5G New Radio (NR) and 5G Core (5GC) Network Test Solution
MAPS™ 5GC Network emulator can emulate multiple UEs and elements such as UE+gNB, AMF, SMF, UPF, AUSF, UDM, EIR and SMSF on the 5G core network.
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Overview
The 5G technology standard, as defined by 3GPP, has brought a new radio access technology and a 5G Core network referred to as 5GC. With 5G, it is possible to integrate elements of different generations in Standalone (SA) and Non-standalone (NSA) configurations. However, deploying high-quality voice, video, and data services over 5G poses significant challenges for service providers, including backward compatibility, inter-operability, and high-quality requirements. Therefore, rigorous 5G network testing and troubleshooting are essential for ensuring smooth operations.
5G network testing involves the simulation of control plane signaling with network traffic and data traffic ensure that the network's functionalities and performance meet the expected standards. GL's comprehensive Signaling and Traffic Emulation 5G test equipment suite, commonly referred to as MAPS™, provides a unique programmable, scriptable framework for 5G device testing, including 5G simulation and 5G Core network testing.
In the End-to-End 5G network architecture, the network comprises various components, including the 5G Access Network (gNB), Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF), Authentication Server Function (AUSF), Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF), Unified Data Management (UDM), Session Management Function (SMF), Short Message Service Function (SMSF), Equipment Identity Register (EIR), and User Plane Function (UPF) connected to Data Server or Application Functions, and to EPC/IMS core for interoperability. All these underlying entities of the core network can be accurately tested for functionalities and performance with MAPS™ 5G test equipment suite.
With the capability of supporting enormous services and applications, massive connections, and new channel coding schemes at very high bandwidth, 5G network testing and troubleshooting are vital for ensuring the smooth operations of 5G networks. The use of a comprehensive 5G test equipment suite like MAPS™ is crucial for performing cross-domain testing, 5G Emulation, and 5G analysis using GL's PacketScan™ application leading to the successful transition to new technology such as 5G.
5G Protocol Analysis
GL’s PacketScan™ 5G protocol analyzer supports monitoring of 5G networks. It captures, segregates, monitors, and collects statistics on all calls over N1N2, N4, N8, N10, N11, N12 and N13 interfaces of the 5G network. GL's 5G Protocol Analyzer is an optional module (PKV112) available within PacketScan™ on purchase of additional licensing.
GL’s Monitoring Probes for 5G Wireless Networks capture CDRs, detect fraudulent activities, alert on critical parameters, measure KPIs, and performance statistics.
GL’s MAPS™ supports emulation of following 5GC network interfaces -
- MAPS™ N1 N2 Interface Emulator - gNodeB (also called Next Generation RAN), and AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) nodes
- MAPS™ N4 Interface Emulator - Session Management Function (SMF) and User Plane Function (UPF) elements
- MAPS™ N8 Interface Emulator - Unified Data Management (UDM) and Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
- MAPS™ N10 Interface Emulator - Unified Data Management (UDM) and Session Management Function (SMF)
- MAPS™ N11 Interface Emulator - Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and Session Management Function (SMF)
- MAPS™ N12 Interface Emulator - Authentication Server Function (AUSF) and Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
- MAPS™ N13 Interface Emulator - Authentication Server Function (AUSF) and User Data Management (UDM)
- MAPS™ N17 Interface Emulator - Equipment Identity Register (EIR) and Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF)
- MAPS™ N20 Interface Emulator - Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and Short Message Service Function (SMSF)
- MAPS™ N21 Interface Emulator - Unified Data Management (UDM) and Short Message Service Function (SMSF)
- MAPS™ N22 Interface Emulator - Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) and Network Slice Selection Function (NSSF)
- MAPS™ N29 Interface Emulator - Network Exposure Function (NEF) and Session Management Function (SMF)
- MAPS™ N51 Interface Emulator - Mobility Management Function (AMF) and Network Exposure Function (NEF)
In addition, GL’s comprehensive QoS Test Suite for 5G Wireless Networks provides a unique VQuad™ Solution for evaluating voice and data quality independent of the underlying network such as Cellular/Wireless networks, Land Mobile Radios and Wired networks. When linked with the GL VQT Analyzer, one can automate Voice POLQA measurements and evaluate true ‘User-Experience’ in real-time.
Emulate Core Network Functions
- End-to-End 5G Network Emulation
- Emulates 5G - UE+gNB, AMF, SMF, UPF, AUSF, UDM, SMSF and EIR
- Feature and Functional Testing
- Performance Testing
- Inter-Operability Testing
- Migration Testing
- Advanced Voice Feature Testing - IVR, Voice Recognition, Speech-to-Text
Performance based on Massive UEs, GTP Traffic and Voice Quality Metrics
- Emulate Massive UEs (up to 64,000) with Voice Traffic
- Emulate User-plane GTP traffic at high line rates (up to 40 Gbps)
- Assess Voice Quality (eModel, PESQ, POLQA)
Monitoring Core Network
- Voice Quality, Data Retention, Lawful Interception, Fraud Detection
- Record thousands of Voice Calls - Filter & Record Only Calls-Of-Interest
- Capture up to 30,000 Simultaneous Voice Calls
End-to-End Voice, Video, and Data QoS Testing
- Speech metrics such as PESQ, and POLQA
- Automated data testing - TCP, UDP, VoIP, Route, HTTP, FTP, DNS, SMS, Email and more
- Measure delay, packet loss, drops, and more
- True performance of 5G and VoNR can be realized
Signaling and Traffic Emulation over 5G
MAPS™ 5GC Network emulator can emulate multiple UEs and elements such as UE+gNB, AMF, SMF, UPF, AUSF, UDM, SMSF and EIR which form the 5G core network. The Emulator is designed to test 5G NR base stations (gNBs) and 5G Core Network Functions (NF) according to 3GPP standards. With the help of mobile phones, and other emulated wireless networks, the 5G Lab setup can be operated in real-time for making VoNR calls and for interworking with 4G, 3G, 2G , PSTN and VoIP networks. It includes ready-to-use scripts, as per IETF specification. Test scripts include general messaging and call flow scenarios for multimedia call session setup and control over IP networks.
GL’s End-to-End Wireless Network Emulation Test Suite provides you an advanced full-fledged “Live Network” at your company premises in any customized package to suit test requirements. The test suite provides reliable integrated solutions to vendors and service providers for emulation, monitoring, troubleshooting any wireless network, including, 5G, 4G, 3G, and 2G. All functionalities conform to industry standards.
GL’s MAPS™ supports emulation of 5GC network interfaces - N1, N2, N3, N4, N8, N10, N11, N12, N13, N14, N17, N20, N21, N29, N51 and other GTP interfaces.
- Supports generation and verification of traffic over 5G, including VoNR (Voice), Email, FTP, Web (HTTP), Video, and more with additional licenses - Mobile traffic core – GTP (ETH101) and Mobile Traffic Core – Gateway (ETH102)
- Emulate up to 500 Smartphones (UEs) powering up and down
- Integrate 5G core network easily with any other networks (wired or wireless) to test any call scenario. It can emulate various nodes across 5G network
- Authenticate and confirm security procedures
- QoS requests for greater or lesser bandwidth
- Temporary addressing management for mobility and security
- Provides data connectivity and services
Supported procedures include both roaming and non-roaming, including interworking between 5GS (NG RAN +5GC) and EPS (4G RAN+EPC), mobility within 5GS, QoS, policy control and charging, authentication and in general 5G System-wide features such as SMS, Location Services, Emergency Services.
Standards
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|---|---|
| System Architecture for the 5G | 3GPP TS 23.501 V2.0.1 (2017-12) |
| NG Application Protocol (NGAP) | 3GPP TS 38.413 V15.2.0 (2018-12) |
| Non-Access-Stratum (NAS) | 3GPP TS 24.501 V15.2.1 (2019-01) |
| GPRS Tunneling Protocol for Control Plane (GTPv2-C) | 3GPP TS 29.274 V15.2.0 (2017-12) |
| NR and NG-RAN Overall Description | 3GPP TS 28.300 V2.0.0 (2017-12) |
| Packet Forwarding Control Protocol (PFCP) | 3GPP TS 29.244 V15.4.0 (2018-12) |
Example Use Cases:
MAPS™ 5GC Emulator Testing gNodeB (DUT)
MAPS™ gNB Emulator Testing 5G Core Network (DUT)
Monitoring 5G Network
GL's PacketScan™ - an All-IP Network Monitoring software offers powerful features to capture and monitor live signaling and traffic over IP with Voice, Data, and Video QoS capability addresses customers long felt need of call quality analysis in IP networks. GL’s 5G protocol analyzer supports monitoring of 5G networks. The 5G Analyzer captures, segregates, monitors, and collects statistics on all calls over N1/N2, N4, N8, N12 and N13 interfaces of the 5G network.
- Capable of capture, decode and perform various test measurements between any two nodes across various interfaces of the 5G network
- Support for wide-range of codecs, including AMR, AMR WB and EVS – visit Voice Codec webpage for more details.
- Supports QoS parameters such as E-model (G.107) based MOS/R-Factor scores, Media Delivery Index (Delay Factor: Media Loss Rate) for video calls, Jitter, Delay, and Gap for Audio and Video traffic
- Segregates, captures, and collects statistics on VoIP and Wireless calls
- Live monitoring of traffic statistics - digits, tones, voice, video, and T.38 fax over IPv4 and IPv6 (version 4 and version 6) networks
- Monitors QoS (quality of service) on voice and video calls
- Supports both real-time and offline analysis
- Trace files for analysis can be loaded through simple command-line arguments
- Decode and analyze N1N2 and N4 protocol stack
- Test gNodeB or UE over N1, N2, N3, N4, N8, N10, N11, N12, N13, N14, N17, N20, and N21 interfaces of 5G network
- The protocols supported for decoding across all these interfaces are NAS, NGAP, GTP-U, SCTP, UDP, TCP, and IP
Typical 5G Network Call Capture
As an example, the screenshot below illustrates how 5G call is easily decoded in GL’s Packetscan™ All-IP analyzer
Visit PacketScan™ for Wireless Networks webpage for more details. For centralized web-based monitoring network, visit NetSurveyorWeb™ page.
Voice, Data, Video QoS
End-to-End Voice, Video and Data Quality Testing
Using GL’s VQuad™ with the Dual UTA HD, or all-in-one VQuad™ Probe HD, along with centralized analytical tools, voice, data, as well as video quality can be tested simultaneously on a wireless or wired network.
Since the GL’s VQuad™ solution is network independent, all Voice and Data networks are supported including 3G, WiMax, 4G LTE, Advanced LTE and the upcoming 5G. And since the GL’s VQuad™ solution supports both Narrowband and Wideband traffic, VoNR testing is fully supported.
Automated VQuad™ Test Script Execution
GL’s VQuad™ NetTest solution provides automated data testing on Mobile Devices (Android and Apple) as well as PC based internet connections. The Data Testing includes TCP, UDP, HTTP, FTP, DNS, VoIP, SMS, and Email tests. GL’s Video Application Part (VAC) supports Video Conference testing between any two VAC Agents. GL’s VAC Agents can be installed on any Android device, Win PCs or Linux box. GL’s Voice Quality Testing (VQT) supports automated voice quality between any two nodes within the network using latest ITU based algorithms including Perceptual Objective Listening Quality - POLQA (ITU-P.863) and PESQ (ITU-P.862). The POLQA algorithm is specifically used for testing Wideband voice networks.
- Complete end to end voice, data, video quality testing of LTE 4G/5G network-visit Automated Network Wide Testing
- Automated test statistics and results across next generation LTE network can be accessed via web interface
- Connect to Mobile Phones, Smart Phones, and Broadband Devices using GL’s portable VQuad™ - Dual UTA HD system
- Test LTE 4G/ 5G devices for Voice, Data, Video quality metrics with complete automation and centrally controlled system
- Use GL’s VQuad™ - Dual UTA HD to confirm quality of service during the network upgrade process
- VQuad™ can remotely perform Automated Data Testing on any Android or IOS mobile devices (running the GL NetTest app), irrespective of where the phone is located, and whether the phone is on a voice call or not.
- Perform automated data testing on PC-based Broadband Internet (Broadband 5G/4G/3G/2G, WiFi, Wired) and on Apple/Android Mobile Devices – tests include TCP, UDP, HTTP, VoIP, FTP, DNS, SMS, UEInfo, SimInfo, and PhoneInfo
- Supported devices - Mobile Radio (PTT) & Mobile Phones (VoNR, VoLTE, 4G, 5G, 3G, Wi-Fi, WiMax)
- Supports both Narrowband (8k sampling rate) as well as Wideband (16k sampling rate) connections for use in networks utilizing the AMR-WB codec
Visit Complete Voice and Data Quality webpage for more details.
As an example, the screenshot below illustrates the HD voice quality measurement using POLQA–
- VQT software includes industry standard voice quality analysis algorithms – POLQA and PESQ
- POLQA testing is available for VQuad™ interfaces
- VQT can be configured for fully Automated analysis of recorded voice files
- Full Reference algorithm (FR) measurements with high accuracy for dedicated tests in live networks
- POLQA analysis results include POLQA MOS, E-Model, Signal Level, Noise Level, and Jitter
- Real-time mapping of results with GPS option used in conjunction with VQuad™. Results mapped in WebViewer™ using Google Maps
- The results can be accessed remotely from a database using the WebViewer™, displayed in both tabular and graphic formats
Visit Voice Quality Testing webpage for more details.
HD Voice Quality Testing for Wireless Networks
Validating the Functions of 5G Network Elements
Any of the network elements in the above architecture can be replaced with user's DUT to perform single interface, multi-interface, or wrap-around testing -
- Single Interface Test Setup - With this solution, a single interface can be tested using MAPS™, which can embed all the functionalities of the entities interacting with this interface
- Multi Interface Test Setup - With this solution, DUTs over different interfaces can be tested simultaneously using a single MAPS™, which provides all the required functionalities over these interfaces
- Wrap Around Test Setup - With this solution, vendors can test their DUT by replacing all the nodes interacting with the device with appropriate MAPS™ products
MAPS™ 5GC Emulator Testing gNodeB (DUT)
MAPS™ gNB Emulator Testing 5G Core Network (DUT)
Wrap around testing of AMF (DUT)
Wrap around testing of SMF (DUT)
MAPS™ 5GC Emulator testing AUSF and UDM Functions (DUT)
Resources
| Item | Description |
| PKS305 | MAPS™ 5G Multi-Interface Emulation |
| PKS500 | MAPS™ 5G N1N2 Interface Emulator |
| PKS501 | MAPS™ 5G N4 Interface Emulator |
| PKS502 | MAPS™ 5G Service based Emulation (Prerequisite base license for all service based (Open API) interface emulations) |
| PKS502 | MAPS™ 5G N17 Interface Emulation |
| PKS503 | MAPS™ 5G N8 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS504 | MAPS™ 5G N10 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS505 | MAPS™ 5G N11 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS506 | MAPS™ 5G N12 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS507 | MAPS™ 5G N13 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS508 | MAPS™ 5G N20 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS509 | MAPS™ 5G N21 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS510 | MAPS™ 5G N22 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS511 | MAPS™ 5G N29 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| PKS511 | MAPS™ 5G N51 Interface Emulation (Requires PKS502) |
| GTP Mobile Traffic Options | |
|---|---|
| ETH100 | Packet Traffic Simulation - GTP |
| ETH101 | Mobile Traffic Core – GTP |
| ETH102 | Mobile Traffic Core - Gateway |
| Voice and Data Testing | |
| VQT010 | VQuad™ Software (Stand Alone) |
| VQT280 | VQuad™ Probe HD (with Dual UTA HD) |
| VQT252 | Dual UTA HD – Bluetooth Option |
| VQT461 | Dual UTA HD Smartphone ACC Cable |
| VQT600 | VQuad™ NetTest Data Server Solution |
| VQT002 | Voice Quality Testing (PESQ only) |
| VQT006 | VQT w/ POLQA Server license (no limitations) |
| VQT007 | VQT POLQA v3, server license for 20 nodes |
| 5G Monitoring Solution | |
| PKV100 | PacketScan™ - (Online and Offline) |
| PKV101 | PacketScan™ - Offline |
| PKV110 | IMS Protocol Decodes (Optional with PacketScan™) |
| PKV107 | LTE (Long Term Evolution) Analyzer (Optional with PacketScan™) |
| PKV108 | Offline LTE (Long Term Evolution) Analyzer (Optional with PacketScan™) |
| PKV112 | 5G Analyzer (Optional with PacketScan™) |
| PKV113 | Offline 5G Analyzer - Optional with PKV101 (offline PacketScan™) and PKV170 (NetsurveyorWeb™) |
| Webinar |
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