Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA – GL Communications Inc., a global leader in telecom test and measurement solutions, addressed the press regarding their High-Density Packet Data emulator – PacketLoad™. This solution can emulate up to 100,000 subscribers, 40 Gbps of mobile data traffic and a high volume of voice calls to stress test 5G, 4G, and 3G networks.
PacketLoad™
As traffic intensity increases, network elements (including switches and routers) can impart various impairments such as packet loss, delay, bit errors, jitter, and degraded bandwidth. Emulating traffic is valuable in characterizing impairments as a function of traffic intensity and traffic types.
“GL’s PacketLoad™ appliance can generate up to 100,000 user endpoints along with a high volume of mobile GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP-C) (control plane), GTP-U (user plane) and packet traffic for up to 40 Gbps to load test or stress test 5G, 4G, and 3G networks ” said Vijay Kulkarni, CEO of GL Communications.
PacketLoad™ can allow different combinations of TCP/HTTP and UDP traffic combined with PCAP Replay to be emulated from both ends of the network. This helps to evaluate end-to-end network performance with variable signaling and traffic parameters.
The PacketLoad™ solution provides high-density stateful TCP/HTTP and PCAP Replay traffic types. It encapsulates the generated packet data within GTP headers and transmits it through gateways such as Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) and Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN), Evolved Node B (eNodeB) and Mobility Management Entity (MME) or Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW), or Next Generation Node B (gNodeB) and User Plane Function (UPF).
Message Automation and Protocol Simulation (MAPS™) platform is the basis for all signaling protocols and traffic generation – which includes voice, tones, digits, fax, data, and video. It covers legacy PSTN, next generation VoIP, wireless equipment, interfaces, and networks. Interfaces can be Analog, TDM, IP/Ethernet or Wireless.
The appliance works with MAPS™ 5G (N1 N2, N4) MAPS™ LTE (S1, eGTP), MAPS™ UMTS Gn Gp, MAPS™ IuPS applications. The MAPS™ Server system controls the PacketLoad™ appliance through a Command Line Interface. At the generating end, MAPS™ emulates UEs with different mobile traffic parameters. At the receiving end, MAPS™ with PacketLoad™ verifies the received data and provides various statistics including the total packets transmitted and received, latency, delay, bandwidth, total TCP connections created, successful connections, packet loss, and more.
Key Features
- Generate multiple simultaneous mobile traffic streams to simulate real-world network conditions
- User-friendly interface for easy configuration and monitoring
- Generate traffic for various protocols such as 5G, 4G LTE, and 3G, ensuring compatibility with a wide range of networks
- Create and modify traffic profiles dynamically, adjusting parameters such as bandwidth, latency, and packet loss to simulate different network scenarios
- Scripting and automation for creating custom test scenarios and automating repetitive tasks, enhancing efficiency
- Manage multiple calls and sessions simultaneously, allowing users to simulate a variety of communication scenarios
- Log results in real-time, allowing users to monitor network performance during testing
