customers are reluctant to use it until late in the development process — and that in the case of VoLTE in particular, the complexity of the technical challenge is leading to device interoperability problems being caught in the pre-deployment testing phase that ought to have been recognized much earlier in the development process.
Part of the problem, according to Spirent, is that devices are typically tested against the network itself or perhaps against themselves or a software VoLTE version, rather than tested on their ability to connect to other devices and connect with a foreign endpoint in the complicated negotiations that occur in a VoLTE environment. So Spirent’s first solution built on the Elevate platform is a device-to-device VoLTE and RCS test offering, and the company believes that the less expensive solution can move performance and interoperability testing earlier in the development process.
Einbinder compared the VoLTE connection process to the Web browsing experience: that every website is supposed to work with every browser in theory, but in practice users may find that visiting a specific site means they’re told that their best experience will be on a different broswer, that pages render slightly differently in different browsers, or they’re asked to download the latest version of a plug-in before connecting. All those are mere annoyances in an Internet browsing experience, but in a voice call they can spell disaster.
VoLTE “has to work,” said Einbinder. “If it doesn’t work, you’re going to blame your carrier.”
Meanwhile, the test market is seeing a new entrant in the form of Mosaik Solutions. The company, which focuses on detailed network coverage and infrastructure information that used to primarily be used for roaming information, launched a new application at Super Mobility Week that is designed for assessing network performance.
Mosaik is licensing a solution from XenScope that combines a wireless app with XenSurvey cloud-based analytics and the leveraging of Mosaik’s extensive database on telecom network location information. Since the app can be used with regular commercial Android wireless devices instead of specialty equipment, it is a low-cost option and can be used for gathering information on the performance of, for example, machine-to-machine networks as well as verifying the performance of other data-centric applications, according to Mosaik.
Mosaik also this week acquired TowerSource, a Colorado Springs, Colorado-based database of mobile tower information that Mosaik said is the largest and oldest privately maintained set of such records in the country, with information dating back to Frye’s Site Guides.
Anite also made an announcement designed to simplify network testing. The company launched its Nemo In-Building Coverage (IBC) Meter, which was developed for use by corporate sales execs rather than field technicians.
“Using Nemo IBC Meter, operators no longer have to send out consultants to verify network quality at locations where business specific services or added capacity solutions are being sold. This can now be done by sales executives, saving both time and money,” said Kai Ojala, CTO of Anite Network Testing. “Crowd-sourced free data testing applications show only a small sample of what is going on in the network and do not provide the level of depth needed by corporate sales teams. Nemo IBC Meter, however, enables all technologies and both voice and data services to be tested, highlighting multiple simple key performance indicators (KPIs) to the customer.”
