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Free trial for SipBlocks – SIP/SDP functional simulator – is now available. Even if you don't care about SIP, please consider trying it anyway, as most of the features/capabilities are available in all other products.
Linkbit is proud to introduce Flare - a top performing load tester for Evolved Packet Core. Flare enables our customers to load test EPC elements, including the upcoming vEPC. In addition to nearly linear performance scalability per CPU blade, Flare retains all the unique functional testing capabilities delivered by Linkbit over the years. Linkbit customers no longer need to compromise between functional and load testing. Linkbit Flare delivers the top performance for both.
Well, it's finally up. Give it a spin and let us know how it worked for you!
We have never owned a CISCO CUCM box, or had a remote access to one. We certainly have never seen Skinny protocol spec. Does it even exist? Still, due to unique capabilities of PacketCraft we were able to build a Skinny (SCCP) simulator for a MNO customer. The simulator makes programmable bulk Skinny-to-Skinny and Skinny-to-SIP calls. If you need one, please let us know.
PacketCraft and Linkbit Studio documentation is finally online.
Linkbit Studio is a graphical programming environment common to all Linkbit platforms. It allows developing tests for Mobile Core networks by connecting graphical icons with software wires.
Linkbit Studio makes creating packets with any combination of headers/fields easy and allows sending/receiving messages at any order. Multiple networking stacks could be used together in a test case. For example, one can send/receive/analyze SS7, SIP, H.248, GSM MAP, CAP, RADIUS, DIAMETER packets in the same test flowchart.
The new Linkbit SymArray box has been validated in a major MNO network. The customer had the authentication test flow prepared in advance using Linkbit ITC. SymArray allowed to send RUN GSM ALGORITHM command to a registered in the network SIM card to complete the test.
This happened several times. A customer tells us: Wireshark decodes this packet just fine, and you guys show an error.
Wireshark is an incredibly powerful and useful tool, but sometimes it's just wrong. It tries to decode packets the best it could, but isn't strict in checking the formal syntax. We are.
I often go through similar Q&A with a potential customer:
Q: Can I build a specific packet exactly, then vary this field(s) dynamically while sending it, and do it all with GUI?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I receive a specific packet type, analyze any of its fields, save fields values for future use, and ignore all other incoming packets, and do it all with GUI?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I build a specific packet flow exactly, and play it into my test network, and do it all with GUI?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I vary a packet flow logic dynamically, making decisions in run time?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I import this pcap (hex dump) file to create the test case with GUI tools only?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I create traffic load tests?
A: Yes.
Q: So, are you telling me Linkbit tools provide absolute flexibility for Mobile Core networks testing?
A: Yes.
There are many levels of parallelization in a modern multi-core CPU system. They involve multiple layers of hardware and OS architecture. In this note I'd like to mention the application level parallelization provided by Linkbit software itself.
Once you created a single transaction flow with Linkbit flowchart builder and verified that it implements the network test logic required, running load becomes easy. The mechanism is built into Linkbit software architecture. Multiple instances of the flowchart can be created at ran time and executed in parallel, each concerned only with its own individual transaction flow. Definition of transaction key (id) is absolutely flexible, and could consist of values of any set of packet fields.
Parallelization between multiple independent flowcharts is available as well. One can have two or more flowcharts running independent stacks in parallel, for example, TCP and SCTP, or on a higher level, Sigtran and SIP, each flowchart been parallelized with multiple instances as described above. This allows to simulate signaling gateways, say from SIP to Sigtran and back. You can even direct different flowcharts to run on separate CPU cores.
Linkbit software provides a user with unlimited functional network testing flexibility, but requires no scripting skills. How is that possible?
It's possible due to unique software architecture. Linkbit visual flowchart builder allows to build any custom network stack logic with drag-and-drop and point-and-click operations only. No scripting required.
Linkbit is proud to introduce a software-only functional tester for Mobile Core networks—PacketCraft. Customers can install PacketCraft software on their own hardware platform.
PacketCraft software enables our customers to automatically import data from .pcap files, alter any set of fields on a network protocol layer before test starts and on-the-fly in run time, add/delete any field, build any stack logic with drag-and-drop operations only, dynamically analyze any combination of fields in the incoming messages and make run time decisions how to proceed based on the analysis.
Read more here...
Linkbit has delivered a new hardware: Linkbit SimArray Test Module. It allows Linkbit test platforms to access multiple real SIM cards registered in a MNO network. Any SIM card command defined by 3GPP TS 11.11 and supported by a specific SIM unit can be performed at any moment of test flow execution. A running test instance can access IMSI, ICCID or any other stored data, modify phone book, or make any other SIM operation normally made by a ME. The data received from the SIM card can be immediately used in testing network registration, authentication, PDP context creation, mobility and other aspects of UE behavior in a mobile network. SimArray Module may contain up to 64 simultaneously accessible SIM cards in a multi-user test environment. The cards are physically accessible and hot swappable on a live system.
We are happy to announce a new Linkbit blog! Please stay tuned for more news and updates.