Huawei Technologies has released TestCraft, a new solution designed for SDN/NFV testing, at the company’s Operations Transformation Forum 2017.
TestCraft, based on Huawei’s testing-as-a-service (TaaS) platform, provides a variety of automated test models and professional services.
The new TaaS offering will help telecoms operators reduce test costs, shorten time to market by as much as 30% and accelerate SDN/NFV service development, said Jacky Hu, general manager of SDN/NFV Consulting & Integration Services at Huawei.
According to Huawei, operators are expecting more from SDN/NFV technology to achieve greater agility, potential revenue opportunities and higher resource efficiency for potential cost savings. Yet the transformation is proving to be rather a long journey where the full benefits can only be achievable after solving operational, performance and availability uncertainties caused by the multi-layer nature of an SDN/NFV architecture.
Huawei’s TaaS solution provides alternatives to address the critical challenges by adopting a methodology model for multiple dimensional testing supporting the various purposes of SDN/NFV in different life cycle phases of the system development, testing, implementation and operations, the company said.
“Our TestCraft offering will take full advantage of the test technology experience and take full account of the complex characteristics of the telecoms network. Furthermore, we make innovations on the test methodology, test architecture, test process and test delivery model, to provide leading professional testing services for our operator’s network,” Hu said.
TestCraft has four dimensions: full network functions and network services coverage, multiple test domains for carrier grade, service life cycle support and automation and agility.
The solution can be deployed in three models: TaaS on premises, Taas on cloud, and Taas at Huawei’s Open Labs. This allows telecom operators to choose different TaaS service models depending on their own testing demands, the executive added.
Huawei has already completed interoperability cross-verifications / certificates with over 60 partners. The company has already issued 47 technical certificates to partners, and achieved 15 third-party certificates from three partners in the Cloud Open Labs.
Richard Wong, marketing director of SDN/NFV integration services, said Huawei has years of SDN/NFV experience globally and started to focus on SDN/NFV testing three years ago. The company is currently working with its partners on over 200 projects, 5000 plus test cases and over 80 customer joint innovations.