Technological fixes are being lined up to ease the pressure on the cellular network, but can we handle the resulting complexity? The right testing solutions will restore customers’ faith, says John Baker General Manager, Mobility Infrastructure Spirent Communications
When I recently visited the UK after a period of absence, I was shocked at the deterioration in the quality of mobile phone services when compared to those in other countries. While I was experiencing a step-change in quality, UK residents and other expatriots also agreed that “things aren’t what they used to be”. (This may also be a limitation to customers that are roaming given the QoS agreements between operators?)
Mobile providers are not unaware of this problem, and are looking for solutions. LTE deployments in the US have given users a significant quality of service improvement in both Voice and Data usage. Voice over LTE(VoLTE) can shift some load onto LTE’s massive data capacity, and reap the advantages and features of VoIP at the same time. But LTE coverage globally still has a long way to go.
More immediately, it has been found that a significant majority of mobile traffic occurs in the home, office or near a Wi-Fi hotspot: divert such calls onto Wi-Fi and a huge burden is being lifted from the cellular network. It is predicted that 60% of network traffic will be offloaded to wi-fi by 2017, accelerated by the spread of Wi-Fi in public places such as airports, stadiums, cafes and shopping malls.
There are still problems to address. Wi-Fi is working well at present – hence its popularity – but the increasing demand is set to explode once the Internet of Things goes mainstream. We are promised a world where just about everything from smart fridge/freezers and environmental controls to home entertainment and cameras will all be communicating via the cloud – and this could put the burden of overload onto the wi-fi connection as well as the backhaul network. There is also an added risk to security – a wi-fi attack on an open network can happen in a couple of seconds.
Any such challenge should be addressed by thorough pre-testing of the system before roll out – showing that it can handle any normal operating conditions, and providing a clear idea of the operational limits and ongoing testing to understand and predict degradation in network performance. However, testing a wholly-owned network is one thing, but how do you run realistic tests on a network that relies on a dynamic handover between different types of technology and networks owned by third parties?
Users will not be happy if a phone call or other application launched in the office drops or behaves differently when they walk out the door or into a different hotspot. So there must be some way to put “ears and eyes” out into a heterogeneous network in order to run realistic tests under all sorts of operating and extreme conditions – including deliberate attacks.
The good news is that test solutions are becoming available and are under constant development to keep pace with the technology. There are solutions for testing functionality, performance and scale as devices roam between LTE, 3G,GSM, Wi-Fi and other operator networks while talking, watching video or using any number of apps. Data and control traffic can be emulated to match any normal or extreme operating conditions, and both equipment vendors and service providers can launch their products and services confident that they will deliver high QoS and seamless service through any mix of networks and technologies.
This is not to underestimate the difficulty of keeping customers happy. It is one thing to have solutions to run such tests, but another to anticipate and identify problem areas, to plan an efficient test strategy and decide how best to orchestrate it.
These are specialist skills built on long experience, so it pays to consult qualified network testers – especially now you know that they have the tools to deliver the tests you need.
John Baker
General Manager, Mobility Infrastructure
John Baker is general manager, Mobility Infrastructure , for Spirent Communications. In this role, Mr. Baker oversees a group that supplies mobile core test and emulation products for all generations of wireless and wifi technologies. Prior to Spirent Mr Baker was General Manager at CommScope where responsibilities included provision of mobile location, network monitoring, spectrum management, and other RF site solutions to the wireless industry. Prior to joining Andrew Corporation (which was later purchased by CommScope) in August 2004, Mr. Baker held senior positions with leading wireless companies including vice president of PCS/DCS Base Stations at Nokia and vice president of technology and chief technology officer at Pacific Bell Mobile Services. Mr. Baker also contributed significantly in the development of the GSM standards. He graduated with an honors degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and has served on the board of directors for 4G Americas.
