Spirent automates 1X mobile IP and P2T testing

ATLANTA--

Spirent Communications introduced a new Push-to-Talk Over-the-Air Test System this week, along with an APEX C2K Applications Performance Test Platform that automates 1X Mobile IP application testing. The products also were demonstrated at the CTIA show in Atlanta.

The PTT-OTA test system meets the test challenges associated with CDMA networks and handsets that support voice-over-IP (VoIP) PTT. It qualifies the performance parameters in wireless networks and handsets, evaluating voice quality, call setup delay and intra-call latency.

The system combines Spirent’s TestDrive test executive software for overall system control and test management with its Universal Diagnostic Monitor (UDM) for automated mobile device control and monitoring and Opticom’s OPERA voice quality software package to meet the analysis needs of both lab and field users.

Spirent also introduced new capabilities for its APEX C2K (CDMA2000) Applications Performance Test Platform, which automate 1X Mobile IP application testing and allows for precise, repeated evaluation of MoIP capable wireless devices in the lab environment.

“CDMA carriers are still working through the IP issues, but they are beginning to take advantage of them,” said Michael Keeley, senior product manager at Spirent Communications, performance analysis-wireless.

Application testing on CDMA handsets helps ensure a quality user experience. Spirent’s APEX C2K platform is scalable and designed to meet the evolving needs of wireless application development. APEX C2K is the first integrated platform to automate the analysis of CDMA2000 1X features, such as Mobile IP. The automation allows for a large number of test cases to be run in a relatively short time, reducing the amount of engineering resource dedicated to testing.

“Network equipment manufacturers used to go through five or six iterations testing a piece of hardware before it was ready. That’s down to one or two, but now the software goes through ten or twelve. So automation is very important,” Keeley said.

Spirent also added enhancements to its core CDMA2000 Performance Test System and introduced the ES version of the product, which is an entry-level system for benchmarking lower capacity PDSNs/foreign agents and home agents. The CPTS ES supports the same rich feature set and functionality of the core system plus these added features: IPSec for testing simple IP and mobile IP VPNs, up to 1000 packet control functions simulated per test server, interval statistics reporting and logging every 15 seconds as well as automated tests for determining maximum activation, deactivation, MIP revocation and handoff rate at various session loads.

The beefed-up CPTS can now simulate more than 6 million mobile stations, and can help determine potential weak points on a network to ensure more accurate capacity planning. It also includes stateful HTTP, FTP, SMTP and WAP technologies.