Measure Twice, Cut Once

The Goal - One network for everything TodayTomorrow Telephone network Mobile radio network IP-Network Multimedia Access - Advantages: easy to handle reliable mobile Internet

Key drivers of convergence  Short Term objective: Create new revenue possibilities  Removal of boundaries between voice, data and video opens the way to new types of services  Can be realized relatively quickly with limited investment  Long Term objective: Realize cost savings  Simpler network  More efficient network  Cheaper network components  Full benefit only realized when all separate networks have fully migrated towards the target solution

Varied sensitivities of different types of traffic JitterDelayLossBandwidthTraffic Type High Multicasting High MediumHighVideo Conferencing Low MediumHighFile Transfers LowHigh MediumSerious Browsing LowMedium LowCasual Browsing LowMediumHighLowTelnet Low HighLow LowHigh LowTransactions LowHigh LowE-commerce High MediumVery lowVoice Sensitivities

QoS issues for different types of traffic  Voice traffic is smooth, bandwidth-benign, drop-sensitive, and delay-sensitive, and is typically UDP-based. Bandwidth per call depends on the particular codes adopted, sampling rate, and Layer 2 media employed. Voice quality is directly affected by all three QoS quality factors (loss, delay, and delay variation).  Data traffic is much more varied. It can be smooth or bursty, bandwidth- benign or bandwidth-greedy, or drop- and delay-insensitive, and involves Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) for send/receive acknowledgment and retransmit. Traffic patterns vary by application, and data classes must support several different priorities or application categories.  Video traffic is bursty, bandwidth-greedy, drop-sensitive, and delay-sensitive. IP-based videoconferencing has some of the same sensitivities as voice traffic.

Complex architecture

Testing Lifecycle - Successful Approach  Lack of a proper lifecycle will:  Drive Costs Up  Reduce VoIP Reliability / Availability  Risk Complete Failure of Deployment

What types of tests should be conducted  Conformance test  To verify the device’s behavior in correspondence with the standards, conventions and rules.  Functional test  To verify that the device does everything it is supposed to do (i.e. protocol support, encoding signalling, management, etc.)  Performance test  How the device behaves under maximum load conditions  Voice quality test  Measuring the voice quality using standardized, automated scoring

Devices that can effect a users experience  Require testing:  IP PBXs  IP Phones & VoIP Endpoints  Media Gateways  IVR / Voice portals  SBCs (Border Controllers)  Media Servers  Firewalls/ALGs  Messaging Servers  Conference Bridges

What is required - signaling protocols testing  Signaling Protocols – that need to be tested  H.323  SIP  MGCP  Megaco/H.248  SIP-T  SIGTRAN  BICC  Correlation testing (SS7/SIP/MGCP…)  Multiple call legs

What is required - performance testing  Performance - under different levels of stress:  Signaling and media quality evaluation  Call handling  Media degradation  Interoperability  Different codec models  PSTN and VoIP devices  Reliability  Quality evaluation  Stability testing

What are we looking for  Predicting the element behavior in real life:  How does the UUT (network element / service) behave in real life (=stress…)  Where is the “breaking point”  What happens at the “breaking point”  How are new / existing calls affected?  Is the media degraded?

What are we looking for  Analysis of traffic – measurement/correlation  Jitter  Packet lost  Packet burst  Delay  Codec (G.711/G.729 etc..)  DTMF  Signaling (SIP, SIP-T, H.323, MGCP, Megaco, ISUP etc..  And more …

The Business Drivers for Convergence Testing  Technology is not the driver  Services and delivery is the “key”  Access  Finding new ways to reach the customer  Increasing accessibility of services to the customer Mobility of voice Access through multiple devices Bypassing ownership of physical plant  Services  Enhanced ability to use existing services Voice IM/Presence Video (streaming/IPTV)

In other words…  Reducing operations costs  Eliminating redundant systems and infrastructure  Reduce equipment capex  Generate New Revenue  More minutes/bits of use  New billable services  Compete for integrated communications package  Offer new services such as video to increase subscriber revenues  Triple Play or Quadruple Play? Up sell services Data, voice, video, mobility (WIFI) Delivery of QoS services will increase revenues

Testing Lifecycle - Successful Approach  Successful predeployment testing ensures optimized deployment of network and services  But it is not enough!

Post Deployment  Monitoring and testing of deployed network and services must be constantly  Tested in a production network  Monitored 24/7 to: Identify issues related to performance, media and signaling integrity and end-user experience Troubleshoot production network to identify subscriber issues Analyze both signaling and media traffic  Centralized Database management

Distributed Monitoring System

Benefits of Distributed Monitoring  Detailed performance measurements  Alarming on performance issues  Service Level Verification  Combine measurements from network elements and monitoring devices – network-wide-view  Automated reports, threshold alerts and baselining  Real-time reporting and performance on subscriber delivered services  Correlation of signaling and media across the network (PSTN/IP) for problem resolution

Protects Investment  From pre-deployment tests  In customer churn  In corporate image  In signing new subscribers  In offering new services with QoS

Thank You