Addressing the Top 10 Challenges of

LTE EPC Testing

LIVE WEBINAR Sept 2011

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Aricent’s Testing Services

We have more than 15,000 person-years of testing experience

and a dedicated team of more than 1,800 testing specialists.

With domain expertise in telecom technologies, test tools,

automation, and test equipment, we form strategic alliances with

our clients.

Aricent

Aricent is a global innovation and technology services company

that helps clients to imagine, commercialize, and evolve products

and services for the connected world

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Options for LTE EPC Testing

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Option 1: End-to-End EPC Testing

•Single vendor offering all EPC

nodes for testing

•Focus on testing of all external

interfaces from EPC

• Integration with external simulators

and applications

Executed end-to-end EPC testing for a Tier-1 OEM using in-house simulators for optimized test

coverage

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Option 2: Combinational Testing

•Vendors may offer various

combinations of LTE-EPC

nodes for testing

•Focus on testing features

relevant for the combinational

nodes

• Integration of combination

nodes with simulated/emulated

peer nodes

Successfully tested an SGW+PGW combination for a datacom vendor using in-house simulators

Option 3: Individual Node Testing

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•Vendor offers testing for an

individual node

•Multiple inter-dependent

node(s) may be offered for

testing

•Testing of individual nodes for

all their external interfaces

Signaling vendor’s MME was successfully tested for LTE and interworking with 3G networks

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CHALLENGES OF

LTE EPC TESTING

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Challenge 1

Non-standard Ciphering/Integrity

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Challenge 2

Carrier Grade Solutions

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Challenge 3

Solution Scalability

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Challenge 4:

Interoperability

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Challenge 5

Charging Use Cases

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Challenge 6

Value Added Policy Control

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Challenge 7

Inter/Intra RAT 3GPP Handover

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Challenge 8

Interworking with Non-3GPP

Technologies

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Challenge 9

Voice Support in LTE

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Challenge 10

Test Coverage Optimization

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Test Tool Capability

Requirements

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Test Tool Capabilities

• Allows testing invalid and inopportune test scenarios

• Enables the creation and execution of automation

suites

• Readily integrates with any proprietary authentication

and encryption algorithm

• Easily extensible and customizable

• Permits message decoding, parameter extraction

• Supports TLIV, TFLV, TLV, TV, LV and ASN.1 (BER) data

formats

• Supports transport layer TCP/UDP/SCTP over IPv4/v6

• Handles multiple protocols and technologies

• Enables auto length calculation, generation of statistics

and reporting, and support for verdict.

• UE initiated triggers

• Network initiated triggers

• Handover (intra-RAT)/TAU

• Policy and charging

• Interworking with 3GPP and non-3GPP

• Peer node restart

• Create different load and performance scenarios

using built-in procedures

• Control/govern different load patterns

• Collect relevant metrics and measurements

• Generate next to real time traffic

• Support data and signaling paths

Generic

Functional Testing Load/Performance Testing

Key Takeaways

– Although very complex, LTE EPC testing challenges can be

overcome with careful test planning and domain expertise

– Selection of test tools with LTE feature support is critical

– Exposure to previous LTE interop/field issues helps with

complex issue resolution

– LTE network element and interface simulators enable greater

test coverage

– Test enablers are pivotal in accelerating time to market

– Expertise on different 3GPP/non-3GPP technologies is very

beneficial

LTE EPC Testing Challenges

Watch the video and download the full presentation at:

http://info.aricent.com/LTE_EPC_Testing_Webinar_Sep14

_2011_ss.html

For any information, please send your questions to:

elizabeth.singh@aricent.com

Or

Call us at: +1-650-391-1615