The wealth of data available from wireless networks is causing a shift in field testing, both to better inform and direct such testing in order to reduce costs, and to move away from intermittent testing toward constant, real-time monitoring in order to optimize and troubleshoot networks.
Merger and acquisition activity this year reflects the test industry’s interest in this area: Anite acquired Xceed for $30 million. EXFO purchased customer experience analytics company Aito. Netscout is buying $2.6 billion in network testing and security assets from Danaher, including Tektronix Communications and its geoanalytics subsidiary, Newfield Wireless.
Marc Bensadoun, CEO of Newfield, told RCR Wireless that testing for services such as Voice over LTE during the pre-launch period, the launch period and post-launch requires a “greater level of granularity” than traditional drive-testing has provided. He laid out a series of arguments as to why network data-based solutions like Newfield’s TrueCall are such compelling test technology compared to traditional field testing, including:
–Traffic profiles and a more complete data view, versus drive testing with a few devices around relatively few parameters.
–Time and location distribution: field testing by its nature is conducted during business hours at discrete locations or on established routes, providing a limited view on networks that operate 24/7/365 and cover large geographic areas. With the vast majority of traffic originating indoors, drive testing is also increasingly focused on walk testing, where permissions to test may be hard to come by and repeated walk testing likely to be frowned upon by owners or tenants.
–The ability to encompass both RAN and Evolved Packet Core (EPC) conditions. Bensadoun noted that in 3G networks, about 70% of customer-impacting issues are generated in the RAN and that he would expect to see a similar percent for VoLTE.
–Sample size: A day’s worth of drive testing might result in several dozen calls per enodeB, Bensadoun said, compared to being able to analyze all the calls and data sessions that a network handles in a given time period or in real-time.
–Cost: Bensadoun said there are “orders of magnitude difference” in cost, particularly in light of software platforms for network analytics being an asset that can be utilized on an ongoing basis on a less expensive basis than repeating drive tests.
— Scale. Gianluca Noya, director of Accenture’s network engineering operations in Europe, noted that with mobile networks becoming more heterogeneous with the use of small cells and distributed antenna systems, operators simply cannot keep their old approach to field testing. The number of sites, particularly as small cell deployments are ramped up, are simply too numerous compared to the macro network, and the sites carry relatively little traffic, so testing costs and the amount of time it takes to test, turn up and accept a site must also be drastically reduced.
Looking for more insight on field testing challenges and trends? Register for this week’s webinar on field testing and download the accompanying report, to be posted Wednesday.
