Qualitest owns Signaling & RTP Testing for LTE in Global Telecom’s new network

Client Overview

The client is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators. It provides a well-known brand of internet, television, and mobile services in several countries. The cellular business segment is its main business in terms of revenue, ranging from airtime to content and data services as well as device sales (such as cellular handsets, tablets, datacards, etc).

Business Needs and Objectives

The mobile operator is in the process of implementing advanced Ericson LTE and IMS networks to facilitate the growing use of data communications by end users. The protocol used on these networks is far more complex than the legacy Sigtran network that preceded them. The client was facing growing testing and validation challenges. The need to continuously improve core service quality and performance, while network complexity is constantly rising, makes network testing processes intricate and time consuming.

The client mapped the general testing requirements and challenges that accompany the establishment of a new LTE network including thorough signaling and RTP testing:

• Setting up a new LTE network to interact with present billing and CRM systems and provide services to existing customers requires extensive Interoperability Testing and  Compatibility Testing
• LTE (4G) signaling and RTP testing requires domain experts to assure system’s quality. These experts must have the knowledge and network experience with call simulation, failover testing and load and stress testing
• Testing across a wide variety of network protocols, scripts and testing equipment requires long setup and configuration processes
• The combination of hardware, software and firmware components makes it difficult to test the system as a single integrated system and often requires manual intervention
• Streamlining remote manufacturing processes lengthens the testing process and make it difficult to meet tight time-to-market requirements

The QualiTest Solution

• Establish a LTE network testing team to take full responsibility of the signaling and RTP testing
• The team, comprised of 7 experienced engineers, spent 3 weeks familiarizing themselves with the existing legacy network, billing and CRM system to which the new network must be integrated
• Qualitest Test & Measurements Division provided traffic generators and network monitoring equipment to be used by the team to conduct load balancing testing, call simulations, traffic generation and failure testing
• The team built a test environment to support the complex structure of the system and to simulate all the internal and external integrations to existing systems

Key Benefits

The key benefits to the mobile operator were:

• All the LTE network milestones were completed successfully, on time and on budget
• Ramp-up of the Qualitest team was quick which allowed risk analyses, design review and some project management activities to be delegated to the team early and freed up the project’s leadership team to focus on other important activities earlier than expected
• An emphasis on Load and Performance testing at a relatively early stage of the project ensured that the system’s performance and stability targets were meet and exceeded
• One centralized professional test and implementation team that took over the project and was responsible for providing measurable results
• Taking advantage of Qualitest field experts allowed locating gaps and risks early in the process, helping avoid bugs and project delays
• Testing team independence, preventing internal finger-pointing
• Minimizing testing cost and time