Next-Generation Network Assessment

ISUP Performance Test Suite

Highlights

Generation and termination of up to 500 calls/s per T1/E1 port (up to ten T1/E1 ports per chassis)

Various ISUP traffic characteristics (uniform, poisson, step, burst and random) simultaneous emulation

320 000 endpoints, 40 SS7 signaling endpoints (SSP or STP) and 163 840 for ANSI, 81920 for ITU-T circuit ID code (CIC) emulation per chassis

User-definable ISUP messages content and call flow

ISUP message generation during load test

Extensive call statistics and troubleshooting logs

SIP, ISUP, NCS (PacketCable™) and Megaco support in a single chassis

Overview Circuit-switched and packet-based networks are converging. VoIP popularity is growing and circuit-switched networks built for voice communications are affected by the growth of in-dial data access. Network operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers are facing new challenges in ensuring converged network readiness for planned traffic volume, quality of service and interoperability. The media gateway controller (softswitch), “the traffic manager” and “the bridge” between circuit-switched and packet-based networks, plays a crucial role in the converged SS7/IP networks.

The ISUP Performance Test Suite is an advanced hardware and software solution that emulates the whole SS7 network and generates high volumes of ISUP traffic. It emulates real-world network conditions and enables network equipment manufacturers and network operators to perform stability, performance benchmarking, reliability and scalability tests of media gateway controllers (MGC/softswitch).

The ISUP Performance Test Suite is part of the High-Performance VoIP Test Solution, which also includes SIP, Megaco and NCS (PacketCable).

Large-Scale and High-Performance Solution

The ISUP Performance Test Suite can generate and is able to respond to thousands of calls per second. It offers a large-scale test solution that can emulate four SS7 signaling endpoints (SSP or STP) and 32 000 endpoints and 500 calls per second per T1/E1 port. Users can configure various test profiles within a single test so as to replicate real-world signaling traffic scenarios.

Several signaling links can be configured to emulate SS7 network groups, each with its own ISUP traffic characteristics as defined below:

Traffic profile (receive only, uniform, poisson, step, burst and random) Call rate and call rate variation during the life of the test (initial call rate, final call rate, increment/decrement call rate) Call hold time (infinite, fixed and random) Message content for every message generated by the ISUP application ISUP call flow

Characterizing MGC Response to Network Congestion

The ISUP Performance Test Suite supports SS7 compliant protocol stacks, which will respond appropriately to network congestion. Once network congestion is detected, the application will stop generating calls until such time the network has returned to a normal state. This dynamic response to network congestion will enable users to correctly characterize the behavior of the softswitch during network congestion.

Characterizing MGC Response to Network Failure

The ISUP Performance Test Suite enables users to characterize the behavior of the softswitch when network failure occurs in order to verify whether the ISUP traffic is rerouted away from faulty signaling points, signaling links and/or signaling link groups.

During a normal load test, users can send an asynchronous message such as a circuit group blocking message forcing the MGC to release the affected links and re-route the traffic from the affected links.

Failover Testing

The ISUP Performance Test Suite enables users to characterize the stability and efficiency of the softswitch fault-tolerant mechanisms. It enables users to measure the media gateway controller (softswitch) failover response and recovery time under various network loads.

Defining and Generating User-Defined Messages

This test suite enables users to define any ISUP message during the execution of a test and then generate this message to the device under test. This feature allows users to perform negative and positive testing of the softswitch under load. The contents of the generated message and the response of the device under test can be viewed in the message display window.

Functional/Positive Testing

The core functions of the media gateway controller can be tested using the Functional mode of the ISUP Performance Test Suite.

In this mode users can define:

ISUP messages content Automatic response to incoming ISUP messages with either the

standard or user define ISUP message Call flow–generates ISUP messages or responds to incoming

messages based on a standard or user-defined call flow Predefined or on-the-fly user-definable call flow

Negative Testing

In order to verify proper protocol implementation and characterize the softswitch behavior when subjected to protocol errors, the ISUP Performance Test Suite allows users to:

Ignore incoming messages Generate incorrect responses Specify a delay before responding to incoming messages Define compliant and non-compliant ISUP messages and call flow

Statistics

The ISUP Performance Test Suite provides a comprehensive list of statistics and troubleshooting logs to aid in the identification of stability, reliability, performance and scalability issues that could arise during the tests. The following statistics are provided in real-time and are also stored in a comma separated file for post analysis.

Links Status MTP1 MTP2

MTP3

Global Cumulative Statistics

The following statistics are available for outgoing and incoming calls:

Number of active calls Number of successful/unsuccessful calls Minimum/average/maximum call establishment time Minimum/average/maximum call rate Number of retransmitted/duplicated messages Number of confusion messages ISUP messages counters

Troubleshooting Capabilities

To aid in troubleshooting, a comprehensive set of statistics, protocol message information and troubleshooting logs captured by the application, are available in real-time. Once a protocol error, failed call or any abnormal behavior is observed, the user can immediately launch a protocol analyzer from within the ISUP Performance Test Suite to perform protocol analysis. All protocol errors observed by the application protocol stack are logged to file with timestamp and other detailed protocol information required to identify the root cause of the error.

All statistics, protocol messages and troubleshooting logs can be saved to a file for post analysis.

Target Users

Network equipment manufacturers use this solution to verify the proper ISUP protocol implementation, analyze softswitch performance, stability, reliability, interoperability and scalability under normal and abnormal network conditions.

Network operators use this solution to evaluate network equipment before they are deployed and to perform regression testing of new versions of network devices before upgrading their existing network.

ORDERING INFORMATION

N-01C5727 = ISUP SG functional and performance test tool N-01C6346 = ISUP command line interface for automating the ISUP SG functional and performance test tool on the IW

Hardware requirements: InterWatch R14 platform or InterWatch M7 platform, a T1/E1 TDM Interface and a secondary protocol engine version 4.0 (SPEv4).Platform software requirements: Contact customer service department.

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