Spirent backs China Telecom’s advancement to 5G standalone network with breakthrough testing

Spirent Communications has announced its work with China Telecom on system-wide performance verification and assessment efforts for 5G Standalone (SA) network equipment. China Telecom used Spirent Landslide to rapidly test 5G core network commercial equipment from four vendors, conducting end-to-end system function verification and interoperability. This development marks a critical step forward in the scaled deployment of 5G SA networks.

Jacky Wu, Senior Director for Business Development of Spirent Communications, comments, “The system-wide performance verification of 5G SA core network commercial equipment completed jointly by Spirent, China Telecom and four vendors is a milestone event with great significance to the commercialization of 5G. Spirent Landslide delivered effective assurance to these tests, provided valuable reference data for equipment vendors to further optimize offerings, and laid a solid foundation for the scaled deployment of 5G SA.”

According to Spirent’s “5G: What To Expect In 2020” report, network equipment manufacturers and operators globally are accelerating 5G SA timetables, driven by a number of factors, including inability to achieve market differentiation with 5G Non-Standalone. Performance of 5G core networks is paramount for attracting enterprise investment, trust and use case adoption. This is driving operators to expedite realistic and authentic system testing emulating real world conditions, spanning a range of network elements and complex procedures and bringing higher stability and endurance requirements. 

In the tests for China Telecom, Spirent Landslide is used to simulate large-scale 5G devices and base stations to test scenarios such as large-scale end point registration, session setup and service traffic ramp-ups for core network elements. These tests and verifications help China Telecom validate and assess system stability and resource utilization of 5G core network equipment from different vendors. They also demonstrate the influence of underlying architectures on the system performance of 5G core networks, helping carriers achieve early deployment and commercialization of 5G SA networks. China Telecom achieved a series of innovative outcomes in service models, traffic ratio and rules, constructing over 40,000 identification rules, and thoroughly verifying the overall performance and deep packet inspection capabilities of its 5G core network system. 

Spirent Landslide is an advanced mobile core network performance testing solution from Spirent’s Lifecycle Service Assurance business. The solution is capable of simulating millions of mobile data subscribers accessing wireless networks in various modes, allowing carriers to perform accurate tests on 5G core networks, radio and transportation infrastructures to assure they are ready for 5G commercialization. The Landslide virtual solution successfully supports this large-scale commercial performance validation which comes with stringent requirements of 48 hour non-stop operation and 99.999% success rate.