Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA – December 06, 2017 – GL Communications Inc., announced today its enhanced UMTS IuCS and IuH Interface Emulator referred to as MAPS™ UMTS IuCS and IuH interface emulator. The emulator is enhanced to simulate more than 20,000 subscribers to easily stress or load test 3G network. Additionally, along with various other call scenarios, the application also supports SMS over active Mobile-Mobile Voice Call, and Handover (Relocation) procedures.
Speaking to the press, Mr. Karthik Ramalingam, a Senior Manager for product development of the company said, “MAPS™ UMTS IuCS can simulate the IuCS interface between the RNC (Radio Network Controller) and the MSC (Mobile Switching Centre) nodes, and MAPS™ UMTS IuH interface can simulate IuH interface between the Femto Home Node B (HnB), and a Femto Home Node Gateway (HnB-GW) by generating RANAP and DTAP signalling messages over SCTP.”
He added, “MAPS™ UMTS IuCS also supports Iu-UP (Iu User Plane Interface) protocol with additional licensing to carry RTP traffic (AMR payload part) over Iu interface. Both applications support almost all standard protocols required for the accurate UMTS interfaces emulation.”
On latest enhancements introduced, Mr.Ramalignam explained, “In real time scenario, there exists huge number of subscribers with unique UE parameters. GL’s MAPS™ tool supports bulk call generation to stress and load test the network with number of subscriber profiles. Each profile can have unique parameters to simulate different real-time scenarios. However, creating and maintaining massive number of XML based subscriber profiles with unique mobile identifiers such as IMSI, TMSI, MSISDN and traffic parameters is not feasible. Therefore, recent enhancements were introduced to MAPS™ UMTS IuCS and IuH test tools to include subscriber profiles in CSV file format. The CSV database system used within MAPS™ is a simple Excel® file that can dynamically generate up to 20,000 numbers of subscribers with unique identifiers (IMSI, TMSI, MSISDN) and other key parameters in sequential order.”
He further added, “MAPS™ also includes option to configure the ratio of SMS and Voice calls out of Total number of Calls. Considering 100% Total Calls, MAPS™ will generate SMS calls and MO Voice calls as per the defined ratio. For example, if the configured SMS call Ratio = 30% in Testbed, then during bulk call simulation, MAPS™ generates 30% SMS calls and remaining 70% of total calls generated will be MO Voice calls.
The enhanced emulator allows you to simulate a simultaneous SMS call while an UE is on active mobile-to-mobile voice call with another UE. Additionally, both Source RNC and Target RNC can be simulated within single testbed demonstrating Handover (Relocation) procedure for a UE in CONNECTED state carrying both the control signalling and the user data.
The application handles Handover (Relocation) Procedures for a UE in CONNECTED state carrying both the control signalling and the user data. Both Source RNC and Target RNC are simulated within single testbed demonstrating Relocation procedure to move the connection between the Radio Access Network (RAN) and the Core Network (CN) for the source RNC to the RAN for the target RNC.”
Important Features
- Simulates RNC, MSC, Home HnB and Home HN GW entities
- User controlled access to Mobility Management, Session Management, RANAP, and DTAP messages
- Supports RAB Assignment, Authentication, TMSI Reallocation, Encryption, and other procedures
- Ready scripts for Mobile Originating Voice/SMS Call, Mobile Terminating Voice/SMS Call, Location Updating, and Handover procedures for quick testing
- Supports sending SMS over an ongoing voice call
- Automated call generation and call reception
- Massive UE simulation with related information access directly from Database, or CSV files
- RTP traffic simulation supports the following actions for almost all Standard Codec.
- Transmitting Voice Files
- Transmitting DTMF, MF Digits, and Single and Dual Tones
- Recording Voice Files
- Monitoring Single and Dual Tones, DTMF, and MF digits
- Loopback, Talk using Microphone, Play to Speaker
- Provides fault insertion, and erroneous call flows testing capability
- Impairments can be applied to messages to simulate error conditions
- Supports RTP traffic over Iu-UP protocol and also over normal RTP sessions (requires additional licenses)
- Supported Codecs: AMR & AMR-WB
- Supports customization of call flows and message templates using Script editor and Message editor
- Provides protocol trace with full message decoding, and graphical ladder diagrams of call flow with time stamp
- Protocol independent software architecture
- Provides call statistics and associated captured events and error events during call simulation
