Diameter Testing

Testing the robustness and scalability of your signaling network architecture via our DRA Testing and PCRF Testing.

Development & Testing Services for Diameter Protocol

OdiTek’s Telecom Testing CoE

We have expertise on complete set of interfaces and protocols that can effectively be used in functional and load testing of Diameter Protocol. The protocols and interfaces for delivering Diameter are complex, however OdiTek in shortly provides easy-to-use, high-performance and high-capacity regression, conformance and Diameter load-testing services enabling Diameter device testing during the various stages of IP-multimedia-subsystem (IMS) and long-term evolution (LTE) network development and deployment.

Diameter is an authentication, authorization, and accounting protocol (AAA Protocol) for computer networks:

Diameter is an authentication, authorization, and accounting protocol for computer networks. It replaces the much less capable RADIUS protocol that preceded it. It belongs to the application layer protocols in the internet protocol suite. Diameter Applications extend the base protocol by adding new commands and/or attributes, such as those for use with the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP).

Diameter truly enables critical functions in the IMS, 3G and 4G LTE networks. Diameter signaling exchanges information which are vital to managing and monetizing mobile data services, such as subscription, authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA), policy and charging control (PCC), mobility management and subscriber management. OdiTek’s Diameter test Services provides complete test functionality for all network elements supporting the Diameter signaling protocol.

Diameter provides AAA functionality, but uses TCP and SCTP, thus delegating detection and handling of communication problems to those protocols. The Diameter protocol is further improved the quality by the development of the 3GPP IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The Cx, Dx, Dh, Rf, Ro, Sh and Zh interfaces are supported by Diameter applications. Through the use of extensions, the protocol was designed to be extensible to support proxies, brokers, strong security, mobile IP, network-access servers (NASREQ), accounting and resource management etc.

Challenges for Diameter Solutions:

The growing Diameter Signaling traffic is an clear indication of growth in revenue-generating applications and also resulting of more and more complex network, Data Traffic growth, subscriber roaming between various access technologies, increase in smart phone users and more connected devices such as IoT etc.

At the other side, the failure scenarios in Network may trigger a huge amount of Diameter signaling traffic called as Signaling Storm, caused by automatic re-connection requests from multiple devices.

Hence the scalability and robustness of the network architecture of Signaling needs to be validated in test labs prior to it’s deployment. The objective is to verify whether the architecture can handle this growth in Diameter Signaling. This is also vital to ensure the high availability and high quality of service delivery to customers even in cases of heavy diameter signaling load, malicious activities that trigger a signaling storm and node failures etc.

Oditek Offerings:

We can help in developing robust solutions for diameter as well as complete testing solution that includes Diameter Router Agent (DRA) and Policy & Charging Function (PCRF) Testing.

It has adopted the Full coverage of Diameter Testing such as:

DRA/DSC, PCRF, HSS etc.
Interface Testing such as s6a, Rx, Gx etc.

At a Glance

OdiTek focuses on testing new technologies & technology generations. It aims to be a preferred partner for enterprises that develop software products based on Telecom Wireless, along with providing QA / Testing services (products & services).

Focussed on Telecom Wireless, Mobile & Internet technologies.
Expertise on telecom product development (Wireless), strong on all latest technologies in telecom wireless networks (2G, 3G, IMS, WiMAX, LTE, 5G..). We have telecom teams who are one of the first ones in India who worked on LTE & Air Interface.
Deployment, testing of telecom network equivalents and solutions
Focus on implementation, support, development, upgrade, rollouts & QA services for Telecoms
OdiTek brings in a very strong competency pool and experienced professional expertise that makes project commitments more reliable and consistent.
Proven offshore delivery model to provide competitive edge.

Key Service Offerings

Product Development on C, C++, Java
Field deployment & testing of Telecom Equipments
Proprietary scripting for baseline releases
Applications for all technology generations- 5G (RAN, EPC, Air).
Telecom Wireless Consulting
E2E QA solution for 5G, EPC Regression, Load Testing
Expertise on various simulators like EXFO EAST, IxLoad, dsTest scripts
to test against real/simulated SUT/DUT
Bug tracking; test plans & execution
Sanity & regression tests of new packages/baselines

Key Diameter Specialties

Protocol testing;
EPC Nodes and Network elements testing
Policy and Charging Control Testing;
MAP Testing;
LTE Testing;
VoLTE Testing;
Diameter, MAP, and GTP traffic analysis
Diameter Testing/Diameter Routing Testing;
Diameter Network/DRA Testing
Test and Measurement;
Testing Policy Management
Usage Reporting and Monitoring

Telecom Testing

Contract Programming

Offshore Teaming

Diameter Router Agent (DRA) Testing:

The Diameter signaling traffic in LTE and IMS networks is large enough and hence there is a the proactive architecture of signaling controllers. The Diameter signaling controllers, Diameter router agent and Diameter agent is at the core of the Diameter network that helps to less sever the Diameter traffic. The use cases that we follow during our Testing activities are:

LTE to LTE, LTE to 2G/3G and other access networks including inter-operability, scalability and mitigating security risks roaming
Mapping subscriber identity with HSS by performing subscriber location function during HSS address Resolution
Aggregates and offloads Diameter routing requirements from individual nodes for congestion control
Dynamic load balancing across multiple PCRFs, binds subscriber session to ensure correct billing and tracking service usage known as PCRF binding

Policy and Charging Function Testing (PCRF Testing):

Policy and Charging Function (PCRF) is the decision point for policy and charging actions in the network. Manages rules across subscribers, devices and networks that use Diameter messages and overall, it is one of the most critical components in IMS, 3G and 4G LTE networks.

In VoLTE, it plays as a mediator of network resources for the IP Multimedia Systems network for establishing the calls and allocating the requested bandwidth to the call bearer with configured attributes. PCRF communicates with PCEF (policy control enforcement function) like packet gateways (PGW) and deep packet inspection (DPI), online charging system (OCS), and offline charging system (OFCS) functions etc.

Testing these critical functions in the labs before deployment is important for MNOs to differentiate services and maximize the revenue.

In real Time, OdiTek’s testing on PCRF ensures that appropriate amounts of bandwidth are dynamically allocated to each services, thus making the most efficient use of network resources for delivering advanced services such as VoLTE and WebRTC etc. It supports the complete set of procedures as defined in 3GPP specifications.

Conclusion: At OdiTek, we have excellent knowledge across various Telecom entities, Telecom products etc. We will be happy to assist you and plan your testing activities. Please drop us an email on info@oditeksolutions.com.