Test against standby

Using active testing across both primary and standby network paths, operations teams can perform A/B-type testing of planned changes and analyze their effects. Operations teams (and automated network orchestrators) can also use this capability to respond to real-time degradations and outages. They can immediately see if a problem affects just the primary or the standby as well, and quickly determine when to migrate services to the standby system.

Building a virtuous circle

By embracing active assurance, CSPs can implement monitoring that is much better suited to always-on, dynamic 5G SA networks. But active assurance can also play a central role in network lifecycle management for a 5G world. Consider the following example of a CSP deploying a new network slice:

Service activation

The CSP needs to turn up a new ultra-low-latency network slice for a customer and wants to create a birth certificate—a final check before connecting the new service path to live customer traffic. The operations team uses assurance tools to perform an activation test, injecting synthetic traffic into the path to test latency, throughput, and other attributes before activating the slice. (Note that if the CSP has integrated activation testing into the Method of Procedures for new services, this testing happens automatically.)

Proactive monitoring

Next, the CSP Network Operations Center (NOC) continually monitors the state of the network for deviations in behavior—ideally, before they evolve into more significant problems. It’s a task that’s tailor-made for ML-based statistical analysis, and the active assurance platform uses this intelligence to monitor across multiple domains to identify emergent issues. More than just monitoring, however, the NOC also uses ML-based assurance tools to continually learn about services and identify the right KPIs to configure for a given SLA.

Root cause analysis

When assurance systems detect an anomaly, they immediately trigger active testing workflows to analyze it. Because active testing follows the end-to-end path of the service, the NOC can quickly identify the network domain where the issue originates, all the way down to the specific network function or interface causing the problem.

Continuous validation

After isolating a problem, the operations team applies the fix—and then returns to Step 1, activation testing, to revalidate that everything is working as it should. The process repeats in a continuous cycle.

Looking ahead

The buzz around 5G isn’t hype. 5G SA networks can deliver amazing new capabilities, and transformative new service experiences really do become possible. But that doesn’t mean CSPs are ready to deliver them. As an industry, we need to make sure we’ve mastered the basics of day-to-day operations in a 5G SA world. By bringing active testing out of the lab and into the NOC, we can build an assurance framework agile enough to keep up with highly complex, dynamic 5G networks. And we can finally start making the vision of new 5G service experiences reality.