Test Management Process
The industry-leading ANTS Test management process based on end-to-end (E2E) active
testing was developed to help telecom operators and service providers optimize the
power of both industrialization and agility.
Industrialization is necessary to run the tens of thousands of daily tests
(many service test cases, many geographical locations, many SIM profiles, etc.)
that must be executed with efficiency and quality
- Test management process automation
- Infrastructure-agnostic test management
- Leverage of experts knowledge base
Agility is critical in order for users to respond rapidly and effectively to
continually changing demands: new services to test and support, new Key Performance
/ Quality Indicators to be watched, ad-hoc tests to be designed and run for
troubleshooting support, etc.
- Rapid test design for new services
- Ad-hoc testing
- On-the-fly analyses and KPI/KQI definition
The chart below summarizes ANTS' five-step test management process, as well
as some common user profiles actively involved along this process.
Click on the individual arrows to view each step in detail.
Design
Through a graphical editor, customer use cases can be reproduced
for test and measurement purposes. Test design with ANTS is infrastructure-agnostic:
it does not require specific network- or service-infrastructure knowledge. Dynamic
parameters enable designed tests to be configured at the planning or execution stages
for enhanced agility.
Datamat provides pre-built test procedures for all the Active Testing Packages made
available with ANTS to be used as they are or customized to meet specific requirements.
- Extensive pre-built libraries of test scenarios
- User-friendly & rapid design of test cases, charging cases and verification rules
- Network & services infrastructure agnostic
- Dynamic parameters for planning agility
- Extended knowledge capitalization in test management repository
Plan
Planning is crucial where thousands of tests are run daily. Through ANTS'
expertise in the network topology, users can plan tests with logical planning
concepts organized hierarchically (regions, local areas, switches). Also SIM and
USIM cards can be labeled according to a user-defined policy (e.g. prepaid/postpaid)
to make planning easier and resource management more powerful. The geographical location
of the RTU as well as the test-SIM to be used in the test can be managed as dynamic
parameters whose values are defined automatically by ANTS' Intelligent Test Scenario
Generation. Test scheduling can be specified using different approaches for immediate
or pre-defined periodical execution.
- Accelerated planning through dynamic parameters (SIM profiles, network elements)
- Auto generation of many-to-many test scenarios
- Transparent, priority-based infrastructure resources management
- Powerful scheduling enabling ad-hoc & industrialized testing
Execute
When triggered by the ANTS Central Server scheduler engine, a test execution
starts with reserving the required resources as specified in the design and planning
phases. The test execution is 100% automatic and fully managed by ANTS Central Server.
If SIM or USIM cards are required, they are transparently relocated to the RTUs
involved in the test (Virtual SIM Displacement), and the test execution begins.
During and after the active test execution, usage data can be captured and compared
with the Charging Case.
Due to the modular architecture, ANTS Central Server's processes can be installed
in a distributed environment, enabling scaling to massive numbers of tests.
- Fully automated test campaign execution
- Transparent & virtual SIM displacement (unlimited # SIM/USIMs, hot plug in/out)
- Powerful handset emulation in Remote Test Units (RTU)
- Intelligent CDR capture & processing in Remote Record Selectors (RRS)
Monitor
During the execution, test results are received in near real-time by ANTS Central
Server and stored in the associated database. Key Performance / Quality Indicators
(KPI/KQI) are derived from these test results and monitored in real-time. Thresholds
can be specified to automatically generate alarms when KPIs/KQIs reach specific
levels. These alarms can alert the appropriate person via email or be forwarded to
network management systems via standard protocols (X.733) so that the most relevant
action can be taken in a timely manner.
- Test results capitalized in an open repository (test outcome, measures, technical traces, selected CDRs)
- Real-time and off-line access to test results and derived KPI/KQIs
- Automatic alarm generation (KPI/KQIs vs. thresholds) integrated with alarm management systems
Analyze
Information available in real-time during the test execution is, by nature of
the test, available once the test has been completed. ANTS analysis functionalities
can then be initiated across different objectives. Service accessibility, retainability
and performance can be efficiently controlled via KPI/KQI monitoring,
allowing operations & maintenance teams to focus on solving their mission-critical
issues. Multidimensional exploratory analyses on test outputs achieve various
objectives such as troubleshooting support, statistical analyses, and benchmarking.
Detailed analysis of specific test executions using detailed test data including
traces and usage data (CDRs) support troubleshooting or ad-hoc testing based on
specific scenarios.
- KPI/KQI trend analyses for QoS performance reporting (availability, accuracy, speed)
- Online exploratory analyses (OLAP) for root cause analysis, statistics, benchmarking
- Detailed analysis of selected CDRs
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