Test process audits

It is becoming increasingly difficult for NSPs and their deployment partners to maintain a test process that copes with the latest network technology. Further complicating this has been a combined push within the test & measurement industry to standardise some test methodologies for Carrier Ethernet networks.

Our Network Test Audit service examines the following factors:

• Design of the carrier network
• Network device functionality
• The end user services being offered
• The current test process for in-house staff and contractors
• The capabilities of the existing test equipment inventory
• Reporting methods

Test equipment procurement

Understanding the test requirements of the network can be difficult, especially when deploying the latest technologies.

Our outsourced procurement service will produce a technical requirements specification based on your network and service offerings that can be issued to test & measurement equipment vendors.

We will then evaluate the test equipment offerings against the requirement. As a third party we have no vested interests in which instruments are purchased and ensure that we will recommend the most appropriate equipment based on your requirements.

Service differentiation

End user requirements can vary, while one customer will require a detailed service level agreement that has to be verified another may be satisfied with only a basic level of testing. It is possible to differentiate end user service offerings by the level of testing that is performed on the service

We can produce product description and test processes for each level of testing that is to be performed for test-differentiated services. Based on your test inventory we can then produce test configuration files for each equipment so that performing service turn-up can be just a case of loading up the relevant file for a service type.

Field automation

For field deployments and service turn up automation is a great way of ensuring that your network and customers are being tested the right way, every time. Key to this is understanding the full test process.

For example; when turning up Ethernet services the full turn up flow might be to test the fibre, then test the fibre connectors and finally run an Ethernet test. With our automation service this whole workflow can be automated, even though this might require several test instruments.