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T&M SERVICE PROVIDER: VAS the Way?

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

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Telecom operators across the world have a common problem–how do they take care
of quality of service (QoS) and network performance issues even as the amount of

traffic, especially data grows rapidly. On the other hand, the emergence of 2.5G

and 3G wireless networks meant to support high-speed data traffic offers new

challenges. It is in this backdrop that test and measurement (T&M) equipment

manufacturers are delivering a new generation of solutions.

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l Software-based

Solutions Gain Prominence:
T&M equipment manufacturers are placing

greater emphasis on software to make measurements easier to use, faster, and

more accurate. Since these software-based testing equipment use PC-based

platforms, the same hardware can be used to test any of the standards like GSM,

GPRS or CDMA by simply changing the software. In other words, PC is most likely

to become the standard T&M instrument hardware in the near future with the

integration of software testing tools into it. These solutions are easy to

configure (according to user requirements), use and also come at a lower cost.

More than that, for example, National Instruments promoted the concept of ‘virtual

instrumentation’ allows users to design and configure their own instruments

according to their requirements using software tools. On the other hand

solutions like Agilent Technologies’ new wireless application measurement

software (WAMS), the central component of its data service assurance program,

enables RF engineering teams to automate data traffic, quantify wireless data

user experience and find the cause of problems through leading visualization and

analysis tools, thereby reducing the cost of wireless data rollout. WAMS enables

RF engineers to build complex serial and parallel test sequences via an

easy-to-use and customizable interface. Tests are independent of wireless

technology and include multimedia message service (MMS), short message service (SMS),

HTTP, FTP, e-mail, wireless-application protocol (WAP), and PING.

l Portable

T&M Instruments:
T&M companies are making handheld T&M devices

with more functions and power. For examples, service providers can expect a

growing number of portable analyzers that can meet the needs of burgeoning field

applications. What is good about these instruments is that even though they are

portable they are powerful and feature-packed. Also, many T&M equipment

manufacturers are trying to harness the power and portability of handheld

computers. For example, Noah Industries (Melbourne, FL) offers a fiber-optic

power meter that ties into PDAs and provides graphs of the fiber’s

performance.

l Realtime RF

Analyzers:
Tektronix has come up with a new series of real-time spectrum

analyzers that provides the ability to trigger, capture and analyze time-varying

RF signals. RF signal characteristics are becoming more complex as RF

communications increasingly replace wired technologies in applications ranging

from inventory identification to video games. Today’s RF signals carry complex

modulation and change from one instant to the next, hopping frequencies, spiking

briefly, and then disappearing. As a result, these RF signals are difficult to

measure and present unpredictable behavior, making engineers’ ability to

observe RF devices with existing spectrum analyzers extremely challenging. This

evolution in RF technology has spawned an unprecedented demand for a new

approach to spectrum analysis. Realtime spectrum analysis has emerged as the

vehicle to address this RF technology evolution.

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Buying Tips

  • Compliance with ITU and International Recommendations:

    For most T&M solutions, the specifications are laid out by the

    international bodies like ITU-T, ETSI and ANSI for accuracy and consistency.

    The buyer must ensure that the instrument complies with these standards.

    Since the specifications for the instrument are much tighter than the

    equipment or device to be tested, their compliance with the International

    body’s recommendations is essential. If not, the results may lose accuracy

    and repeatability in the measurement

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  • Portability and Ruggedness: The equipment should

    be easy to carry and should have easy and accessible connections. It should

    be rugged enough to support wide range of temperature, jerk and vibrations,

    and humidity conditions.

  • Technology Support: The instrument should be such

    that it supports all the relevant technologiess for testing. It means that

    if the instrument is designed for the transmission technology testing based

    on optical fiber then it should support the currently prevailing technology

    like SDH, POS and ATM on SDH together in one box. This allows the buyer for

    easy testing in the technology mixed environment and also allows the testing

    in the area of technology migration.

  • Application Fitness: The instrument should not be

    so much general purpose to overkill the investment of the buyer. The

    instrument should target the correct market segment. For example, there are

    certain tests that are a must in field installation and maintenance and

    these are the key concern areas of the network operator. The instrument must

    be able to do all the tests needed by this segment, but need not include the

    entire lot of tests required in manufacturing and R&D. This will result

    in value for money for the buyer. Operators do not use R&D and

    manufacturing types of tests as they come in the area of factory acceptance

    test (FAT).

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  • Scalability: The instrument should be such that it

    is able to scale to higher bandwidth, interface, and testing requirement. It

    should also be possible to upgrade the instrument without hardware and

    software limitations so that the investment remains protected in the

    evolving technology. For e.g., GPRS and 3G technologies are still in the

    growth stage and have not yet matured. Modifications are happening in these

    technologies and the instrument should be able to upgrade to the changing

    technology and protocols.

  • Pre-sales and After-sales support: The company

    should have a direct presence in India so that they can advise and optimize

    the testing and test times. There should be a strong technical support team

    in the T&M supplier company so that instant solutions can be found while

    troubleshooting.

  • Repair and Uptime Support: The T&M supplier

    should have a standard calibration, repair and support center so that

    support of the order of 24/7 can be obtained.

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  • Solution Level from the Company: The T&M

    company should have the core competence in the area of test and measurement

    and should not be a non-focus segment in the company. Also the company

    should be able to provide the test and measurement solution in all the

    segments right form R&D to operations. Such companies are able to offer

    the perfect fit for the T&M solution to the market.

  • Communication

    Technologies, Transmission Frequencies, and Sample Rates in LocaArea

    Network
    Use

    the following chart to analyze communication technologies and

    technical characteristics use in LANs as art aid in selected

    appropriate test instruments.
    Communication



    Technologies
    Date

    Rate
    Communication

    Medium
    No.

    of Fibers/ Wire Pairs
    Encoding Transmission

    Frequency
    Digital

    Oscilloscope Sampling Rate
    FDDI 100

    Mbps
     Fiber

    optic
    2 4B5B 125

    MHz
    250

    Msamples/s
    CDDI 100

    Mbps
    Twisted

    pair
    4 MLT-3 31.25

    MHz
    62.5

    Msamples/s
    10base-T 10

    Mbps/s
    Twisted

    pair
    2 Manchester 20

    MHz
    48

    Msample/s
    10Obase-T 100

    Mb/s
    Twisted

    Pair
    4 8B/6T 25

    Mhz
    50

    Msample/s
    Gigabit 1000

    Mb/s copper
    Twisted

    pair
    4 PA

    M5
    125

    MHz/per pair
    250

    Msample/s
    Gigabit 1000

    Mb/s copper
    LX 2 8B

    /10B
    1.25

    GHz
    2.5

    Gsample/s
    ATM 155

    Mb/s
    Twisted

    pair
    2 CAP-64 25

    MHz
    50

    Msamples/s
    ATM 155

    Mb/s fiber
    Multimode 2 8

    B10B
    194.4

    MHz
    388

    Msample/s
    ATM 155

    Mb/s fiber
    Plastic

    fiber
    2 NRZ 155.520

    MHz
    311

    Msample/
    ATM 155

    Mb/s Fiber
    Single

    mode
    2 Scrambled

    1+X6+X7
    155.520

    MHz
    311

    Msample/s
    ATM 622

    Mb/s Fiber
    Single

    mode
    2 Scrambled

    1+X6+X7
    622.080

    MHz
    1.24

    Gsample/s
    ATM 2.4

    Gb/s fiber
    Single

    mode
    2 Scrambled

    1+X6+X7
    2.48832

    ) GHz
    4.9

    Gsample/s
    ATM 9.9

    Gb/s Fiber
    Single

    mode
    2 Scrambled

    1+X6_X7
    9.953280

    GHz
    19.9

    Gsample/s

    Market Information

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    FY 2002-2003 was a particularly good year for the T&M industry. With the

    wire-line operators in the country making huge capital investments to put their

    network backbones in place, the demand for T&M requirement went up.

    Traditionally, BSNL and MTNL have been the bulk buyers. But during FY 2002—03,

    the two largest business houses in India, Tata and Reliance, made significant

    investments in T&M. Since the network build-up phase is the one where the

    need and investment on the T&M gear is the highest, the wired line segment

    procured optical and transmission test products. On the other hand, growth in

    the wireless segment was mostly confined to capacity augmentation and

    upgradation of existing networks. Network planning and management tools were

    bought in this space.

    Data

    Link Layout Audit Measurements: (OSI Layer2)
    Ethernet Token

    Ring
    FDDI ATM WAN
    l Capacity

    User
    l Activity

    Statistics
    l Communications

    matrix
    l Collisions
    l FCS

    Errors
    l Runits
    l Jabliers
    l Misalignment

    Errors
    l Broadcasts
    l Multicasts
    l Number

    Nodes
    l Capacity

    User
    l Activity

    Statistics
    l Communications

    matrix
    l Beacons
    l FCSÂ

    Errors
    l Ring

    Purges
    l Claim

    Token Frames
    l Receiver

    Congestion
    l Token

    Rotation Time
    l Number

    of Nodes
    l Capacity

    User
    l Activity

    Statistics
    l Communications

    matrix
    l Beacons
    l FCS

    Errors
    l Claim

    Frames
    l SMT

    and Void Frames
    l Token

    Potation Time
    l Number

    of Nodes
    l Capacity

    User
    l Activity

    Statistics
    l Communications

    matrix
    l SDH

    Parameters:
         Â

    - Frame Loss
         Â

    - LineAIS
         Â

    - PathAIS
         Â

    - LineEBE
         Â

    - LineER
         Â

    - PathER
    l Totacalls
          Â

    - Idle Calls
          Â

    - Busy Calls
    l HEC

    Errors
    l CelSyn

    Loss
    l CelBERT
    l Test

    Celintersection (o.19)c
      of celloss and celdelay>
    l ER

    Capacity User
    l Activity

    Statistics
    l Communications

    matrix
    l Connections

    Statistics
      (number

    of completed of
      failed

    connection set ups)
       
    l CRC

    Errors
    l Transmission

    Delay
      Measurements

    l Market Shares: With a

    lot of all-round activity in the telco space, the T&M industry is estimated

    to have registered a 34 percent growth over the previous year. The total size of

    the T&M communications market was estimated to be Rs 295 crore during FY

    2002—03. Apart from the service provider sector, the broadcast industry also

    bought T&M solutions in a big way. The defense and the PSU sectors continued

    to procure a good deal of T&M equipments. The estimated buying by the

    service providers was close to 56 percent of the total business, while that by

    the manufacturing and the defense sectors was 11.9 percent and 10.2 percent

    respectively. The broadcasting industry accounted for 7.8 percent share.

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    Agilent, Acterna, Tektronix, Rhode & Schwarz, and Anritsu are the top

    five players in the business. Together, they account for about 82 percent of the

    communications T&M market. Agilent is the largest T&M supplier with an

    estimated business of Rs 100 crore, followed by Acterna at Rs 61 crore and

    Tektronix at Rs 32 crore. A global T&M vendor, Agilent has a comprehensive

    range of solutions including spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, and antenna

    testers, and also offers design, network optimization, technology migration, and

    implementation services. While Acterna is strong in OTDRs and network analyzers,

    Tektronix is very strong in protocol analyzers. Acterna is focused on the

    optical, access, and IP space. Tektronix is the clear leader in protocol

    analyzers space with close to 85 percent market share.

    Rhode & Schwarz and Anritsu are strong in the RF and microwave T&M

    equipment business. This part of the equipment business in the country has been

    close to Rs 130 crore. While Agilent is estimated to have 45 percent of the

    market share in that segment, Rhode & Schwarz and Anritsu command about 25

    percent and 6 percent market share respectively.

    Others in the industry–ICT, Fastech, Seven Hills, Aishwarya Telecom, and

    Trinity Electronics–have big customers in the government sector. ICT

    Electronics/Trend address the PDH, SDH, and SONET technologies, and have bagged

    orders for SDH analyzers, and ATM, ISDN, and DSL testing solutions. Majors like

    Sunrise, Nettest, and Fluke are present through distributors. For example,

    Fastech distributes Sunrise Telecom’s solutions and is strong on the hand-held

    side. Other large distributors include AIMIL, Aplab, Forbes Gokak, Meera

    Agencies, Scientific Mes-Tek, and VXL.

    l Trends and Drivers: The

    spending on T&M as part of the network costs is dismally low in India. While

    globally, the cost of T&M equipment is 5—8 percent of the total network

    cost, in India, the figure is as low as 0.1 percent. Indications are that the

    T&M spend will go up in the coming years. More so because the new service

    providers are still in the rollout phase.

    Companies are still seeing T&M investment as expenditure. However, in

    future, they will see it as an investment as they will be required to

    differentiate on quality, better customer service, reliable networks and

    increased productivity.

    Earlier, sanctions were a major hindrance in the growth and propagation of

    T&M. It must be remembered here that the major suppliers of T&M

    equipment are global vendors, primarily those from the US. And the easing of the

    US sanctions since October 2001 has enabled them to sell a much broader range of

    products. During the sanctions phase, even the sale of an oscilloscope with 1G

    sample per second performance was prohibited. Post the sanctions, vendors can

    today sell to agencies like Aeronautical Development Establishment, the

    Electronics and Radar Development Establishment, Bharat Electronics, HAL, DRDO,

    and ISRO. Today, the clearances to supply products are accomplished in four to

    six weeks time. Since the easing of sanctions, major vendors from the US have

    got several hundred clearances for their equipment.

    Another concern is the duty structure. Though some sops and concessions have

    been made for import of network equipment over the last couple of years, T&M

    equipment has had no major concessions. The duty structure is still as high as

    51 percent for some products. More than the duty concessions and fiscal

    provisions, the T&M industry believes that there has to be a paradigm shift

    in the minds of the CTOs and the CEOs.

    As mentioned earlier, service providers were the biggest buyers of T&M

    equipment. They bought spectrum analyzers, network analyzers, protocol

    analyzers, optical time domain reflectometers (OTDR), optical spectrum analyzers

    (OSA) and plesiochronous digital hierarchy and synchronous digital hierarchy (PDH/SDH)

    analyzers and handheld testers. BSNL and MTNL were the big customers and they

    will continue to remain too. During FY 2002—03, the new basic service

    providers and the ILD and DLD operators helped promote the case of the T&M

    industry. Reliance was one of the biggest buyers. It is estimated to have

    invested about $15 million on test, monitoring, and management equipment. Bharti’s

    investment is estimated to be $5 million and that of Tata, around $3 million.

    Most of the large vendors have had significant wins.

    Besides operators, the broadcasting players have also been procuring T&M

    equipment. This has been facilitated following the government’s open-sky

    policy and the permission to uplink out of India. Prasar Bharti has invested in

    DVB terrestrial systems and in converting their old analog to digital. Star,

    Sahara, Sun, and Eenadu have also invested significantly. This sector alone has

    invested close to Rs 23 crore during the year. Several software and hardware

    companies like Federal and Wizworks are developing products like cable TV modems

    and are buying T&M equipment. Tektronix is a clear leader and is estimated

    to have 90 percent share of the market.

    The telecom segment will be the most promising for T&M vendors for a

    couple of reasons. One, with the deregulation, the number of operators is

    increasing as well as maturing. Further, the thrust today is on teledensity. As

    a result, the emphasis will now be on quality of services. So the potential

    market for T&M equipment is likely to scale up. The signs are potent now.

    Before deregulation, T&M vendors were totally dependent

    on the government type of projects. Primarily, the L1 business dominated the

    T&M equipment. It meant bulk purchase of hardware where vendors had no

    choice but to quote the lowest. Things have changed now after the entry of the

    private sector and corporatization of BSNL. There has been rationalization in

    procurement.

    Another noticeable trend is in solutions. Large vendors are

    pushing solutions rather than boxes. Even oscilloscopes are being sold with

    solutions built around them. Tektronix has sold many such solutions. Similarly,

    Acterna is talking about test and management solutions. And this solutions

    approach will gain further ground.

    Experts

    panel
    Jairam

    Pillai,


    managing director, National Instruments
    Kewal

    Khanna,
    president,

    Agilent Technologies India
    Irfan

    Modak,
    director-sales, Acterna India

    T&M Vendors



    T&M

    Vendors
    Vendors Description Website
    Acterna Acterna,

    a privately-held company, is the world’s largest provider of

    communications test solutions for telecommunications and cable

    network operators.
    www.acterna.com

     

    Agilent

    Technologies
    Agilent,

    a global leader in test and measurement equipment, offers a wide

    range of T&M products and solutions for telecom, enterprise, IP,

    wireless, and cable environments.
    www.agilent.com

     

    Fluke

    Networks
    Fluke

    Networks markets state-of-the-art Network SuperVision solutions that

    support the installation, analysis and monitoring of enterprise and

    telecom networks and the installation and certification of the fiber

    and copper forming the foundation for those networks.
    www.flukenetworks.com

     

    GL

    Communications
    GL

    Communications Inc. provides PC-based test, analysis and simulation

    products and consulting services to the global telecommunications

    industry.
    www.gl.com

     

    National

    Instruments
    Leveraging

    the PC and its related technologies, National Instruments has

    pioneered the concept of virtual instrumentation. It offers software

    and hardware solutions in the areas of optoelectronics and fiber

    optics, access communication and consumer device.
    www.ni.com

     

    NetTest NetTest

    is focused on servicing two areas of the telecommunications network,

    namely installation and maintenance and network monitoring and

    optimization.
    www.nettest.com

     

    Racal

    Instruments
    Presence

    in a wide variety of T&M products that include general purpose

    test equipment, automatic test equipment, VXIbus modules, laser

    diode and photonics test systems andÂ

    burn-in stations, chassis, switching, and turnkey test system

    integration.
    www.racalinstruments.com

     

    Sunrise

    Telecom
    The

    company claims to leading the telecom portable test equipment

    industry forward through innovations like the use of a graphical

    interface for presenting information on circuit status and feature

    upgrades accomplished by means of a software memory card.
    www.sunrisetelecom.com

     

    Tektronix Tektronix,

    Inc. provides measurement solutions to the communications, computer,

    and semiconductor industries worldwide.
    www.tektronix.com

     

    Tenet

    Technologies
    Tenet’s

    solutions include network bandwidth management systems, protocol

    analyzers, network simulators, bulk call generators for

    communication networks and analyzers for LAN/WAN.
    www.tenetindia.com

     

    Changing Role of T&M

    Network operators and service providers are going to deploy and operate

    converged PSTN and IP telephony networks. In order to satisfy the changing needs

    of their customers, more and more value-added services are going to be provided

    over and above the standard ones like voice, data, and video. In a

    multi-operator scenario, these services need to be managed and delivered as per

    the expectations of the existing customers while meeting the complex billing

    needs. In addition to this the operators should be able to ramp up services

    quickly to acquire new customers.

    Thus the role of T&M is changing from the perspective of network

    operators or service providers. In addition, to provide the basic support &

    diagnostic tools during the planning, installation and deployment and

    optimization phase, the tools need to be integrated into today’s

    multi-technology and distributed network environment with the following

    objectives:

    • Resolve the customer problems faster
    • Maximize the productivity of technical personnel
    • Manage the multi-vendor and multi-operator interfaces with the right

      insights
    • Protects your investments which can be scaled up with your growing needs
    • Provide higher quality of services and be able to identify the problems

      before your customer does

    The T&M solutions and systems should be able to provide support towards

    the above objectives and meeting the cutting-edge technology needs that are

    getting deployed in the networks, for example, XOIP, MPLS, Ethernet or Gig-E

    over SDH and the latest wireless access technologies. Over and above the

    standalone tools, the distributed measurement and analysis capability needs to

    be designed into the network itself, providing efficient and centralized view of

    the health of the network.

    Test Instrument Categories

    Network test instruments are divided into two basic categories: Physical

    Layer Analyzers and Higher Protocol Layer Analyzers. These categories are linked

    to the OSI Reference Model. Higher protocol layer analyzers can perform test and

    measurement across six layers of the OSI model; whereas, physical layer

    analyzers focus on one layer.

    Physical Layer Analyzers: On the physical layer (OSI Layer 1), the

    instruments used to measure electrical and electronic characteristics include

    multimeters, cable testers, optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs),

    oscilloscopes, signal level meters, and spectrum analyzers. The most important

    parameters measured by these instruments are line characteristics such as cable

    length, resistance, attenuation, crosstalk, reflections caused by connectors and

    terminating resistors, and electromagnetic interference from external sources.

    Higher Protocol Layer Analyzers: On the higher protocol layer (OSI Layer

    2-7), processes are monitored and analyzed using protocol analyzers. These

    instruments examine frames, packets, data transfer integrity, session

    connections, data transformations, and application performance. There are a

    variety of protocol analyzers such as universal devices with special modules for

    different tasks, small hand-held devices, and software packages installed in

    high-performance network node.

    Application performance is measured using software agents that simulate

    network use by typical applications to determine throughput and other

    characteristics.

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