Spirent, China Mobile Collaborate on Automated Testing for Virtual Core Networks

Spirent Communications, a global carrier network and SDN/NFV testing solution provider, has collaborated with the China Mobile Research Institute to demonstrate automated testing of virtual core networks at Mobile World Congress Shanghai.

The demonstration is part of a joint effort to develop a methodology for automated testing of the functionality and performance of the China Mobile TIC (Telecom Infrastructure Cloud). The test methodology will then be incorporated into an automated testing system developed by the China Mobile Research Institute. The system will fully automate testing of services in operational virtual core networks and will be part of the complete vEPC (virtual core network) environment built by the China Mobile Research Institute.

At MWC, Spirent has provided the test engines for the demonstration system – the virtualized mobile core network emulation and performance testing tool, Landslide Virtual, and the automated testing platform, iTest. These test engines automate various types of performance and functionality tests used to develop, spin-up and monitor the vEPC. DevOps models have been developed for the test methodologies, allowing tests to be completely automated and incorporated into the operation of the virtualized network.

"The future networks of China Mobile will take advantage of new NFV-based datacenters and SDN-based networks. In our practice in building new datacenters, we have been improving our capabilities for autonomous integrated testing," says Fu Qiao, NFV expert from the China Mobile Research Institute. "Through cooperation with Spirent, and by using the automated system designed by China Mobile, we have automated the performance evaluation testing of our core network services in virtual environments. This is the preliminary attempt by China Mobile to achieve autonomous integration and automated testing in its future networks."

"Spirent's Landslide virtualized service emulation testing solution provides comprehensive core network functions, covers the latest mobile services today such as video streaming, video communications and IoT and is capable of quick modeling of carrier-specified user behaviors at extreme scale. The Spirent iTest solution provides automated control of the various network elements, instruments and communication equipment. The combination of both solutions allows China Mobile to ensure a high quality of service in the virtualized operational network so they can launch and operate new services quickly and efficiently," says Yang Lei, Spirent’s Lifecycle Service Assurance Business Development Manager for East Asia. "Spirent is pleased to collaborate with China Mobile to enable integrated and automated testing of their future networks."