Active monitoring generates traffic based on the use of standardized tests. Such tests allow a picture to be created of the experience of services that customers actually experience in the network when they use their devices. They take advantage of the complete data set available from the network (including signaling collected by passive probes, CDRs and element logs), and allow the diagnosis of faults and the analysis of unexpected negative performance trends.
Of particular importance is the fact that active monitoring delivers results, regardless of whether the services are delivered over a physical, virtual or even hybrid network, or across an IP-based connection that connects to legacy systems (for example, via SRVCC), and without the need to build complex correlation models.
In addition to improving service awareness and fault resolution times, service assurance systems utilizing active test and monitoring enable the functional validation of services at launch and the automation of regression testing for in-service operation and upgrades. This can considerably reduce the occurrence of faults during launch and upgrade periods. In fact, software upgrades to network elements are a growing source of risk, because the traditional, vertically-integrated hardware and software solutions supplied by vendors is being replaced by software connected by APIs. This emerging trends means that there is the possibility that each upgrade fails to interoperate with other elements as expected.
For example, a Tier 1 European operator providing IMS-based services across Europe has been in a multi-year transition to a hybrid network. In this case, the operator has virtual and hardware components supplied by different network vendors. However, the operator has also deployed Infovista's TEMS service assurance solution.
With this in place, issues that are invisible to existing passive probing systems have been detected in real-time, and the resulting information is relayed to the vendors concerned to enable rapid and collaborative problem solving — both by engineers within the operator and also those in the vendor organizations, enabling the operator to continuously improve service availability, even as the network evolves.
To learn more about network impact due to virtualization or VoLTE implementation, why not watch our latest webinar?
