dsTest® supports the Sd Diameter interface on both the Policy Charging and Rules Function (PCRF) and the Traffic Detection Function (TDF) in 3GPP LTE networks. Test the provisioning and reporting of Application Detection and Control (ADC) rules on your TDF with our PCRF Emulator. Test the capacity and performance of your PCRF with TDF simulation.
You may have legacy Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) applications that have been providing policy enforcement information to your PCRF. Verify that these applications still perform correctly with your latest PCC implementations. Test new DPI applications against your PCRF and TDF implementations.
Use the PCRF Emulator and the Sd Interface application in tandem to test Diameter Proxies, Relay Agents, and Redirect Agents.
A rich set of operational measurements is collected at specified intervals and stored in a SQLite database on the dsTest server. Real-time measurements may be retrieved through our dsClient CLI interface or graphed via our dsClient GUI interface.
Implementation
The Sd Interface application provides for:
- Provisioning of Application Detection and Control (ADC) rules from the PCRF for the purpose of traffic detection and enforcement at the TDF;
- Usage monitoring control of TDF sessions and of detected applications;
- Reporting the start/stop of a detected application’s traffic.
The Sd application implements the following procedures for the PCRF:
- Installation of ADC rules on the TDF;
- Removal of ADC rules on the TDF;
- Provisioning of ADC event triggers on the TDF.
The Sd application implements the following procedures for the TDF:
- Transfer of service data flow descriptions for detected applications from the TDF to the PCRF;
- Transfer of application instance identifier from the TDF to the PCRF.
Server Emulation
Our PCRF Emulator executes procedures based on configurable subscriber profiles and service profiles, responding to requests and reports from TDFs and eliminating the need to dedicate a production server to lab activities.
Read more about our PCRF Emulator.
Read more about testing Policy Management.
Client Simulation
The Sd Interface application can be used to simulate a TDF’s functionality to test new traffic detection rules on your PCRF before they are deployed in a network. The Sd Interface application allows users to validate PCRF performance and capacity in a realistic network environment, replicating the deployment configuration.
Multiple TDF simulators can be instantiated on a single server, each with scalable subscriber loads and transaction rates. In this mode, up to 1000 independent nodes may be simultaneously simulated.
Advanced Diameter Testing Features
Enhance your testing with Developing Solutions® testing assistance solutions:
- Insert, delete, or replace AVPs in your messages with our SmartAVP™ solution. SmartAVP enables you to define proprietary signaling or to corrupt AVPs to facilitate negative testing.
- Configure commands to define the series of actions and rates that each subscriber takes. Advanced profiles can be created using SmartEvents™ to define a mix of traffic based on probability assignments. With SmartEvents, you can specify when your SmartAVPs are used.
- Define a set of message templates against which all messages will be validated with our complete Diameter Dictionary. Every Diameter message is validated, even under load conditions.
Read more about our SmartEvents feature.
Read more about our Advanced Diameter Testing Features.
Supporting Standards
- 3GPP TS 29.212
- Diameter – RFCs 6733, 3588 and 5516
- SCTP – RFC 2960 (RFC 3309 checksum)
- TCP – RFC 793