LTE EPC Test

Problem

Ensuring the Wireless Core Scales While Delivering True Subscriber QOE

LTE traffic volumes continue to surge with subscriber numbers, smartphone usage, and rich-media applications all on the rise. Mobile operators can maximize revenue potential by fast-tracking new, differentiated services such as VoLTE based on guaranteed quality — if they can scale reliably.

Network operators and equipment manufacturers alike face formidable new challenges:

• Optimizing diversified LTE infrastructures featuring equipment, systems, and applications from multiple vendors
  
• Withstanding spikes in already-hard-to-predict signaling traffic (smartphones generate up to 20x more) that can lead to outages
• Combining GTP, SIP, and Diameter-based signaling
• Maintaining policy management, mobility, monetization, and Quality of Service (QoS) at high scale

Since failures typically occur at high scale or under extreme conditions, EPC network cores and charging systems must be subjected to realistic, high-stress scenarios to validate QoS policies, monetization, and the quality of the subscriber experience (QoE)

Solution

Qualify the Functionality, Scale, and Performance of the Evolved Packet Core (EPFC) in Your own Lab — Before you Deploy

With no room to rely on “best case” performance data, Keysight solutions qualify the functionality, resiliency, and performance of the evolved packet core (EPC) in your own lab — before you deploy, and as networks evolve into the future.

Our IxLoad Wireless and IxCatapult applications deliver repeatable, large-scale EPC and signaling testing virtually impossible to create by any other means.

IxLoad Wireless:

• Emulates, isolates, and validates key components: MMEs, S/PGWs, servers, charging systems, Diameter Routing Agents (DRAs), eNodeBs
• Models behavior of hundreds of thousands of subscribers
• Emulates real-world traffic and live-network conditions
• Generates millions of subscriber sessions to simulate high-scale conditions where failures occur
• Validates Wi-Fi Offload network including Wi-Fi offload gateways (WAGs) and other new devices

Ensure the Wireless Core Scales

Service providers build their networks to support heavy user loads with high availability at the highest quality of experience (QoE). Scaling new services such as voice over LTE (VoLTE) requires validating at every level, including:

• Optimizing diversified LTE infrastructures featuring equipment, systems, and applications from multiple vendors
  
• Withstanding spikes in already-hard-to-predict signaling traffic (smartphones generate up to 20x more) that can lead to outages
• Handling simultaneous protocol requests for tunneling, session or diameter-based signaling
• Maintaining policy management, mobility, monetization, and quality of service (QoS) at high scale

IxLoad emulates, isolates, and validates key protocols including mobility management entity (MME), protocols for gateways (S/PGW), servers, charging systems, and more. IxLoad enables customers to:

• Model behavior of hundreds of thousands of subscribers
  
• Emulate real-world traffic and live-network conditions
• Generate millions of subscriber sessions to simulate high-scale conditions
• Validate Wi-Fi offloading including Wi-Fi gateways and devices