Overview

Testing network performance with high call volume is extremely important to Wireless Carriers, Internet Service Providers, and Equipment vendors:

• To ensure that quality of experience does not degrade with call intensity, volume, or protocol or traffic.
• That heavy loads, and stress do not degrade the stability or scalability of the network, during pre- and post-deployment.
• That advanced features and services are not compromised due to call intensity or call volume

Stress and loading processes can help test and simulate worst case scenarios and provide confidence that the network will continue to function under such conditions. Bulk Call Generators require an advanced network appliance which can generate and sustain high volume of calls with heavy traffic. If VoIP, then packets must be generated and output with high precision timing, zero packet loss and in the proper order.

GL provides automated, scripted, multi-user, multi-protocol, high capacity Bulk Call Generators. MAPS™ (Message Automation and Protocol Simulation) platform is the basis for all signaling protocols and for traffic generation – whether voice, tones, digits, fax, data, or video.  MAPS™ covers legacy PSTN, next generation VoIP, and Wireless equipment, interfaces, and networks, as depicted in the network diagram. Interfaces can be Analog, TDM, Ethernet 10/100/1000/10,000, or Wireless.

The following lists and briefly explains some of GL’s bulk call generators for various technologies: TDM, VoIP and Wireless:

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IP/VoIP Networks

MAPS™ High Density (HD) is a general purpose advanced bulk call generator. It is available as a special purpose 1U network appliance that is capable of high call intensity (hundreds of calls/sec) and high volume of sustained calls (tens of thousands of max simultaneous calls with traffic). This network appliance provides a modular and flexible solution to generate real voice calls using industry standard voice codecs.

MAPS™ High Density (HD) for IP/VoIP Platform supports SIP, SIP-I, MEGACO, MGCP, SIGTRAN, MAP, CAP, INAP, BICC, and similarly other protocols.

RTP ToolBox™ is another GL’s testing tool for IP/VoIP Platform capable of bulk call generation and RTP traffic simulation. The tool can be configured to simulate user agent (UA) and multiple SIP calls can be placed and received through a single user agent. Statistics reports of RTP and RTCP packets transmitted on a session includes Packet Loss, Jitter, Delay, Signal Level, Call, Quality Metrics, Echo Return Loss and other measurements.

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Wireless Networks

MAPS™ High Density (HD) for Wireless can be configured to generate bulk calls over GSM, UMTS, LTE, and CDMA networks. An end-to-end live network can be simulated by MAPS™ High Density (HD) or MAPS™ to provide a reliable integrated solutions to vendors and service providers for simulation, monitoring, troubleshooting any Wireless network in the lab - visit 2G, 3G and 4G Mobile Networks.

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TDM Networks

In TDM/PSTN network, MAPS™, an advanced protocol simulator/tester is implemented to support variety of protocols CAS, ISDN, SS7, FXO FXS, MAP, CAP, BICC, INAP, GSM and to generate high volumes of calls and traffic over the established calls. This message automation tool covers solutions for both protocol simulation and protocol analysis. Along with automation capability, the application gives users the unlimited ability to edit messages and control scenarios (message sequences).

The following lists the products across TDM, IP/ VoIP, and Wireless networks and the call generation capabilities on a multicore system. Using GL’s high density (HD) network interface cards (1/10Gbps), higher call rate can be easily achieved (up to 5000 per port). These performance numbers are associated with a particular codec, while other codecs may provide higher call densities.

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Product	Call Generation Capacity/Appliance
MAPS™ FXO FXS (32-bit only)	Hundreds of FXO, FXS, Analog calls
MAPS™ TDM (ISDN, SS7, CAS) (32-bit only)	Hundreds of T1’s and E1’s support Direct OC-3/STM-1 OC-12/STM-4 (10’s) Direct T3 E3 (10’s)
MAPS™ SIP	1600 (Scales up to 100K to 200K simultaneous calls with multiple probes)
MAPS™ SIP I	1600
MAPS™ GSMA	1100
MAPS™ MAP	4400
MAPS™ CAMEL	1900
MAPS™ BICC	500
MAPS™ INAP	2400
MAPS™ ISUP SIGTRAN	3500
MAPS™ LTE S1	1500
MAPS™ Diameter	1000
MAPS™ UMTS GnGp	6000
MAPS™ IuCS	350

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Applications

• Load PBX, Switch, Gateways/Routers
• Test IVR, Voice Mail, VoIP phones
• Generate/Accept tens & thousands of calls
• Voice, Fax, Digits, Tones, Data, Video traffic generation
• Automate Regression testing
• Feature testing
• Remote operation
• Scripting: Python, TCL, CLI, TestShell, HP ALM
• Voice, Data Quality, Quality of Service

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Easy-to-use Bulk Call Generation and Analysis features within MAPS™

Bulk Call Simulation allows quick configurations to easily create different test scenarios with scripts and profiles. These tests can be run simultaneously or sequentially (queue up tasks in succession). In addition, the Load Generation feature further allows the bulk calls to be generated with different statistical distribution patterns such as Uniform, Ramp, Sawtooth, Fixed, Normal, Step, and Step-Sawtooth distribution. In Load Generation, the pattern configurations can be customized using Unique and Multi Distribution patterns for each loaded script. The Unique Distribution pattern allows any single pattern to be configured per loaded script, whereas in Multi Distribution pattern, multiple patterns can be configured per loaded script for a specified duration.

Configure Stress/Load Testing parameters such as Call per second (CPS), Max Active Call, Minimum and Maximum Call Rates, Start Call Rates, and other parameters. Call duration also can be randomized using similar statistical distribution. Infinite number of calls can be generated by specifying ‘*’ (which indicates infinite calls) for Total Calls parameter.

MAPS™ also includes extensive statistical and graphical features to help visually analyze the bulk call generation.  Several important call parameters such as Total calls, Active calls, Completed calls, Passed/ Failed calls, and Calls/sec are logged in the statistics. Graphs for Call Success Ratio, and Call Status are plotted in real-time.

Bulk Call Generation for Load and Stress Testing

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Supported Traffic and Codec

Almost all the GL’s bulk call generators support the narrow-band, and wideband (HD audio) codec standards – Visit Voice Codecs webpage.

MAPS™ supports transmission, detection and capture of various IP, VoIP, Wireless, TDM and Analog traffic such as, digits, voice files, tones, fax, VQT, and IVR over established calls. The volume of calls can vary from one to hundreds of calls depending on the network. Additionally, user-plane packet services and GTP HTTP data traffic simulation such as Email, FTP, Video, and more are supported over Wireless networks. For list of MAPS™ applications and the supported traffic, visit Traffic Simulation Webpage.

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Command Line Interface

In addition to the GUI, MAPS™ can also be controlled remotely through a Command Line Interface (CLI). All the functionalities of the MAPS™ GUI are accessed through multiple command-line based clients. Supported clients include Python, Java, TCL, and others. MAPS™ can be configured as server-side application, and the client application is distributed along with MAPS™ Server application. Bulk calls can be generated through commands, and remotely perform all functions such as apply user events - send digits/file/tones, detect digits/file/tones, dial, originate call, terminate call, start and stop traffic and others. MAPS™ CLI Server script is and Event Driven, which detects the signaling and traffic Events such as Tone, Digits, Tx File Rx File, Signals etc., and sets or resets predefined Variables.

Refer to MAPS Command Line Interface webpage for more details.

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Resources

Please Note: The XX in the Item No. refers to the hardware platform, listed at the bottom of the Buyer's Guide, which the software will be running on. Therefore, XX can either be ETA or EEA (Octal/Quad Boards), PTA or PEA (tProbe Units), XUT or XUE (Dual PCIe Express) depending upon the hardware.

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