5G Signaling Field to Lab Solution

The evolving landscape of 5G/NSA networks and devices necessitates innovative solutions to meet the challenges of handling field log complexity and automated network configuration validation. Our S-FTL tool extension, built upon the foundation of Protocol R&D Toolset, offers a promising and efficient way to address these challenges, ultimately enhancing the quality and efficiency of 5G service delivery to end customers.

5G Device and Chipset makers are spending manual engineering effort to analyse device field logs for protocol flow and convert them into a lab-based test case. The challenge is to reduce the amount of time taken for this process before technical team can replicate the field issue in the lab on a test equipment like Keysight UXM. This document provides an initial high-level introduction to Keysight 5G Field To Lab solution for Protocol and IMS signalling that has potential to dramatically reduce the time it takes to replicate a field issue in the lab environment. The document highlights key capabilities of the solution like smart protocol analysis, inconsistency correction and automatic test case generation and how it can improve efficiency for field integration workflow by saving customer the upfront manual effort and time and allowing customer to focus on the main problem event.

Two main areas of impact are expected to be:

1. Automating Field Log Complexity handling: Field logs seldom adhere to ideal standards. They frequently exhibit issues such as partial or incomplete data, inconsistencies, abrupt interruptions, unexpected occurrences, or even missing information. This necessitates substantial effort from users to analyse these logs and transform them into laboratory-based test scenarios. Notably, majority of device makers are currently handling this process manually, estimating that 60 to 70 percent of their time is consumed in reviewing, studying, and importing the field logs into laboratory tools. Therefore, there is a pressing need for an efficient and reliable solution to swiftly translate field device logs into precisely replicated protocol sequences within the controlled laboratory environment.

2. Automating Network Configuration Validation: Device and chipset makers seek a streamlined means to validate their devices and software releases against a comprehensive regression plan. They also aspire to automate the process of importing network configurations from various geographical regions and seamlessly integrating them into their regression plans.

The S8701A Protocol R&D Toolset (PRT) is ideally suited to address both critical use cases. The S-FTL (Signalling Field to Lab) tool extension has been developed explicitly to tackle these major pain points experienced by our customers. An additional advantage is the flexible input template offered by the solution, accommodating various input log formats, and enhancing its versatility and compatibility with diverse network environments.