Agilent Technologies 37907A User Manual

The Complete Wireless and
Advanced Intelligent Network
Test Solution

Agilent Technologies

Signaling Advisor --- 37907A

Technical Overview

The Agilent Technologies Signaling Advisor is a comprehensive and powerful
test and troubleshooting instrument. It enables the user to find problems in
today’s complex wireless and wire- line telephone networks faster. Businesses
and consumers are increasingly sensitive to even a minor deterioration in
service quality. To maintain customer satisfaction and loyalty, your
technology teams need tools that help identify potential problems and resolve
faults quickly and effectively… They need an Agilent Technologies Signaling
Advisor

The Signaling Advisor provides detailed test and analysis capabilities for
signaling on modern wireless and wire- line telephone networks such as SS7,
Cellular, PCS, GSM and GPRS networks. It provides robust and reliable
measurements and analysis that go beyond decoding and filtering data.

The Signaling Advisor mainframe is a robust dispatched trouble- shooting tool.
Add any appropriate optional decodes and link interface modules, and you
are ready to test across multiple links involving different protocol standards
for example, at access network interfaces. At the core of each Signaling
Advisor, the intuitive graphical user interface makes measuring and
understanding results easier for signaling engineers, enabling them to check
performance and troubleshoot problems in signaling systems quickly and
accurately.

Signaling Advisor Key Benefits

A range of link interface modules (LIMs) provide the physical interface to
network equipment. Each LIM connects to one type of physical interface (e.g.,
E1 or T1), providing access to all signaling links on up to four bidirectional
bearers. The mainframe supports two LIMs (eight bidirectional bearers). An
optional undercradle expands capacity to four LIMs (16 bidirectional bearers).

The architecture of the software and mainframe makes it easy for you to
keep up with changing technologies and data rates, minimizing the need to
replace equipment. Simply add a LIM or decode to bring your instrument in
line with new needs. High performance and flexibility are built into the
Signaling Advisor mainframe enabling it to cater for today’s and tomorrow’s
applications. Separate processors (with independent memory) handle data
acquisition and user interface, allowing optimum performance to be achieved.

EmuLite is a software option which allows the Signaling Advisor to be
upgraded to a fully integrated monitor and emulation solution.

EmuLite creates and executes tests faster through use of its graphical
message and sequence editors. This allows engineers more time to diagnose
signaling problems without the need for programming.

Have new equipment and services installed faster and have them operate
correctly the first time.

• Install new services more efficiently

Quickly, easily, and thoroughly test new services before installation by using
the Signaling Advisor’s graphical emulation environment.

• Maximize revenue per subscriber

Optimize networks by monitoring performance and utilization quicker and
easier. Trends in network performance and subscriber behavior can easily be
examined using the Signaling Advisor’s statistical functions.

• Attract and retain customers

For the highest quality of service and reliability, monitor all parts of the
network and rapidly highlight any problems using the Signaling Advisor.

• Maintain a more profitable network

Be sure that the engineering staff is as productive as possible and customers
have as few problems as possible. Find problems and solve them faster with
the Signaling Advisor.

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Signaling Advisor
Features and Functionality

General Feature summary

• Dedicated software for Cellular, PCS/GSM, GPRS, UMTS, cdma2000 and

SS7 signaling networks

• Windows 98® based operation

• Multitasking applications (protocol analysis, statistics, call trace)

• Real- time or post- capture analysis

• Connect to up to 16 duplex physical bearers (E1 or T1, DS0, V.35, RS- 232,

RS- 449)

• Analyze up to 32 duplex signaling links (8, 16, 32, 48, 56, and 64 kb/s)

• Analyze full duplex Ethernet/Fast Ethernet GSM sub- rate signaling

• (8, 16, 32 Kb/s) and TRAU decode support

• Analyze ATM signaling links, including Iu, Iub and Iur for W- CDMA

• Analyze Frame Relay and ISDN connections for WAN

• UMTS (E1/T1 ATM and STM- 1/OC- 3 ATM)

• Monitor up to 4 full rate GPRS Gb duplex bearers

• Monitor up to 3 full rate high speed SS7 bearers

• Chinese language GUI option

• Voice monitoring

• Link Status view

• Alarm View

• Auto- configuration identifies signaling links and protocol stacks

• Graphical configuration and measurement setup

• Triggers and filters (logging and display)

• On- line and context sensitive help

• Protocol help

Monitoring Features

• Graphical call trace with filters and alarms

• User- configurable columnized traffic overview and columnized color coded,

protocol decodes

• Graphical (or tabular) time- based statistics with thresholds

• Automatic message and sequence validation

• Point code interpretation

• Storage of captured data and configurations to disk

• Stand- alone PC software for post- capture analysis

• Timestamping up to 12 microsecond resolution

• Remote Control

• Compatible with capture file formats of Agilent Advisor and Network

• Analyzer protocol analyzers, acceSS7 monitoring system and Agilent

37900D signaling test set

• Export data to CSV file for further ‘off- site’ analysis

EmuLite Features

• Automatic test creation - copy messages and their sequence from call

trace

• Graphical editor - quickly create messages - no more programming!

• Intelligent protocol field- based editor - correctly build complex signaling

messages - not just in hex!

• Intelligent built in test manager - easily manage the execution of tests

• Graphical analysis tools - instantly identify failed tests and why they

failed

• Easily verified network element responses

• Test all non- IP based GPRS interfaces

• Test SS7, GSM, GPRS, IS- 41, CDMA, ISDN plus many more

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SS7 Monitoring

The Signaling Advisor makes it easy for you to start monitoring, even if you
don’t know what timeslots or protocols are being used for signaling. The auto
configure tool configures the instrument’s receiver to match the bearer and
then searches the bearer for signaling links (timeslots that are carrying
signaling information). The correct protocol stack will be built based on
signaling messages.

If the default protocol stacks do not match the signaling being tested, or a
special variant is required, you can quickly change the assigned protocol
stack graphically. Figure 1 shows a typical protocol stack.

Figure 1: Protocol Stack configuration

Real-time Analysis

The SS7 Signaling Advisor monitors up to 16 bidirectional bearers and up to
32 duplex signaling links simultaneously (spread across one or more bearers).
Each signaling link can carry a different protocol. Monitored data is
processed then automatically stored to hard disk.

Post-capture Analysis

All of the capabilities available for real- time analysis are also available for
use on previously logged data. The user may perform the same operations as
in real time.

Applications

In addition to the default protocol analysis application, it is possible to setup
multiple applications for statistical analysis or call traces.
Figure 2 shows a typical real- time measurement setup.

A wide variety of measurement triggers and filters can be set based on
almost any interesting variable or event.

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Ethernet Monitoring
GPRS and cdma2000

Figure 2: Measurement setup display.

The Fast Ethernet interface and software provides real- time and post
capture analysis of Ethernet protocols. Use the powerful Agilent
Advisor 10/100 LAN software to analyze your IP links with the
Signaling Advisor. The software also offers eight built- in analysis
tools:

1. Expert analyzer

2. Node statistics

3. Node and connection statistics

4. Protocol stack statistics

This software can also set filters on a wide variety of variables,
protocols or events. Automatic Ethernet link negotiation for physical
interface line rate and a range of stimulus and response tests are
important and powerful features of the 10/100 Ethernet software.
The software also supports cdma2000 protocols over 10/100 Ethernet.

5. Protocol commentators

6. Node discovery

7. Protocol vitals

8. Decodes

Figure 3: cdma2000 decode.

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