dsTest™ Network Interfaces

dsTest offers server emulation and load generation capabilities for comprehensive testing of 3GPP 3G and 4G core network interface functionality and performance. Select the interfaces required to accomplish your testing goals--surround a network element with load generators that simulate client activity, provision a server emulator with the interfaces necessary to support end-to-end testing, or test agents and proxies using both client and server emulation. See Overview, Capacity and Performance, and Architecture for dsTest specifics.

  • Subscriber Management
  • Policy/Charging Control
  • SMS
HSS Emulator EIR Emulator D Interface D' interface Cx Interface SWx/Wx interfaces Gc Interface S6a Interface S13 Interface S13' Interface Gf Interface Gr/Gr' Interfaces S6d Interface Sh Interface Gs Interface VLR Emulator

Test serving network element subscriber session and mobility management functionality with HSS, HLR, and EIR server emulators. Test HSS, HLR, and EIR capacity and performance with interface load generators.

Policy and Charging Control Interfaces Available Gx Interface Gx Interface Gy Interface Ro Interface Rx Interface Gxc Interface Ga Interface Ga Interface Ga Interface Ga Interface Ga Interface PCRF Emulator OCS Emulator

Test serving network element policy, credit, and charging functionality with PCRF, CGF, DCCA, and gsmSCF server emulators. Test the capacity and performance of policy and credit management servers with interface load generators.

Short Message Service Interfaces Available VLR Emulator HSS Emulator GMSC Emulator S6a Interface Gr Interface E Interface E Interface C Interface Gd Interface Gd Interface Cx Interface D Interface

Test Short Message Service functionality in UMTS, CSFB for LTE, and generic IP-CAN access models.

  • Overview
  • Capacity and Performance
  • Architecture

dsTest is targeted for network equipment manufacturers and service providers to enable reduced time to market of new services while ensuring the network quality and performance requirements are not compromised. It allows you to validate the network performance and capacity in a realistic network environment with a mix of subscriber profiles, replicating a deployed configuration.

Designed explicitly to facilitate the cost-effective testing of high performance protocols and applications, dsTest is focused on 3G and 4G core network service interfaces to support your network evolution testing. A suite of common components expedites the development cycle, allowing us to provide testing capabilities in a timeframe that can assist both vendors and carriers during the development and deployment of the evolved core network. dsTest provides a base from which new protocols and applications can be quickly developed to support new standards or custom protocols and applications.

  • Measure call performance and capacity
  • Verify new mobility features and standards before deployment
  • Identify performance ceilings and bottlenecks
  • Validate system scalability with easily scalable subscriber loads
  • Plan capacity
  • Interactive control and monitoring for real-time test configuration, event triggering, and measurement sampling
  • Unattended test modes for users creating real-world scenarios with heavy load and long-duration stability tests

Network interface applications (client load generators or service node emulators) are individually licensed, allowing you to purchase only the interface functionality that your test plans require. Applications focus on true emulation rather than scripted commands and responses. Support node emulators implement interaction between active interfaces where applicable when more than one interface is licensed.

In an optimal configuration, dsTest supports the following maximums on the reference platform:

  • Up to 50,000,000 subscribers depending on memory capacity and emulator configuration (number of nodes, number of interfaces, and the number of features enabled)
  • Expanded memory capacity results in a nearly linear expansion of subscriber capacity
  • Up to 20,000 transactions/second per active core (an application layer request/response exchange is considered a transaction)

Performance can be impacted by:

  • the number of messages required for each call
  • the amount of subscriber data required for each message
  • the number of features enabled
  • the cache structure/size
  • the memory bus and I/O throughput
  • the number of CPU cores and CPU clock speed

Capacity is largely based on the amount of available memory and can also be impacted by the configuration.

Reference Platform

Benchmarks are collected from the following server configuration:

  • Dell R515
    • 2 Quad-Core AMD Opteron 4130
    • 8GB (4x2GB @ 1333 MHz) Single-Ranked UDIMMs for 2 processors
  • Ubuntu 10.04 x86_64 Server Edition

dsTest ArchitecturedsTest is designed to run on a wide variety of computer platforms, allowing you to invest in the hardware that best suits your needs. The highly-threaded software architecture is designed to efficiently utilize multi-core and 64-bit CPUs.

  • Software-based solution can be installed on rack-mounted servers or portable computers
  • Remote monitoring and control via command line interface
  • Configure test scenarios with XML files that are validated against a published XML Schema to avoid invalid definitions
  • Published server control interface (XML/TCP) to allow development of remote automated control
  • Rich set of operational measurements, collected at customizable intervals and stored in an SQLite database on the server, facilitate test analysis, troubleshooting, and fine-tuning
Download data sheet