Assessment of IxLoad in a GGSN environment

Abstract: Today's telecommunication world is developing toward an increasing demand for accessing the Internet, multimedia applications and IP technologies. As radio access technology evolves, the complexity of the core network increases and the need for intelligent verification procedures rises. The Gateway GPRS Support Node is an essential component of GPRS packet core network which acts as the gateway between the packet core and the external network. Testing such a product has become a non-trivial task. With an efficient test process, it is possible to reduce deployment cost and thoroughly validate the GGSN functionality, thus providing the customers with a higher quality product. IxLoad is a full-featured layer 4-7 test system that provides real-world traffic simulation which can be used for testing Gateway GPRS Support Node. This thesis is a thorough assessment of IxLoad as an advanced test tool in a GGSN environment. Furthermore, this document will provide the reader with an overview of packet core and GGSN functionality. Several test scenarios with IxLoad in a GGSN environment were developed in which the quality of IxLoad could be determined. The outcome of this thesis are several suggested solutions meant to increase and expand IxLoad capabilities.