GL Announces Enhanced UMTS Protocol Test Suite
Welcome to another February 2014 issue of GL's Newsletter providing information and insight into our enhanced UMTS Protocol Analysis and Emulation tools.
Overview
Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is a 3rd generation mobile technology evolved from GSM (2nd generation) technology. It uses W-CDMA (Wideband CDMA) as radio access technology. With increased spectral efficiency and higher bandwidth, the UMTS network can support greater data rates as well as voice and video data to the wireless end-users. The underlying transport layer for UMTS can be Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), or Internet Protocol (IP).
UMTS being an access network in the mobile communication area provides a common interface to both GSM and GPRS core network. UMTS is capable of handling both Circuit-Switched (CS) as well as Packet-Switched (PS) data simultaneously through its UTRAN network.
UMTS separates the user plane from control plane, radio network plane from the transport network plane, access network from the core network, and access stratum from the non-access stratum. Separation of transport network subsystem and radio network subsystem enables the UMTS to use multiple transport layer mechanism.
IP and ATM are the most preferred transport network layer protocol used in the UMTS. ATM based UMTS network is more popular since it ensures various QoS and Classes of Services to the end user.
GL's UMTS Test Suite
GL's UMTS Test Suite consists of both UMTS Analyzer and Emulator covering all the major interfaces in the UMTS network. The Analyzer provides capturing and decoding capabilities across various interfaces. And the emulator is capable of simulating the major interfaces across the Circuit-Switched (CS) as well as Packet-Switched (PS) data in the UTRAN network. The suite provides wide-ranging capabilities that meet the versatile testing of UMTS network
UMTS Protocol Analyzer
GL's UMTS protocol analyzer is capable of capturing, decoding and performing various test measurements across various interfaces i.e. Iub, Iur, IuCS and IuPS interfaces of the UMTS network. In addition, it supports ATM as the transport layer.
The analyzer helps in fault diagnosis and troubleshooting of UMTS network. Multiple instances of UMTS Analyzer can run simultaneously capturing data (real time and off-line) on several T1 E1 lines. It is also capable of capturing & reassembling frames that were transmitted with Inverse Multiplexing. IMA combines up to 8 T1 E1 links to form a single high-speed connection with flexible bandwidth options.
For more information, you can visit UMTS Protocol Analyzer web page.
Scripted UMTS IuCS and IuH Interface Emulation Over IP using MAPS™
MAPS™ UMTS IuCS emulator can emulate the RNC (Radio Network Controller) and MSC (Mobile Switching Center) by generating RANAP and DTAP signaling messages over SCTP.
RANAP and DTAP are:
- RANAP – is a control plane protocol (Iu interface) between RNC (Radio Network Controller) and CN (Core Network) in the UMTS stack.
- DTAP - is a layer 3 protocol between the MSC (Mobile Switching Center) and the MS (Mobile Station)
GL's Message Automation & Protocol Simulation (MAPS™) designed for UMTS IuH interface can simulate Femto Home Node B (HnB), and a Femto Home Node Gateway (HnB-GW) by generating RANAP and DTAP signaling messages over SCTP as Transport layer.
A femtocell is a small cellular base station designed for use in residential or small business environments. Femtocells can offload the RAN and provide better coverage, plus improved data download & upload speeds. IuH links Femto Access Point (HnB) and a Femto Gateway (HnB-GW).
Supported Protocol Standards
| Supported Protocols | Specification Used |
|---|---|
| IuCS Interface | |
| SCCP | Q.713, CCITT (ITU-T) Blue Book |
| MTP3 | Q.703, ITU-T Blue Book |
| RANAP | 3GPP TS 25.413 V9.1.0 |
| MM / CC | 3GPP TS 24.008 V5.16.0 (2006-06) |
| RR | 3GPP TS 04.18 V8.13.0 |
| SMS | 3GPP TS 03.40 V7.5.0 & 3GPP TS 04.11 V7.1.0 GSM 03.38 version 7.2.0 Release 1998 |
| IuH Interface | |
| RUA | 3GPP TS 25468 V9.1.0 |
| RANAP | 3GPP TS 25.413 V9.1.0 |
| MM / CC | 3GPP TS 04.08 V7.17.0 |
| RR | 3GPP TS 04.18 V8.13.0 |
| SMS | 3GPP TS 03.40 V7.5.0 & 3GPP TS 04.11 V7.1.0 GSM 03.38 version 7.2.0 Release 1998 |
Some of the Important Features
- Performs numerous measurements across Iub, Iur, IuCS and IuPS interfaces.
- Simulates RNC, MSC, Home NodeB (HnB) and Home NodeB Gateway (HN GW) entities.
- Call Trace capability over IuCS and IuPS interfaces
- Search and filtering capabilities for both real-time as well as offline analysis
- Decodes different control plane protocols i.e. NBAP, RNSAP, RANAP, ALCAP, SSCOP etc and user plane protocols i.e. Iu-UP, Iu-FP, AMR etc
- Decode NAS protocols (i.e. CC/MM/SM/SMS/GMM) along with the UTRAN specific protocols
- User can configure VPI/VCI values for PVCs carrying NBAP, RNSAP, RANAP and ALCAP messages to enable decoding of the said protocols
For more information, you can visit UMTS IuCS and IuH Interface Emulator.
Scripted UMTS IuPS Interface Emulation Over IP using MAPS™
MAPS™ UMTS IuPS interface emulator can emulate RNC (Radio Network Controller), and 3G SGSN (3G Serving GPRS Support Node) by generating RANAP and DTAP signaling messages over SCTP as Transport layer in an IP network as defined by 3GPP standards.
Supported Protocol Standards
| Supported Protocols | Specification Used |
|---|---|
| SCCP | Q.713, CCITT (ITU-T) Blue Book |
| M3UA | RFC 3332 |
| RANAP | 3GPP TS 25.413 V9.1.0 |
| GMM / SM | 3GPP TS 24.008 V5.16.0 (2006-06) |
| SMS | 3GPP TS 03.40 V7.5.0 & 3GPP TS 04.11 V7.1.0 GSM 03.38 version 7.2.0 Release 1998 |
Some of the Important Features
- Simulates RNC, and SGSN entities.
- Generates and supports all Mobility Management, Session Management, RANAP and DTAP messages.
- User controlled access to RANAP, and DTAP messages
- Ready scripts for Routing Area Updating, GPRS Attach, and Detach procedures for quick testing
- Supports Authentication, TMSI Reallocation, Encryption, and other optional procedures
For more information, you can visit UMTS IuPS Interface Emulator.
Scripted UMTS Gn and Gp Interface Emulation
GL's MAPS™ Gn Gp Interface Emulator is an advanced protocol simulator/tester for GTP simulation over Gn, Gp interfaces that can simulate GTP messages and signaling specification as defined in 3GPP TS 29.060 GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) standard. The tester supports testing network elements SGSN and GGSN, error tracking, regression testing, and load testing /call generation. It can run pre-defined test scenarios against GTP interface test objects in a controlled & deterministic manner.
Supported Protocol Standards
| Supported Protocols | Specification Used |
|---|---|
| GTP | TS 29.060 V9.2.0 (2010-03) |
Some of the Important Features
- Simulates SGSN and GGSN
- Supports GTP Control plane
- Generates hundreds of Control Signaling (Load Testing)
- Generates and processes GTP messages
- Supports GTP Traffic (GTP User Plane Data) which includes verification like BERT testing, HTTP traffic generation capability, GGSN can actually be connected to real IP network to simulate Gateway testing
- Insertion of impairments to create invalid messages
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