Spirent unveils Unified QoE Testing for better User App Experiences

Spirent Communications, the trusted provider of test, measurement, assurance and analytics solutions for next-generation devices and networks, today announced an industry first in application testing. A new enhancement to the Spirent TestCenter solution now enables full-stack Layer 2 to Layer 7 testing in a single unified platform. This new functionality provides much greater visibility into how business-critical applications perform in complex networks and offers important new insights into the anticipated app performance, stability and actual Quality of Experience (QoE) being delivered to end users.

“Until now, testing could only occur in layer silos with a focus on the device, but with cloud-based apps generating substantial traffic and new latency challenges, the game has changed for measuring an application’s true performance capabilities,” said Spirent Marketing Director for Cloud & IP, Malathi Malla. “By unifying how Quality of Experience is tested and emulating real-world cloud services between endpoints to validate network equipment performance, we are taking the onus off our customers to make inferences about how applications will perform, and addressing critical blind spots that have existed in predicting how apps will perform in complex network environments.”

A new wave of devices connected to the internet, and heavy social and streaming media content are causing the highest-ever bandwidth demands on provider networks. At the same time, enterprises are moving to wireless local area networks (WLAN) for on-premise connectivity and cloud-based services for productivity applications. As a result, operators, network equipment and device manufacturers and enterprises are demanding real-time traffic testing use cases to ensure QoE.

The latest enhancement to Spirent TestCenter assures QoE and Quality of Service (QoS) by allowing users to test across the full Layer 2 to Layer 7 stack with emulated topologies and Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) interfaces, measuring traditional packet and Service Level Agreement (SLA)-specific metrics.

Spirent TestCenter can now generate a full stack mix of application traffic, combining existing Layer 2-3 capabilities with robust topology emulation and enhanced Layer 4-7 stateful application traffic generation. The resulting unified view gives unparalleled insight into how leading streaming and sharing applications will perform based on expected network flows.

“We can only help assure our customers are delivering the best experiences if we help them see the full picture when it comes to quality,” said Malla. “From the core network to the user’s hand, Spirent’s testing advancements are focused on being everywhere that a threat to user quality exists. We are focused on helping guide the important decisions our customers make when tuning networks, equipment, devices and services to deliver the best performance possible.”

The enhanced Spirent TestCenter solution also leverages Spirent TestCenter IQ for the integration of error events and results data, providing additional performance insights through consolidated, real-time monitoring and correlation for in-depth analysis of system behaviour.