Network and Service Analyzer (NSA)

NSA is a suite of fully-automated network and service assurance software applications that improve the performance and efficiency of 2G test, 2.5G test, 3G troubleshooting and 4G/LTE troubleshooting as well as mobile network optimization.

Customer Challenges

With the exponential growth of network complexity and the integration of different legacy and next generation technologies, accurate and reliable data correlation has become critical to effective and fast network and service assurance and 2G/3G/4G/LTE troubleshooting. Mobile operators need to correlate and analyze data from different interfaces in order to identify in the shortest possible time all of the network and service issues that may cause performance degradation.

Mobile operators need reliable monitoring platforms that can test multiple network environments including legacy and emerging technologies ranging from 2G to 4G with one platform. With today’s explosion of mobile broadband-based high load data traffic and the evolution of networks towards an all-IP architecture, the ability to capture high data rates without data loss is critical for reliable performance analysis and troubleshooting. The goal is to identify all issues before roll out, minimize time to resolution, reduce the cost of test infrastructure and increase the productivity of test teams.

How we can help

NSA is a suite of fully-automated network and service assurance software applications for 2G test, 2.5G test, 3G troubleshooting, 4G/LTE troubleshooting and mobile network optimization. NSA provides a single software platform that is suitable for use by network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) and mobile operators in development, trial and live troubleshooting environments. NSA provides control plane and user plane analysis across LTE, UMTS, HSPA+, WiMAX, Core and GERAN networks.

NSA enables multiple users to trace subscribers’ calls both in real time and offline as they travel across the network over multiple interfaces and over several network elements. NSA call tracing enables users to quickly isolate the problem even in presence of a massive amount of collected data. Users can reduce a large number of calls through the use of filtering criteria such as a specific IMSI or a release cause value and then quickly drill-down into those calls that require further attention. Message flows across all network elements for each selected calls can quickly be called up. A detailed frame view provides a down-to-bit-level view for facilitating root cause analysis which plays a critical role in 2G test, 2.5G test, 3G troubleshooting, 4G/LTE troubleshooting and mobile network optimization.

K18 and High.link probes feed the NSA system with captured traffic in a stream-store-analyze mode to ensure data integrity. Additionally the K2Air probe can be used in a similar manner to capture and analyze traffic from the LTE Uu air interface.

Features and Benefits

  • Automatic topology discovery and automatic instrument configuration minimize unproductive time consumed by activities such as test platform set-up and configuration, enabling faster access to information.
  • Multi-interface call trace, message statistics, KPI calculation and down-to-the-bit frame analysis minimize the time required to detect and resolve network and service issues for all mobile communications technologies from 2G to 4G.
  • Distributed monitoring architecture enables testing of physically/geographically distributed but connected sites. Calls can be monitored end-to-end over multiple interfaces regardless of the location of network elements. KPIs can be collected from all interfaces and users can drill-down to individual calls if needed.
  • Multi-user support increases the efficiency and productivity of test teams.

Applications

  • Campaign Based Live Network Troubleshooting
  • Product Verification & Validation
  • IOT and Compliance Testing
  • Network Performance Monitoring and Optimization 

Campaign Based Live Network Troubleshooting

Mobile operators need to quickly deploy dedicated test units to isolate the root causes of quality degradation and to carry on Quality of Service (QoS) surveys. For example, it may be necessary to execute a troubleshooting campaign at RNC level for a defined amount of time or an ad hoc campaign to identify specific root causes of issues, perhaps identified by VIP users, in a specific area. Once the problem is identified and resolved the units are no longer needed and can be deployed for another LNTS campaign.

Customers can work on specific issues by going deep into the details of network behavior at the edge of the network. They can also investigate parameters that might not be fully covered within the list of OSS counters or interfaces such as Iub that might not be monitored by network-wide systems because of timing of deployment, budget constraints or scaling requirements.

NSA helps field technicians identify root causes in less time and helps managers and directors meet their efficiency and QoS targets. The ability to isolate and resolve performance issues makes it possible to get new services to market faster and reduces time to ticket resolution for live networks.

RAN performance monitoring and optimization

When combined with the OptiMon protocol-based network optimization solution, NSA delivers RAN interface monitoring and data capture for advanced analysis and optimization of RAN performance. RAN performance optimization enables customers to increase the overall QoS provided to their subscribers, reduce operating expenditures and in some cases delay the deployment of new network elements that are no longer needed after performance tuning. NSA test drive campaigns have provided operating cost reductions of up to 60%. Field technicians will be able to diagnose problems that would have otherwise difficult been or impossible to find with drive test or RNC traces. Directors of optimization will be able to meet their business targets.

 

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