TEMS™ Case Study: How 8 departments across a major European operator use the TEMS™ Suite to deliver their 5G network | Infovista

How 8 departments across a major
European operator use the TEMS™ Suite
to deliver their 5G network
Network testing
with TEMS™

Contents
The challenge 3
The solutions 4
TEMS across the organization 5
Lab testing team 5
Network deployment team 6
Network optimization team 7
Network quality team 8
Vendor verification team 9
Network maintenance team 10
Sales and marketing team 11
General staff 12

TEMS™ CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
The challenge
Rolling out its nationwide 5G network, this operator
recognized that it needed to take an organization-
wide view of how it deployed and optimized the
network. Fundamentally, this boiled down to four
core network testing challenges that needed to be
addressed:
• How could they validate new 5G site and cluster
performance before activation, so they could be
confident that the network would deliver from
day 1?
• How could they know how their 5G network
compared to those of their competitors so that
they could improve the areas where they were
weaker and communicate their competitive
edge based on real-world insight and evidence?
• How could they not only identify but also
troubleshoot and resolve, network issues so the
customer experience didn’t suffer and lead to
increased subscriber churn?
• With all of this done, how could they get a true
measure of the customer experience so they
could be confident that the network is delivering
on their 5G promise?
To successfully meet these challenges, the operator
understood that its teams couldn’t operate in silos.
With multiple stakeholders, ranging from the lab
testing team to the sales and marketing team,
and from the network deployment team to the
field maintenance team, the full organization had
a role to play. Each had its own specific needs
and requirements, but all must support the central
objective of providing and maintaining a 5G network
that delivers for both the business and its customers.
5G is not only transformational in terms of network performance, with improved
throughput, spectral efficiency, latency and reliability compared to previous generations
of telecommunications infrastructure, but also in how it impacts the entire mobile
operator organization.
To realize the benefits of 5G, you need to quickly roll out your network and efficiently operate it. But with
higher cell density, a larger number of spectrum options and far more sophisticated antenna systems, the
complexity of deploying and optimizing new 5G networks and sites is potentially more time-consuming, more
costly, and more of a resource drain than any previous technology.
In this case study, we look at the real-world example of a European tier 1 mobile operator that has confronted
the challenges of rolling out its nationwide 5G network. We share how both the organization as a whole, and
specific teams, successfully overcame their challenges using innovative network testing solutions.
3

The solutions
As it embarked on its 5G journey, this European
operator turned to Infovista and its TEMS™ portfolio
of network testing solutions. For over 25 years,
and through multiple generations of network
technology, TEMS has been recognized as the
benchmark for network testing solutions by mobile
network operators and vendors worldwide.
Bringing together orchestration and analytics with
multi-mode network testing, Infovista provided a
comprehensive portfolio of solutions, including:
• TEMS Investigation: to perform drive tests to
verify, optimize and troubleshoot all its mobile
network technologies
• TEMS Pocket: to walk test indoor locations and
drone test hard-to-reach places
• TEMS Paragon: to streamline its mobile network
benchmarking campaigns
• TEMS Director: to provide remote control and
management of TEMS field devices as well as
real-time data analytics
• TEMS Sense: to proactively monitor its wireless
network services end-to-end with active testing
• TEMS Discovery: to turn its network test data into
analytics and actionable insights for optimization
The benefits
Working with Infovista and deploying its full portfolio
of network testing solutions, the operator has not
only quickly and efficiently deployed its new 5G
network but has done so with the confidence that it
is delivering against the objectives of the business
and the expectations of its customers.
This nationwide visibility and network efficiency
have transformed the way their technology and
business teams work, and as a result, it can now
make 5G investment decisions based on hard data.
4

Lab testing team
The journey to a deployed and optimized 5G network begins long before the first sites are rolled out and verified.
Instead, it starts in the operator’s test bed network, and it is the lab testing team that is at the sharp end.
TEMS across the organization
The team’s challenge
The challenge for the lab testing team was how
to test and approve new network equipment and
software releases and new features before they
are deployed in the live network. The multi-vendor,
multi-mode, multi-service nature of today’s mobile
networks means there are innumerable parameters
and test criteria that have to be fulfilled.
The operator understood that network testing had
to play a central part in its 5G deployment strategy,
and this meant introducing next-generation
testing capabilities from the very beginning of the
processes. Get this lab testing right, and problems
can be identified and resolved before they have
an opportunity to impact the performance of the
network – saving both time and cost later.
The solution
The operator selected TEMS Investigation to
support its lab testing team. By connecting the
new network equipment to TEMS Investigation in
the lab, the team can now test every new software
patch, function and feature in their network –
before it goes live in the network.
Infovista’s close cooperation with equipment
vendors, chipset manufacturers and device
vendors means the Lab team can test not only how
the new equipment and software interoperates
with other existing network elements, they can also
ensure that they will work with all the major new
devices – including the latest iPhones.
This allows them to better understand Customer
Experience that the network will be capable of
delivering, and to verify, optimize and troubleshoot
their 5G mobile network in a controlled lab
environment, so when the baton is handed on
to the network deployment team, it is done so
smoothly and with confidence.
5

Network deployment team
The network deployment team faces a task of a scale far greater than with 3G or 4G network rollouts. Confronted
with multiple 5G spectrum bands and network density requirements – higher frequency bands, including mmWave,
require a denser network, with up to 20 times as many base stations as 4G – the network deployment team needs
a full armory to quickly and cost-effectively deploy new 5G sites in full working order.
The challenge for the network deployment team is one
of complexity and scale. They need visibility into the 5G
roll-out with detailed analysis and reporting to guide
and inform the initial network tuning. But this needs to
be done for both the outdoor and indoor sites, such
as in malls, stadiums, offices, and other large venues.
They also need to verify difficult-to-reach locations like
beaches – vital for inbound roaming revenue – and
industrial and agricultural sites, which are key to their
new 5G IoT offerings.
The network deployment team has responsibility for
not only validating, troubleshooting and optimizing the
deployment, but they also need to be able to provide
reports to the business on the status of the 5G network
roll-out. With operators’ CAPEX and OPEX under
pressure and scrutiny, the network deployment team
are on the front line when it comes to ensuring the roll-
out is completed quickly, cost-effectively and accurately.
The solution
The operator selected Infovista’s TEMS portfolio
to equip their network deployment team with the
capabilities they require.
For initial site tuning, TEMS Investigation is used to
validate that new 5G sites and clusters are providing the
intended coverage and all voice and data services are
working as expected. The TEMS Investigation network
testing and troubleshooting solution accelerates new
site and cluster acceptance and new network feature
verification across all the operator’s networks, from
2G to 5G, and also enables them to undertake special
event temporary site tuning.
However, network deployment testing doesn’t begin
and end with drive-testing the new sites and clusters
in the outdoor network. The in-building network
deployment must also be verified and optimized. For
this, TEMS Investigation is complemented with portable
network testing using TEMS Pocket, enabling the
team to quickly and accurately undertake initial indoor
site tuning, indoor site acceptance and special event
temporary indoor site tuning.
Analytics and reporting are essential for the network
deployment team – both the ‘nitty gritty’ detail the
engineers need to test and tune the 5G network, but
also the high-level reporting the business requires to
optimize the time and cost of deploying their significant
5G network investment.
Detailed analysis and reporting for initial tuning and
site/cluster acceptance projects is provided by the
TEMS Discovery network analytics and optimization
platform. The solution provides unparalleled insight
into network performance as perceived by subscribers
at the device, application and network level, including
in-depth analysis of initial tuning logfiles down to layer
3 messages. This provides the operator’s network
deployment team with the insight they need into the
tuning changes required. Reports based on drive test
logfiles provide the basis for cluster acceptance.
High-level reporting is provided by TEMS Director,
Infovista’s cloud-based service that allows the operator’s
network deployment team to remotely control
and manage their fleet of TEMS probes. The fleet
orchestration software helps the operator’s engineers to
decide which work orders should be executed by each
probe, and which routes should be driven to collect
sufficient data. This enables better management of
team resources, improving their efficiency and reducing
the need for highly skilled individuals.
6

Network optimization team
The rapid pace of evolution in 5G services, coupled with the accelerating pace of network rollouts, make
network optimization and the constant effort to improve the network an ongoing challenge. Held accountable
for essential network KPIs that will define the success or failure of the operator’s 5G investment, the network
optimization team are at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of the network’s performance.
The focus of the network optimization team can be
boiled down to three key challenges – optimizing
and troubleshooting the network, validating upgrades
to the network to ensure continued improvement,
and then benchmarking the optimized network
against competitors to understand if the network is
performing to its true potential.
And, if all isn’t enough, they must do it all across a
nationwide network that is constantly expanding and
in all types of indoor and outdoor environments.
In their armory, the customer’s network optimization
team needed drive-testing, portable testing and even
drones. They needed continuous testing and regression
testing. They needed detailed analytics and reporting,
and, for RAN-sharing, they needed to be able to test,
benchmark and share information for that too.
The solution
To support their network optimization team, the
operator selected Infovista’s complete TEMS
portfolio. This encompasses the full suite of
orchestration and analytics software and network
testing solutions, meaning that the operator has
equipped the team with the most comprehensive set
of capabilities available.
Testing and troubleshooting are undertaken
through a combination of outdoor drive testing and
portable indoor testing, with end-to-end network
troubleshooting, optimization and tuning conducted
using TEMS Investigation.
However, for difficult-to-test locations such as
beaches, where there can be a lot of potential
inbound roaming revenue, a different approach
is needed. Reflecting the constant innovation and
comprehensiveness of the partnership between
the operator and Infovista, TEMS Pocket devices
are mounted on drones. This innovative approach
enables an engineer to troubleshoot and optimize a
stretch of coastline in minutes.
In addition to supporting their colleagues in the
network deployment team with site verification, drive-
testing is used by the optimization team for network
benchmarking. Infovista’s TEMS Paragon is a drive-
test system optimized for network benchmarking.
Used by Umlaut for its global benchmarking
campaigns, TEMS Paragon enables the operator’s
engineers to replicate Umlaut’s testing to understand
(and improve) their Umlaut score.
Using TEMS Sense, the network optimization team
benchmark network upgrades by using continuous
testing at fixed locations to provide a perfect baseline
that will enable them to that confirm network
upgrades and new feature activations have not
adversely affected performance.
However, the team does not want to have to
continually revisit a location. Repeat visits to conduct
a test are expensive. Managed centrally by TEMS
Director, the network optimization team can remotely
control their fleet of TEMS testing probes, including
both TEMS Paragon and TEMS Sense, to efficiently
manage both benchmarking and continuous location
testing – minimizing cost and resource waste on
unnecessary repeat testing.
TEMS Director also plays an important role in
providing the operator with analytics, including
network optimization reporting and RAN-sharing
automated information sharing. Detailed analysis
and reporting on their network troubleshooting and
optimization projects is provided by TEMS Discovery.
With the network optimization team’s laser focus on
exceeding network KPIs and delivering a subscriber
experience that gives a competitive edge, the operator
uses TEMS Discovery to quickly find what issues
are arising where in the network and accurately and
efficiently implement the solutions needed.
This comprehensive approach to mobile network
performance testing provides the operator’s
network optimization team with unparalleled insight
into network performance as perceived by their
subscribers at the device, application and
network level.
7

Network quality team
If the customer service team are on the front line of customer complaint handling, it is the network quality
team that often holds the key to how quickly these complaints are resolved. Responsible for investigating and
escalating network quality complaints, their ability to react quickly and effectively has a measurable impact on
customer churn.
While the optimization team is responsible for overall
network quality, when it comes to investigating
customer complaints it is the network quality team
that is on-call to attend to quality complaints received
by the customer services team. This might include
visiting a subscriber’s house or office, or drive-testing
their route home from work where they consistently
experience issues.
Additionally, the network quality team needs to
understand and report on whether the network is
performing as it should. This includes key strategic
locations, indoors, and indeed anywhere where the
customer would be expecting to be able to use the
5G network. Not only that, but they also needed to
understand how the network is performing compared
to their competitors. Superior network quality is a
monetizable asset, while poor quality compared to
rivals is a recipe for churn.
The solution
To troubleshoot customer quality of service complaints
the operator turned to TEMS Pocket as the solution
where portability and testing of indoor locations was
required. This allowed their quality team to perform
tests at customers’ offices, residences or anywhere
else they experienced poor indoor coverage. For
complaints related to poor quality while customers
were driving, TEMS Investigation was the perfect
solution to identify issues while drive testing the routes
indicated by customers.
To understand and report on the quality of the
network in general, the operator equipped the
network quality team with TEMS Paragon to regularly
benchmark the network against competitors and
TEMS Sense to deploy at key strategic locations for
constant active testing of the network.
To manage the TEMS Paragon and TEMS Sense
solutions, the operator deployed TEMS Director.
TEMS Director enables the operator’s network quality
team to plan and manage multiple network testing
projects across its TEMS Paragon, and TEMS Sense
solutions, all from a centralized back-office cloud-
based user interface.
This combination of a fast and accurate customer
complaint investigation, coupled with strategic
location monitoring and competitor benchmarking,
enables the operator to respond quickly and resolve
network quality issues, delivering a well-supported
network experience, and real value to the business in
customer retention.
8

Vendor verification team
The modern mobile network is no longer the sole preserve of a single large network equipment vendor.
Hardware, software and virtualized network functions; public, private and hybrid clouds; multi-vendor, multi-band,
multi-technology – interoperability is key. But in such complex network topology as that found with 5G, how can
an operator be confident that all their vendors are delivering what was promised? This is the role of the vendor
verification team.
The challenge for the operator’s vendor verification
team was to provide a single source of truth across their
entire multi-vendor, multi-technology network roll-out.
The vendor verification team needed a solution that
would enable them to be on the front foot, proactively
conducting spot checks on vendor deliverables to
quickly identify issues before they can run the risk of
degrading subscribers’ quality of experience.
The solution
The operator turned to Infovista and its suite of
TEMS solutions that combine network testing and
analytics to provide the vendor verification team
with in-depth analysis tools to validate the work
conducted by vendors.
Working across indoor and outdoor sites and clusters,
the vendor verification team also need to be able to
conduct spot checks on vendor deliverables across
a range of environments. Taking an end-to-end
approach to network testing, the team uses TEMS
Investigation to verify and troubleshoot any and every
new function feature in the network. This provides
them with in-depth subscriber (QoE) and network
(QoS) insights, enabling them to identify and resolve
issues in the network before they can impact the
subscriber experience.
For indoor networks, where the list of vendors can
be different again, the team uses TEMS Pocket. This
portable mobile application-based network testing
solution allows the team to verify, optimize and
troubleshoot the mobile network in environments
requiring portability, such as malls, stadiums,
offices, and other large venues. Its advanced
testing capabilities, including the ability to support
multiple devices and a scanner, provides actionable
subscriber (QoE) and network (QoS) insights that
enable the operator to constantly improve their
subscribers’ mobile experience.
To quickly find what issues are arising in the
network and where, the team uses TEMS Discovery,
the wireless industry’s most comprehensive
network analytics and optimization platform for
mobile network performance testing. Its holistic
approach not only handles the complexity of
today’s multi-technology, multi-band networks,
but it also empowers the team to hold vendors to
account against network KPIs, ensuring a premium
subscriber experience around-the-clock, from any
location, and across voice, data and integrated
media services.
9

Network maintenance team
It’s perhaps the most iconic image in telecoms – the mobile operator field engineer, high atop a mast, conducting
repairs. It’s a highly-skilled, labor-intensive – and expensive role. If a fault is escalated to a level where a field
engineer is required, it falls to the network maintenance team to quickly and accurately fix the problem.
The challenge for the operator’s network
maintenance team was how to ensure that the fault
is fixed on the first visit. Repeat visits are expensive,
can cause significant delays in repairs, and degrade
the customer experience to a point where the risk of
churn begins to increase.
The network maintenance team, therefore, needed to
equip their field engineers with the capability to test
and validate the repairs they’ve made to ensure that
they are complete and lasting.
The solution
The team needed a solution that would allow them
to conduct an initial validation of the field repairs in
whatever location they were working – indoors and
out, and it had to be portable.
The team turned to TEMS Pocket, Infovista’s premium
portable mobile application network testing solution.
Equipping field engineers with this portable testing
capability means the network maintenance team can
now conduct an initial validation of any repairs while
the engineer is still on site, reducing the need for
repeat visits, saving time and money.
10

Sales and marketing team
The retail store is quite literally the shop window for an operator’s network. It showcases the latest devices
and connected experiences. But customer acquisition is expensive. The challenge for the operator’s sales
and marketing team is how to make the most of this real estate so that it delivers value for the customer and
the business.
The challenge for this European operator and its
sales and marketing team was how to ensure that
their nationwide network of retail stores showcased
the very best experience that the network is
capable of delivering. Customers may forgive the
occasional not-spot, but poor network quality in
a branded retail store and they would rightly turn
round and walk out, and it’s unlikely there will be a
second chance to impress.
The sales and marketing team needed to be
confident that network quality was always at the
highest level but could neither justify the additional
cost of dispatching network engineers to repeatedly
test network quality at retail locations, nor risk being
left unaware of any degradation in the network
quality in-between scheduled visits.
The solution
The solution lay in automated, remote monitoring of
service performance. Deploying TEMS Sense active
testing across their network of retail stores, voice and
data service quality is continuously monitored and
validated to ensure that it is being provided at the
highest possible level.
In strategic locations such as retail stores, the
operator’s sales and marketing team can’t afford
to wait for potential new subscribers to discover
network and service issues. Early detection and
correction are essential. TEMS Sense’s automated,
remote monitoring provides early issue detection and
root-cause analysis capabilities that allows network
engineers to quickly correct service-impacting issues
that might occur in the mobile network.
When issues are discovered, additional tests may
be required. The choice at this point is either to
send an engineer into the field, which takes time,
is expensive, and may not be the best use of this
finite highly skilled resource, or to continue down the
automation path. By remotely running test scripts on
a TEMS Sense unit device or connecting remotely to
it to perform ad-hoc diagnostic tests, troubleshooting
can be reduced to minutes without ever putting an
engineer in the field.
With TEMS Sense installed in retail stores and
running test cases 24/7, sales and marketing can
now be confident the network quality is always at
the highest level.
11

General staff
A new smartphone isn’t just for Christmas – and network testing isn’t just for engineers. Skilled engineering
resources are finite and the demands on their skillset mean they are already being pulled in many directions. But
there is an army of testers sitting in the offices of every mobile operator – all its members of staff.
The challenge for the operator was how to mobilize
this wider resource to test the quality of its network,
and gather valuable data, at music concerts, football
matches and other large-scale special events where
networks are typically extremely stressed.
The operator needed a solution that was able to be
easily taken to special events, both indoor and outdoor.
But crucially, worked without requiring any engineering
expertise to be on hand when out in the field.
The solution
While the mobile network might be complex, mobile
network testing can be simple. For this special event
monitoring, the operator turned to Infovista’s TEMS
Pocket and TEMS Director solutions.
Staff from the operator are encouraged to sign out
TEMS Pocket devices if they are attending large events.
TEMS Pocket is a portable mobile application network
testing solution that allows the user to verify, optimize
and troubleshoot the mobile network in environments
requiring portability, such as special events.
But to solve the problem, the operator could not
expect its general staff to role-play being network
engineers. Rather it merely needed them to take a
TEMS Pocket device, pop it in their bag, travel to the
event, and then do nothing more.
Using TEMS Director, engineers can remotely
orchestrate tests on TEMS Pocket devices. TEMS
Director is an all-in-one solution for remote
management and monitoring of test probes. It
provides real-time data analytics and reporting,
helping the operator’s engineers decide what work
orders should be executed by each TEMS Pocket
device during the event.
Ultimately, not only has this solution enabled the
operator to cost-effectively scale its network testing
capabilities to cover special events, but it has also
allowed them to better manage their team, improving
efficiency and reducing the need to deploy engineers
to special events.
12

Infovista is the global leader in network lifecycle automation (NLA) for the next-gen networks era. With its
unique NLA approach, Infovista allows communications service providers (CSPs) and enterprises to improve
their network performance and customer experience, optimize their productivity, and reduce their costs,
while maximizing return on their investments. Spanning the entire network lifecycle, Infovista’s products
and solutions leverage an open, integrated, cloud native portfolio that automates tasks, flows, analytics,
and decisions to the greatest extent possible. More than 1,000 customers, including 400 Mobile Network
Operators, around the world rely on Infovista to plan, design, deploy, test, operate, support, optimize, evolve,
report on and monetize their networks.
AboutInfovista
Infovista’s TEMS Network Testing Portfolio enables network and services performance quality evaluation,
troubleshooting and optimization by measuring and benchmarking end user experience. For Network
Operators and Regulators, TEMS delivers the ability to walk test, drive test, and dynamically analyze network
and services performance under real-life conditions—indoors, outdoors, and around the clock.
AboutInfovistaTEMS™NetworkTestingPortfolio
13
For more information please visit www.infovista.com
For sales inquiries please email info@infovista.com
EUROPE HEADQUARTERS
Infovista S.A.S.
3 rue Christophe Colomb,
91300 Massy, France
Telephone: +33 1 64 86 79 00
Fax: +33 1 64 86 79 79
AMERICAS HEADQUARTERS
Infovista Corporation
20405 Exchange Street, Suite 300
Ashburn, VA 20147 USA
Telephone: +1 855 323 5757
Fax: +1 703 707 1777
EASTERN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA
HEADQUARTERS
PO Box 54753, Office 429, 4th Floor,
Building 8WB, Dubai Airport Freezone
Telephone: +971 4256 7101

TEMS™ Case Study: How 8 departments across a major European operator use the TEMS™ Suite to deliver their 5G network | Infovista

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