Spirent Offers Testing Solutions for IMS and IPTV Networks

Spirent Communications, global provider of integrated performance analysis and service assurance systems, is offering solutions for IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert) (IMS)-based Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) service integration and interoperability tests, according to the company Tuesday.

 

Spirent will showcase these products at GMI 2008, a global MultiService Forum (News - Alert) (MSF) interoperability event, supported by Spirent.

 

Spirent is actively involved in the GMI initiative to “make Next Generation Networks work.” Spirant is providing test solutions to support GMI's Next Generation Network (NGN) interoperability efforts.

 

Spirent TestCenter, an integrated test platform that accelerates conformance, functional and performance testing for converged networks, allows for the assessment of over 100 metrics related to delivering high quality IPTV, the company said. 

 

The integrated test platform consists of various testing solutions such as Spirent GEM (News - Alert), Spirent Abacus, Spirent Avalanche, and Spirent Landslide. Spirent GEM helps emulate 'real-world' IPTV network impairments based on ITU-T Recommendation G.1050-2007 and ANSI TIA-921A. Spirent Abacus is used for IMS VoIP testing and emergency call services, whereas Spirent Avalanche facilitates IPTV multicast video and Web services testing. Spirent Landslide is another testing solution used for testing Global System for Mobile communications/ Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (GSM/UMTS (News - Alert)) core networks.

 

Converged network testing has become a strategic imperative for service providers and network equipment manufacturers to reduce churn and increase revenue potential, says Spirent. Spirent testing solutions are widely used by industry leaders such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco (News - Alert), Brocade and others. These solutions help these companies ensure that the multi-play networks and multi-technology platforms of tomorrow deliver the quality of experience (QoE) which service providers are demanding today.

 

“Delivering high-quality IPTV services over an IMS architecture is particularly demanding because it is technically complex, occupies a significant amount of network bandwidth and even small amounts of network impairments can significantly affect the end-user experience,” said Jack Douglass, director of video technologies at Spirent Communications, in a statement.

 

Douglass is of the opinion that IMS-based IPTV must support both broadcast and on-demand TV services with the same quality of experience consumers currently have with traditional cable and satellite services.

 

By supporting several test scenarios, Spirent demonstrates key testing functionality over an IMS architecture including end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) of VoIP calls, performance of emergency location-based applications such as E911 services, performance of the mobile core network and quality of IMS-based and non-IMS based IPTV delivery.

 

Spirent also contributed for the development and implementation of test cases for evaluating video quality and related metrics, and IP network impairments based on ITU-T G.1050-2007, the company statement said.