VoIP QoS Assurance Test

The VoIP Quality of Service (QoS) Service Assurance Test is designed to validate and ensure maintenance of service level agreements (SLAs) in high performance Voice-over-Wireless LAN (VoWLAN) networks. IxVeriWave offers an automated approach to determining a network's service level capacity, performance, call quality metrics, and service level assurance offered by infrastructure WLAN equipment in the presence of multiple VoIP calls and data traffic.

With the increasing popularity of real-time, delay-sensitive applications such as VoIP, Quality of Service protocols are essential to enabling high-priority voice and video traffic to share the medium efficiently with lower priority data traffic. The VoIP QoS Service Assurance Test Suite quantifies and qualifies the VoIP service level and service capacity of a WLAN network supporting mixed traffic including voice, video, and data. It offers a comprehensive functional test to validate the Service Differentiation capability of the WLAN, and enables verification of adherence to the IEEE 802.11e standard (as well as WMM), regression testing, and performance-envelope testing/analysis.

These tests are designed to identify bugs early in development and QA cycles, increase test coverage, and automate the test environment. Use of this test suite reduces time-to-market, increases test coverage, and optimizes deployment of multiservice wireless networks.

Key Features

• Voice service level capacity of the WLAN network determined
• Characterizes the Service Level Agreement (SLA) break-point of the WLAN infrastructure equipment handling a constant voice call load in the presence of changing best-effort traffic load
• VoIP call quality measured as overall R-value (MOS score) and real-time and historical (i.e., trend analysis) R-value variation
• End-to-end throughput, latency, and jitter of different traffic priorities verified throughout the network
• Helps ensure the effects of security and QoS power-save protocols do not compromise voice quality
• Enables QoS performance issues to be identified and addressed prior to deployment
• Expectations of marketing, development, QA, and customers can be aligned using standard QoS benchmark metrics

Specifications

Features	Description
Test Results	Test suite provides both real-time and final test results and metrics. Results can be exported in comma separated value (.CSV) file format or HTML to facilitate results analysis and reporting The automatically generated PDF test report provides an executive summary including comprehensive graphs, a description of the test and the significance of the results obtained, as well as drill-down detailed results Real-time counters track test progress and reflect failure conditions as they occur Integrated capture functionality provides for bi-directional traffic capture while the test is executing Categorization of test results per client and per QoS flow provides a comprehensive picture of the behavior of the system being tested
Tests and Metrics	Service Level Capacity Test - Determines the capacity of the WLAN infrastructure to support a specified level of high-priority VoIP traffic for a given Service Level by measuring the maximum number of voice calls supported for a given SLA (voice call R-value / MOS score) in the presence of a given low priority background and best-effort traffic load. Service Level Assurance Test - Determines the Service Level Agreement (SLA) break-point of WLAN infrastructure equipment handling a constant VoIP call load in the presence of changing best-effort traffic load by measuring the achieved Service Level of high-priority (voice and video) traffic as background and best-effort (low priority) traffic changes. This validates complex usage scenarios through changing traffic patterns. Service Differentiation Test - Determines the performance, capacity, and call quality metrics offered by infrastructure WLAN equipment in the presence of multiple VoIP calls and data traffic when utilizing the prioritization capabilities defined by the 802.11e standard.
Test Configuration	GUI interface is presented in a hierarchical tree format to enable quick navigation among tests Introduction screen per test describes the test in both graphical and text forms for easy test selection All tests follow tab-based scheme for Port, Client, Traffic, and Test setups to maintain consistency and provide an easy-to-use interface
Test Control	Duration in hours, minutes, and seconds Number of trials, ports, and clients DUT settling time, L3 learning parameters (ARP-IPv4, learning time, aging time) Real-time statistics update interval Client collision probability control to emulate hidden node issues, backoff-timer collisions etc. Varied client configurations with different security types, power save levels and distances from AP
Client Control	Power level, frame error ratio, PHY data rate, security, power save, QoS power save (U-APSD) MAC and IP addresses, association rate, connection retries Media access parameters associated with the 4 different 802.11e QoS access categories
Traffic Control	User priority level per 802.11e/802.1D VoIP calls (G.711, G.723, G.729) Traffic load: fixed or stepped Burst or constant ramp Data payload type (RTP, UDP, TCP, Raw IPv4), Data payload content Unidirectional and bidirectional transfer

Minimum Requirements

Ordering Information

980-3011
IxVeriWave VoIP QoS Service Assurance Test Suite, 1 port; combines voice over IP (VoIP) with WMM and 802.11e protocols to validate WLAN service level agreements (SLAs) for voice and data; license sold on per-WaveBlade basis

This material is for informational purposes only and subject to change without notice. It describes Ixia's present plans to develop and make available to its customers certain products, features and capabilities. Ixia is only obligated to provide those deliverables specifically included in a written agreement between Ixia and the customer.

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