Protocol testing can eliminate choke points, unlocking infrastructure maturity as 5G scales at full speed
When a 5G network goes down for a brief minute, millions of users find themselves unable to do the simplest of things their phones do effortlessly otherwise, like placing a call, sending a message, or streaming a video. But the ripples are much stronger for say, workers in a smart factory floor, passengers inside an autonomous vehicle, or doctors in the middle of a remote surgery.
With a much larger surface area, 5G networks represent an intricate ecosystem guarded by complex protocols that introduce a new kind of fragility requiring continual testing.
The who, what, why of 5G protocol testing
Modern wireless networks are no longer a patchwork of big boxy hardware and simple routing tables. They are enormous software-driven systems, alive with users and connections, and dictated by rulebooks. These rules, contingent on one another, underpin the functioning of the 5G network.
Referred to as protocols, they encompass a stack of standards and specifications that govern how data is exchanged, received, and processed within the infrastructure. Following these principles, devices connect to one other, authenticate, request resources, stay connected between cells, and keep data secure behind the scenes.
But what’s the need of protcol testing, you may ask? 5G protocol testing is central to the seamless delivery of 5G connectivity. At a high-level, the protocols are the operating instructions that ensure that sophisticated underlying technologies of 5G, like massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO), beamforming, network slicing, cloud-native cores, and non-terrestrial network (NTN) and satellite links — talk to each other in a repeated, orderly, and predictable pattern to gurantee optimal performance. Because, when they don’t, it leads to request drops, session delays and failures, leading to reduced throughput, sudden drops to 4G/3G networks, and so on. All of these can amount to reduced quality of service (QoS) or complete loss of service at the user end.
This is why stakeholders pour so much effort into 5G protocol testing. One of the primary objectives of testing is to validate compliance with established standards like those laid down by industry bodies such as 3rd Generation Partnership Project, popularly known as 3GPP.
Testing conducted by manufacturers tells if 5G devices, chipsets, network equipment, and IoT sensors adhere to 3GPP standards and specifications. Mobile network operators and service providers too perform tests on their end to test reliability and performance of the networks. And, regulatory bodies like Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintain oversight to ensure regulatory compliance with requirements around spectrum use, security, sustainability, and such.
Key focus of 5G protocol testing
5G protocol testing happens at multiple levels, frequencies, and scenarios. It mainly focuses on the following:
- Whether devices and infrastructure components are compliant with the industry standards.
- Assessing interoperability and compatibility between heterogenous networks. Conformance allows operators to gurantee better roaming, and smoother handovers, among other things. Non-compliance, on the other hand, can lead to market rejections — not to mention costly regulatory penalties.
- Measuring KPIs, like throughput, latency, and reliability of the network under real-world conditions. Testers artificially generate real-world demands placed by applications and services through simulation to measure these. The results tell operators and manufacturers whether they satisfy the standard performance criteria or acceptance thresholds.
- Verifying if the network can reliably deliver the promised high broadband speeds, high device density, and broad coverage by means of NTNs, unique to 5G. The tests run from design to deployment to operations.
- Ensuring compatibility of new infrastructure additions with old components, and smooth functioning of all existing, previous-generation ones.
- Identifying security weaknesses and vulnerabilities that could open the network to bigger risks. Testing reveals whether data transferred over the network is secure and integral.
- Outside the lab, 5G protocol testing in the field entails performance checking on equipment in live environments to determine health and areas of improvement.
As 5G continues to evolve and mature, protocol testing matters more than ever. It provides clarity, enables oversight, and ensures compatibility of heterogenous 5G infrastructures essential to guarantee reliable connectivity. However, with technologies like beamforming introducing new challenges, test procedures need to evolve to keep pace with the standards and grasp on the complex workings on 5G networks.
