How Telco Test Automation Boosts User Experience

Thomas Groissenberger
July 18, 2024
8:54 am

As a communication service provider, you’ve likely encountered this issue: after a significant network or cloud infrastructure upgrade, you push it live to your customers. While most users experience no problems, some face issues with certain functionalities depending on the service, phone type, or operating system. This common but problematic scenario highlights the importance of thorough testing to ensure a seamless user experience.

The Role of CICD in Telco

To address these issues, many telecom companies are adopting Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CICD) strategies. This approach involves updates that are built, tested, and deployed frequently, sometimes even daily, to deliver timely services to customers. By automating tests as close to the customer experience as possible, using unrooted, out-of-the-box smartphones, companies can replicate real user conditions. This ensures that the testing is accurately reflecting the corresponding live environment, minimizing discrepancies, and improving user satisfaction.

Factors Impacting User Experience on Telco Networks

Traditionally, quality of service (QoS) parameters like call success rate, call setup time, jitter, and packet loss are used to verify service functionality. These metrics are essential for ensuring basic network quality. However, user experience extends beyond these technical indicators. To capture the full picture, telecom companies are now also considering Quality of Experience (QoE).

Integrating QoE into Testing

To verify QoE accurately, testing must involve real end-customer devices, using services in the same manner as end-users. This approach ensures that all components interact correctly and deliver the desired user experience. Automating these tests can align network functionalities with QoE goals, enabling more sophisticated analysis and optimization.

The Power of Test Automation

SEGRONs automated testing & monitoring framework (ATF) can run tests within the network environment, covering areas such as:

Speech path testing & Audio Quality
Data Uplink/Downlink Speed, Jitter & Ping
Video Quality Verification
OTT App Functionality (Voice and Messaging)
Layer3 Trace Analysis

These tests might include audio quality verification by injecting audio samples to measure the real output quality. The Perceptual Objective Listening Quality Analysis (POLQA) standard models the audio quality of the speech path and creates a MOS value (Mean Opinion Score) to obtain a clear picture of customer satisfaction.

Implementing QoE-Focused Tests Efficiently

In an automated environment, testers can integrate comprehensive QoE tests without compromising time-to-market. By adopting the right equipment, such as:

SEGRONs automated test & monitoring framework (ATF) including ready-made testcases
Audio verification solutions
Shielded boxes and attenuators
Real out-of-the-box Android & iOS smartphones

Testers can use CICD workflows with tools like Git and Jenkins to create customer-centric test workflows. These workflows not only tick technical boxes, but also focus on customer priorities, ensuring high QoS, QoE, and ROI.

Conclusion

Ultimately, your test workflows should reflect customer needs and priorities. By leveraging automated testing frameworks and focusing on both QoS and QoE, telecom companies can deliver a superior user experience, ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is Telco Test Automation?

Telco test automation involves using automated testing frameworks and tools to evaluate and ensure the quality and performance of telecommunication services. This approach helps identify issues and optimize user experience by simulating real-world conditions and scenarios.

How does CICD improve telco services?

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CICD) in telco involves updates that are built, tested, and deployed frequently, sometimes even daily. This ensures timely and accurate service delivery, minimizing discrepancies between the test and live environments, and enhancing overall user satisfaction.

What are Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) in telco testing?

Quality of Service (QoS) parameters include metrics like call success rate, call setup time, jitter, and packet loss, which verify basic network performance. Quality of Experience (QoE) goes beyond these metrics to measure overall user satisfaction and experience, ensuring all network components work seamlessly for the end user.

How does SEGRON's automated testing framework enhance user experience?

SEGRON’s automated testing framework covers areas such as speech path testing, audio quality, data speed, video quality verification, and OTT app functionality in combination with a real end customer device. By automating these tests, the framework ensures network functionalities align with QoE goals, providing a clear picture of customer satisfaction.

What tools are essential for implementing QoE-focused tests efficiently?

Key tools for efficient QoE-focused testing include SEGRON’s automated test & monitoring framework (ATF), audio verification solutions, shielded boxes and attenuators, tracing tools like Layer3 Trace Analysis, and testcase databases and libraries. These tools, alongside testing with real end customer devices, support CICD workflows, enabling automated, customer-centric test flows. This ensures that services work reliably across real-world devices, not just modems, providing a comprehensive assessment of customer experience.

Thomas Groissenberger

Thomas has more than 25 years of experience in software, testing and management in Europe and the US. He is the Founder and CEO at SEGRON and he is a member of the Forbes Technology an Invitation-Only Community for World-Class CIOs, CTOs, and Technology Executives.