Mobility manager destructive testing
A mobility manager of a cellular communication network is tested using a test network. The test network has a mobility manager, multiple actual and simulated base stations, and multiple actual and simulated communication devices. To test one aspect of the mobility manager, the number of simulated base stations is increased to nearly the rated capacity of the mobility manager. In addition, simulated communication sessions are established, again so that the number of communication sessions is near the rated capacity of the mobility manager. Communications are then interrupted between the base stations and the mobility manager. Behavior of the mobility manager is monitored after the interruption to determine, among other things, how many communications sessions are lost as a result of the interruption.
1. A communications test network for testing a network core of a cellular communications network, the communications test network comprising:
a network router configured to provide communications through a transport communication network;
a mobility manager configured to communicate through the network router over the transport communication network;
multiple base stations configured to communicate with the mobility manager through the transport communication network;
multiple communication devices configured to (a) communicate with the mobility manager through the base stations and (b) establish multiple communication sessions that use the mobility manager; and
a test manager configured to (a) apply a setting in the network router that interrupts communications between the multiple base stations and the mobility manager, the setting including blocking communications through a logical port used for the communications between the mobility manager and the multiple base stations and (b) identify how many of the multiple communication sessions are dropped after applying the setting, and (c) detect one or more events occurring within the cellular communications network after applying the setting, the one or more events including at least one of a loss of communications between internal functions of the mobility manager or a loss of communications between the mobility manager and components other than the base stations.
2. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein the one or more events further include
a restart of the mobility manager.
3. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein applying the setting comprises applying an Access Control List (ACL) rule.
4. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein the multiple base stations include at least 90% of the number of base stations that the mobility manager is rated to support.
5. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein the multiple communication sessions are of a number that is at least 90% of the number of communication sessions that the mobility manager is rated to support.
6. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein the multiple communication devices comprise multiple simulated communication devices.
7. The communications test network of claim 1 , wherein:
the mobility manager comprises a Mobility Management Entity (MME) of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC); and
the base stations comprise Evolved Node Bs (eNodeBs).
8. The communications test network of claim 7 , wherein:
communications between the eNodeBs and the MME use an S1 communication protocol; and
the setting is based on applying an Access Control List (ACL) rule including blocking the communications through the logical port used by the S1 communications protocol.
9. A method of testing a cellular communications network, the method comprising:
configuring a Mobility Management Entity (MME) of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) to communicate through a transport communication network;
configuring multiple Evolved Node Bs (eNodeBs) to communicate with the MME through the transport communication network;
configuring multiple communication devices to (a) access the MME through the multiple eNodeBs and (b) establish multiple communication sessions using the MME;
applying a setting in a network router of the transport communication network that interrupts communications between the multiple eNodeBs and the MME, the setting including blocking communications through a logical port used by the communications between the multiple eNodeBs and the MME;
determining how many of the multiple communication sessions are dropped after applying the setting, and
detecting one or more events occurring within the cellular communications network after applying the setting, the one or more events including at least one of:
a loss of communications between internal functions of the mobility manager; or
a loss of communications between the mobility manager and components other than the base stations.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein applying the setting comprises applying an Access Control List (ACL) rule.
11. The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining whether the MME restarts after interrupting the communications.
12. The method of claim 9 , wherein:
communications between the eNodeBs and the MME use an S1 communication protocol; and
the setting is based on applying an Access Control List (ACL) rule including blocking the communications through the logical port used by the S1 communications protocol.
13. A method of testing a cellular communications network, the method comprising:
configuring one or more components of the cellular communications network to communicate through a transport communication network;
configuring a radio access network of the cellular communications network to communicate with the one or more components through the transport communication network;
configuring multiple communication devices to (a) access the one or more components through the radio access network and (b) establish multiple communication sessions using the one or more components;
applying a setting in a network router of the transport communication network that interrupts communications between the radio access network and the one or more components, the setting including blocking communications through a logical port used for the communications between the radio access network and the one or more components; and
detecting one or more events occurring within the cellular communications network after applying the setting, the one or more events including at least one of:
a loss of communications between internal functions of the mobility manager; or
a loss of communications between the mobility manager and components other than the base stations.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein detecting the one or more events comprises determining whether one or more of the communication sessions are dropped after applying the setting.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more events further includes:
a restart of a mobility manager.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more components comprise an Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the radio access network comprises multiple Evolved Node Bs (eNodeBs) and the one or more components comprise a Mobility Management Entity (MME) of an Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein:
the communications between the radio access network and the one or more components use an S1 communication protocol; and
the setting is based on applying an Access Control List (ACL) rule including blocking the communications through the logical ports used by the S1 communication protocol.
19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the radio access network comprises multiple simulated base stations.
20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the multiple communication devices include multiple simulated communication devices.