Mobile Operator Leverages nGenius Solution to Accelerate 4G Long Term Evolution Network Deployment

• Networks & Connectivity - Cellular
• Networks & Connectivity - Network Management & Analysis Software

• Telecommunications

• Business Operation

• System Integration
• Testing & Certification

The mobile operator was in the process of implementing its LTE test network prior to a full production rollout across its operating area. They were making a considerable investment in capital, spectrum resources and engineering time to deploy LTE, and it was critical to fully test the network prior to carrying live traffic. They saw LTE as an important part of its ongoing long-term strategy in bringing 4G speeds to the markets it served. However, they experienced a latency problem with the Domain Name System (DNS) that was preventing progress on LTE capacity testing. DNS is a critical service enabling application used by the network for establishing customer connections to the correct gateway node and by end users as well to resolve the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of a target website when surfing the Web with their mobile devices. This problem with DNS was resulting in delays to the service provider’s testing schedule.

The mobile operator is a leading provider of wireless voice and data services with over 90 million mobile subscribers. They deliver a wide array of services over their 3G UMTS and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) network. In addition, they are deploying a Long Term Evolution – Evolved Packet Core (LTE/EPC) network in parallel with their 3G network to support mobile data services to their customers in North America. This North American mobile operator was in the process of implementing its LTE test network prior to a full production rollout across its operating area. This service provider was making a considerable investment in capital, spectrum resources and engineering time to deploy LTE, and it was critical to fully test the network prior to carrying live traffic.

In order to resolve this DNS server problem, the engineers turned to nGenius® solution to provide them the visibility, service performance views and extensive packet storage capabilities they needed to help troubleshoot their LTE/EPC pilot network. They deployed an InfiniStream® appliance in the network and connected the monitoring interfaces to the different tiers in the EPC in order to isolate where the DNS problem was occurring. The plan was to monitor the DNS transactions on the data plane traffic that simulated the customer Web surfing activity. InfiniStream appliances can capture, analyze and store a large amount of traffic and generate packet flow-based Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and usage metrics. It allowed the engineers to observe in real time the performance of the DNS transactions across the different tiers in the LTE service delivery network as well as in the IP services core. The degree of visibility and actionable intelligence they got from the nGenius solution was a significant improvement over what they were able to get from their existing tools.

• Faster problem resolution down to root cause
• Scalability to handle the large volume of traffic needed for proper analysis
• Consistent view of performance across the LTE/EPC network tiers, load balancers and application servers

• Reduced the troubleshooting effort by at least two weeks
• Avoided the corresponding labor and testing delays that would have otherwise jeopardized the completion of the project