Impacts to the radio frequency environment isn’t the first aspect that comes to mind amid the ongoing shift toward cloud-native, disaggregated networks. But that’s not to say there aren’t any, and according to Regis Lerbour, VP of product for network testing and RAN at Infovista, it’s important to talk about RF in the context of the ongoing evolution of testing and disaggregation of networks. After all, one of the focal points for development is disaggregation in the RAN itself.
“The shift to cloud native and disaggregated networks brings a software-centric environment and such an agile environment means a high volume of changes to the network—and all of these changes have the possibility [of effecting] service reliability, service continuity … in a negative way,” he said. “So testing is essential to ensure that the network changes do not impact the end customer experience.”
He lays out three ways that increasingly software-centric networks put pressure on RF testing:
–Expanding demand. This plays into Lerbour’s comment about the many more changes, and more frequent changes, which become routine with a cloud-native network. But all of those changes still need to be validated to ensure that nothing breaks and that end-user experience is only improved. That means that as changes increase, there is also an exponential increase in the testing demand, he said.
–Operational pressures. Lerbour describes this as adding a layer of complexity into already-complex telecom networks. “Cloud-native networks will add another layer of complexity in your network on top of everything—2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, etc.,” he explains. “But the headcount for network optimization will not increase. That’s due to the general lack of available skills in the market, and the fact that operators are looking to reduce on costs and pushing every single department to make cost savings.” This means finding ways for people who are not highly skilled telecom engineers to support testing.
–Management oversight. Operators are spending billions of dollars on shifting their networks to the cloud and disaggregation—and management, including senior management, wants to keep close track of roll-out progress and network performance. Greater visibility is being demanded by a wider audience within the carriers, on a near-real-time basis. “They want up to the minute information at their fingertips, whenever they need it, and it’s not acceptable to just send a report … on a monthly basis, on the status of the network,” he said.
“With cloud-native, and specifically with disaggregated networks, testing becomes more challenging. But,” Lerbour goes on, “the key outcome remains the same. We are still looking to validate that the end-customers receive the quality of service they expect, and the quality of experience they expect.”
To overcome the three challenges, Lerbour sees test evolving in several ways to meet those three challenges. The cloudification of network test, so that testing benefits from the cloud in the same ways that the network itself does, through increased availability, scalability and agility through centralizing the management of network testing. “If the burden of field testing is removed from the field engineers, they can manage many more testing projects, and the testing can be successfully scaled with the same amount of RF experts,” he said.
Infovista is also using smartphones as the primary testing device for the network, which allows a reduction of complexity of testing a disaggregated network and produces test results “that align with how an end-user would use the network,” he notes. Its TEMS testing app additionally relies on automation and artificial intelligence for very practical applications in the field: Guiding users to strategic test locations, including intelligent selection of drive-test routes, then automatically running tests and notifying the user when tests are complete and the tester can move on, which allows more tests to be conducted in more locations even when additional RF engineers are not available. Smartphones can also be deployed proactively as automated test probes at key locations in order to monitor RF conditions 24/7, with remote access and control by telecom engineers so that they can be used to validate the more-frequent network changes that come with disaggregated and cloud-native networks. “You can run regression testing before and after a planned network change. That means you can validate network changes without deploying any field testing teams,” Lerbour says.
To hear more from Infovista and Viavi Solutions on the evolution of network testing, check out this RCR Wireless News editorial webinar on this topic, featuring Infovista and Viavi Solutions as well as the accompanying report.
