1. Presented by: Mikko Kyllönen 21.5.2008
Designing and Implementing a Router Node Simulator for Network Management Testing
Presented by:
Mikko Kyllönen

2. Contents Basic information Background Stress testing Problem
Simulator design possibilities
Final design
Initialization mode
Simulation mode
Basic message handling
Simulator GUI
Faults and PMS data
Using the Simulator
Simulator performance
Conclusions and future development
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

3. Basic information Author: Mikko Kyllönen
Title: Designing and Implementing a Router Node Simulator for Network Management Testing
Supervisor: Raimo Kantola
Employer: Tellabs Oy
The goal was to build a simulator that would simulate a large amount of Tellabs 8600 nodes so that Tellabs 8000 Network Manager would see them as real network equipment.
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

4. Background Tellabs 8600 Managed Edge System
8600 series multiservice routers
Data transport in mobile access networks
IP MPLS over Ethernet, ATM, TDM…
VPN and pseudowire services
Tellabs 8000 Network Manager
8600, 8100, 8800, 6300, 7100…
Several components
Element-, Network- and Service Management
FMS, PMS, customers,
accounting, network tests
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

5. Stress testing Heavy tests in large environments
Efficiency in terms of delays and error caused by mass usage
Trend for efficiency during development releases
Now environments are database only, but this is not enough
This is where the Simulator is to be used
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

6. Problem How to test Tellabs 8000 Network Manager scalability?
Big networks: thousands of nodes…
Impossible to bring that many nodes to laboratory
Can’t test wild things in production networks
Could the nodes be simulated?
Information model
Very complex
BMP protocol for node communication
Hexacode based
Quite simple
Well specified
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

7. Possibilities for simulator design
Pure infomodel implementation
Hard task, maintenance problem
EMS server internal simulator
Very hard task, might not work
ESW porting to Windows platform
Does not scale
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

8. Final design Initialization --> Simulation
The Simulator is initialized by running an automated test case through the simulator.
The Simulator stores all the messages and “learns” how to reply to each message type
The stored messages are used as a basis for the reply in the simulation mode
Uses the features of BMP protocol
Several advantages: quite simple, low maintenance, scalable
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

9. Initialization mode Two modes: Initialization mode
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

10. Simulation mode Two modes: Simulation mode
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

11. Basic message handling
Receive the request
Find a similar request from message database
Get the matching response as basis for the new response
Change message id and other fields if needed
Send back to NMS
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

12. Simulator GUI Intuitive Easy to use Only the needed features
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

13. Faults and PMS data Special message handlers
Support for a limited set of faults
Easy to add more
PMS data only for T1s
Others use SNMP
SNMP support planned
but not implemented
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

14. Using the simulator For basic load Tests to real HW
More like real network environment
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

15. Simulator performance
Tested with 5000 nodes
Probably would handle a lot more
Max CPU 9%, max memory usage 30,1MB
Biggest initialization 10h and 33k messages
IP addressing a problem, workaround done
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

16. Conclusions and Future development
The project went well
Simulator is being used
Simulator has been found useful
Future
More product families 8100, 7100, 8800, 6300
SNMP
Generic fault and PMS features
Simulator programmability
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018

17. Questions
Tellabs Internal and Confidential
November 15, 2018