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Triple-Play Over Broadband Technologies 2007


Report of the Interoperability testing for the Triple-Play

Version 1.0

The ETSI Plugtests interop test event The place to be to assess your solutions to an ever increasing demand for a higher bandwidth

Title : Project : Author :

Triple-Play interoperability and performance testing report Broadband Plugtests Event Gwenal Le Lay France Telecom Division R&D 2, Avenue Pierre Marzin 22307 Lannion Cedex France
E-mail: gwenael.lelay@orange-ft.com Phone: +33 2 96 05 04 86 Fax: +33 2 96 05 11 98

Contributors : Rgis Frechin, Jean-Claude Frison Status : Abstract : Version 1.0


This document summarizes the set of tests which were performed during the Broadband Plugtests Event in the scope of the triple-play interoperability testing. Firms that were targeted for this 2007 event were DSLAMs Vendors (ADSL, ADSL2+, VDSL), CPE / Residential Gateway Vendors, Diagnostics and Handheld troubleshooting and Testing tools providers.

Introduction
This report is provided as part of Orange / France Telecom Division R&D activities at the Broadband Plugtests Event, held from May 7 - 11, 2007 in Lannion, Brittany, France. This year, the ETSI Plugtests event was again expanding compared to 2006 edition with the addition of Plugtests concerning triple-play service delivery over Fiber To The Home (FTTH) access technology. Firms that were targeted for this 2007 event were DSLAMs Vendors (ADSL, ADSL2+, VDSL2), CPE / Residential Gateway Vendors, Diagnostics and Handheld troubleshooting or Testing tools,. This document gives an overview of the infrastructure that was put in place in order to welcome the event, and focus more specifically on the issues regarding triple-play interoperability testing. A section is dedicated to the outcome of the tests that were performed by vendors using different access line configuration and DSLAM configuration mode. Some issues like Voice over IP and Video are addressed more precisely also and some examples of test results are anonymously presented.

Background
France Telecom Division R&D was contracted, once more, by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to organise the triple-play interoperability testing at the Triple Play over Broadband Technologies 2007 Plugtests event. For this event, the services contracted for the 5th and 4th xDSL ETSI Plugtests event, held in Lannion (France), and the 3rd xDSL ETSI Plugtests event, held in Sarbrucken (Germany), were extended by undertaking some of the major technical aspects such as event LAN installation and management, wireless networking, participants position set-up, triple-play position furnishing, end-to-end triple-play network configuration and management. Since the 4th edition, based on the expertise of France Telecom in the area of broadband multiservice delivery, a testbed for triple-play services was added to the original xDSL ETSI PLUGTESTS, which was originally focused only on the xDSL layers. The 5th edition was offering even more services, and additional expertise was brought on the QoS and QoE aspects based on a dedicated tests offer which was performed by France Telecom Orange Labs experts, in the area of voice over IP and video network QoS issues. This event was very successful with nearly 40 worldwide companies participating. From the point of view of France Telecom Division R&D, these events bring an opportunity to broaden the technical expertise of support engineers, and they are valuable for products features enhancement. Following the three Plugtests setup in 2005, 2006 and 2007 France Telecom Orange Labs team in charge of the technical aspects of the triple-play network have gained experience in the choice of the architecture suited to vendors so as to answer their requests and needs in terms of interoperability testing. France Telecom Division R&D has proposed itself to be contracted again for the 2008 edition of the ETSI-PLUGTESTS.

List of Contents
Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Background -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Plugtests Overall structure -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Participants--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Triple-Play Context ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 Room plan --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Tests Areas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15
Virtual link in the access network configuration testing ----------------------------------------------------- 15 MultiService Access Node (MSAN) type configuration ------------------------------------------------------- 18 Internet services delivery ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Voice over IP services delivery --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Video services delivery-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 22

Triple-Play interoperability testing-suite scope ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25


Measurement results : voice only------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 28 Measurement results : Voice with TV + FTP download ------------------------------------------------------- 29

Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 About France Telecom Orange Labs ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 ANNEX ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 36

Plugtests Overall structure


The Triple play Over Broadband Technologies Event was combining two parts of the modem xDSL network provision. On the one hand, the physical layer interoperability was tested, so as to verify that the expected quality of transmission by using DSLAMs and modems from different manufacturers. This test allows vendors to propose to network providers and end-customers solutions that are compatible when using the combination DSLAM/Modem tested at the event. The Triple-Play application testing was for the first time experimented at the 4th ETSI DSL event. This testing was set-up for demonstrating that DSLAMs and modems are capable of transporting data, voice and video applications concurrently together with offering a right and comfortable level of quality of service from a network and end-user point of view. In addition, different access architectures were proposed so as to verify that equipments were flexible enough for adapting to different network operator choice. At xDSL & G-PON interoperability event, participants were in a position to benchmark their solutions by handling the full set of services that may be found in Triple-Play commercial offers. This Plugtests event was a means for them to get confidence in the strengths of their solutions as they got feedback from worldwide experts. This year, the event was expanding with the addition of Plugtests concerning triple-play service delivery over VDSL2 and FTTH access technologies. Firms that were targeted for this 2007 event were DSLAMs Vendors (ADSL, ADSL2+, VDSL), G-PON vendors, CPE / Residential Gateway Vendors, Diagnostics and Handheld troubleshooting or Testing tools. On the multi-play side, all participants were provided fully-equipped dedicated triple-play positions. These positions, as described hereafter, were made of a High-Definition (HD Ready) TV set, a SAGEM High-Definition SetTopBox, DECT phones. The focus was made this year on new access network configurations taking into account the new features available on DSLAMs. The issue of the quality of experience (QoE) was also tackled more deeply as this issue is more and more burning when bundling several bandwidth consuming services. High-Definition TV flows, requiring for some of them roughly 14 Mbps for being error-free delivered, have to cohabitate with the must-bedelivered critical services like voice over IP. In addition, different telephony over IP devices such as cordless DECT were proposed for performing some end-to-end calls towards the PSTN using SIP or H323 signalling protocol. The multiplicity of services that could be carried over the DSL line or FTTH access during the event, were bringing some complex issues with regards to network access engineering and home network management. This report is summarizing the activities held in the triple-play area only. A separate report, also published on the ETSI Plugtests events website, will present more deeply the activities made in the field of physical layer interoperability.

Participants
T3play CPEs Vendors
Broadcom Vierling Zyxel Philips Iskratel Thomson PMC-Sierra Sphairon UTStarcom

DSLAMs Vendors
UT Starcom Huawei Broadcom Ericsson LEA Iskratel

Testing tools Vendors


Exfo IXIACOM MT2 Shenick Spirent Communications JDSU-Acterna Agilent Technologies

Triple-Play Context
This year, the triple-play testing-suite document aggregates pieces of work published by the TF4.4 working group within the scope of the IST FP6 MUSE project (www.ist-muse.org) together with some of the test cases proposed at the last Plugtests edition. The aim of this partnership is to get a framework for testing multiservice broadband bundles over a MUSE-type architecture so as to test the end-to-end connectivity and the perceived quality of service when delivering voice or digital tv services. The content of this document is to be used as a testing guideline for Multiservice Access Node (MSAN) and Residential Gateway (RGW) vendors who participate to the triple-play part of the ETSI Plugtests 2007.

Triple-Play Applications Interoperability means that the desired communication can be established for all involved OSI layers and protocols by connecting two interfaces directly. This is not obvious when connecting solutions from different vendors.

Figure 1 : Multiplay interoperability testing suite scope

The current test suite is targeting an environment where a Residential Gateway either routed or bridged, located on the customer's premises, is point-to-point connected via a broadband technology to a Multiservice Access Node (MSAN). This node provides Ethernet interfaces so as to connect the aggregation network which will aggregate the traffic flow towards the IP backbone where the service platforms are situated. Some Edge nodes located on this aggregation network are at the forefront of the IP network carrying the services included in the triple-play offers. These can be BRAS (Broadband Access Server) or a separate IP service edge node providing connectivity to other applications like VoIP or Broadband TV and Video On Demand. The ATM or the Ethernet transport may be used on the DSL line as a Layer 2 technology. Several encapsulation options are available such as PPP over Ethernet, PPP over ATM, Internet Protocol over Ethernet and Internet Protocol over ATM. For 2007th edition, the test environment and the expertise provided to vendors have targeted these major challenge vendors and operators will have to face. One more, the opportunity of testing in a complete "multi-play" network environment was given to vendors and manufacturers of DSLAMs, CPEs, handheld-testing tools or application-layer testing tools. On top of that, the scope of expertise and support from France Telecom Orange Labs engineers was broadened and valuable for products features enhancement. Participants have retained the following benefits from the event :

Standard Definition and High-Definition flows were multicast on the aggregation network. Ten positions equipped with HD ready TV screen together with SD/HD SetTopBoxes provided by SAGEM. More than ten different channels were accessible together with a Video-On-Demand service based on RTP/RTSP. The infrastructure composing the aggregation and core network together with the applicationlevel platforms were provided by France Telecom Orange Labs, which has a great deal of experience in the deployment of ADSL multiservices solutions. Experts from France Telecom Orange Labs elaborated a test-plan for the triple-play interop event, which was proposing different access-network and DSLAM-based configurations. State-of-the-art testing tools were provided by vendors (Agilent, Spirent , Shenick Network System, Ixia). Expertise on TV over DSL parameters evaluation were proposed to vendors all along the events with different kind of testing tools Expertise on voice quality measurements was proposed to vendors all along the events so as to qualify CPEs Voice over IP functionalities. Customized confidential report was given to each vendor based on detailed data aggregated. Also, network capture software were used for tracing troubles when dealing with DHCP or VoIP. The proposed infrastructure permitted companies to test their products in a very close environment compared to the end-user situation The private interoperability event (under NDA) brought confidence in the solutions that were ready to be marketed.

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Figure 2 : Broadband triple-play underlying infrastructure

Room plan
Based on the information provided by the participants beforehand, the companies were placed in specific areas of the room. The location of the company within the room plan is linked to the question if a company provides a DSLAM, a CPE modem, a handheld test system, and if the company equipment supports Triple-Play applications. Each triple-play position was fully-equipped so as to provide access to the full set over services. Down below, two plans describe where each company was located during the event and how they were accessing the facilities provided by the organizers.

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Figure 3 : Triple-Play over Broadband Tech 2007 room plan overview On the stage, facilities like laser printer, fax machine, photocopying machine were accessible to participants. A local FTP server was also available for uploading and downloading documents when connected to the private wifi network set-up for the event.

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The room was covered with four Wifi Access points, each access were linked to the Internet through a dedicated 2 x 20 Mbps lease line access. Participants have experienced some troubles accessing remotely their office email or being delivered with real-time news through video streaming contents. Once again, these troubles are side effects due to the large amount of devices supporting 802.11b/g wireless in the room. In fact, periodically, CPEs used as wifi access point were dropping or were experiencing unpredictable behavior due to a radio-saturated environment. This side-effect has been tackled by organizers during the event by separating the wifi channels.

Figure 4 : Triple-Play over Broadband Tech 2007 pair connections This graphic provided through the use of Agilent technologies Triple-Play Analyser (TPA) represents IP pairs of connections. As, one may clearly noticed the 193.252.231.78 IP address was used as a NAT/PAT for all the traffic flows outgoing toward and from the internet during the event.

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Tests Areas

Virtual link in the access network configuration testing Description The access network configuration relies on the three proposed network architectures detailed below. The ATM or the Ethernet transport may be used on the DSL line as a Layer 2 technology, depending upon the features of the Residential Gateway. In the case of ATM, one or more ATM VCs may be configured on the DSL line between the RGW and the Multiservice Access Node (MSAN). In our case, the different virtual channels can be used either for managing the quality of service, service provider differentiation or service segregation on the last mile. The ATM VCs are ended on the MSAN where the Ethernet Frames are extracted and mapped within the suitable VLAN on the aggregation network. A virtual circuit is designed to transport IP flows of one or multiple IP sessions established between the terminal/HGW and a router located in the MSAN, NE, NM or third party router. A virtual circuit can be defined and identified at different layers under IP layer:

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ATM layer with VPI/VCI used for ADSL/ADSL2+/SHDSL access between HGW and MSAN. Ethernet layer with C-VLAN, S-VLAN, C-VLAN/S-VLAN. We consider C-VLAN is used at customer side of MSAN, S-VLAN and C-VLAN/S-VLAN are used at network side of MSAN. Ethernet virtual circuits are terminated in the 1st router met in the network and can start from the RGW.

Alternatively, native Ethernet may be transported over the DSL line. The Virtual channel is then a VLAN that can be used the same way and ATM VCs for handling the quality of service, service provider differentiation or service segregation on the last mile. The first thing to address before going through the rest of the test suite, is to pick one configuration out of the three proposed, based on the ability of the CPE device to handle it, and then to configure the enduser device so that it can deliver the offered services. Scenario with a unique virtual link

Figure 5 : A unique virtual link on the access line VPI/VCI 8/35 VLAN 835 Characteristics Unicast Traffic contract Best-effort Upstream 1 Mbits/sec Downstream Up to 18 Mbits/sec

This model encompasses the case where a unique multiservice provider provides the end-user will all the services (Internet, ToIP, Video). In that case, a unique virtual channel is configured between the Residential Gateway and the Multiservices Access Node. This virtual channel provides a Layer 2 connectivity between the Residential Gateway and the Edge service Node. In that case, when using a routed or bridged residential gateway, the device should have the ability to handle the flows within a unique virtual channel through which all the services composing the offer will go. It means that the device will have sufficient capabilities so as to manage traffic prioritization in order not to alter the real-time traffic with strong QoS constraints.

Scenario with two virtual links This model encompasses the case where two multiservice providers are subscribed by the end-user so as to deliver the whole set of services. For example, the services (Internet, ToIP) are provided through one provider while the Video services are provided by a different provider.

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In that case, two different virtual channels are configured between the Residential Gateway and the Multiservices Access Node sharing the amount of bandwidth available depending upon the physical layer technology put in place.

Figure 6 : Two virtual links on the access line VPI/VCI 8/35 8/38 8/40 VLAN 835 838 840 Characteristics Unicast Unicast Multicast Traffic contract Best-effort Real-time Upstream 1 Mbits/sec 20 kbits/sec 20 kbits/sec Downstream Up to 18 Mbits/sec Up to 4 Mbits/sec Up to 12 Mbits/sec

In that case, when using a routed or bridged residential gateway, the device should have the ability to handle all the services composing the offer within two to three separate virtual channels. It means that the device will have sufficient capabilities so as to handle traffic prioritization in order not to alter the realtime traffic with strong QoS constraints. In addition, the subnet used to access both service providers should not communicate with each other. It may mean that the virtual channel may be mapped to a Ethernet port of to the Z interface in the case of the VoIP service delivered by the second provider.

Scenario with three virtual links

Figure 7 : Three virtual links over the access line

VPI/VCI 8/35

VLAN 835

Characteristics Unicast

Traffic contract Best-effort

Upstream 1 Mbits/sec

Downstream Up to 18 Mbits/sec

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8/38 8/40 8/51

838 840 851

Unicast Multicast Unicast

Real-time Real-time Real-time

20 kbits/sec 20 kbits/sec 128 kbits/sec

Up to 4 Mbits/sec Up to 12 Mbits/sec 128 kbits/sec

This model encompasses the case where three multiservice providers are subscribed by the end-user so as to deliver all the services. For example, the service (Internet) is provided through one provider, the service (ToIP) through a second provider while the Video services are provided through a third provider. In that case, three to four different virtual channels are configured between the Residential Gateway and the Multiservices Access Node sharing the amount of bandwidth available depending upon the physical layer technology put in place. In that case, when using a routed or bridged residential gateway, the device should have the ability to handle three separate virtual channels which will carry all the services. It means that the device will have sufficient capabilities so as to handle traffic prioritisation in order not to alter the real-time traffic with strong QoS constraints. In addition, the different subnets used for accessing both service providers should not communicate with each other. It means that each virtual channel may be mapped to a unique Ethernet port or o the Z interface in the case of the VoIP service. Moreover, some virtual-routers features are compulsory when dealing with the routed mode. QoS features and traffic prioritisation functions may be needed at that level.

MultiService Access Node (MSAN) type configuration Bridged mode access node The bridged mode maps several subscribers' pipes (PVCs or VLANs) into a single VLAN per service per access node on the network side (one-to-one mapping). In that case, the Ethernet aggregation switch sees one VLAN ID per service.

Figure 8 : VLAN bridging at the MSAN level Routed mode access node In routed mode, VCs or VLANs are ended from an IP standpoint within the MSAN and a dedicated VLAN with its own IP subnet is configured between the DSLAM and the Ethernet aggregation switch / router. In

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that case, the Video unicast and multicast traffic when using the same VC are splitted into 2 VLANs. The internet service will be accessible in that mode only through a DHCP based IP address allocation.

Figure 9 : Routing at the MSAN level

Cross-Connect access node Like one of the most basic forwarding models, the cross-connect mode will map a subscriber VCs or VLAN into one C VLAN per customer on the network side. This C-VLAN will then be carried over an SVLAN.

Figure 10 : Cross-connect at the MSAN level

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Internet services delivery


A router was configured as acting as BRAS (Broaband Router Access Server). It was linked to a Radius server for authentication of PPPoE sessions. This BRAS was positioned as a DHCP-RELAY for DHCP requests with regards to VoIP and/or Internet services when using a bridged-mode DSLAM configuration. In case, both service (VoIP, Internet) were configured with DHCP, the two addresses assigned to the CPE device were allocated in different IP subnets so as to avoid routing problems. Access to FTP servers, Web-based content servers and also public internet was possible, once the connection to the network was performed.

Voice over IP services delivery


Several voice over ip components were included within the network configuration. An open-source based H323 RAS Gatekeeper was handling the registration and the call processing of CPEs featuring H323 protocol. An open-source based SIP Proxy was handling the registration and the call processing of CPEs featuring SIP protocol As mentioned in the test plan, calls towards the French PSTN were part of the triple-play testing. The calls were sent to a voice over ip media gateway enabling the interaction with the PSTN world. (This media gateway was supporting the two above-listed protocols.) Prefixes to mobile phones were also opened so as to test calls towards cellular phones.

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Video services delivery


On the video issues, the platform used for the registration of the set-top-boxes was based mainly on an open-source software solution. The Set-Top-Boxes were provided by SAGEM. At edition 2007, the HighDefinition TV was one of the major features that have again attracted vendors. As a result, the service platform had to be robust and flexible enough to be customized for such an event. The video services delivered were the followings: Digital TV live streams carrying different channels. The streams were dynamically (IGMP) multicasted to the set-top-boxes and static configuration was possible on deman. The standard definition flows were encoded using H264 and MPEG2. The high-definition flows were encoded using H264 mainly. No VC-1 (Microsoft type flows) flow was available. A Video-On-Demand service encoded using a H264 SD and HD coding scheme and the RTSP protocol to allow trick modes (fast forward, fast rewind) but also to spare network and server resources in case of connexion breaks between STB and server.

The SAGEM set-top-boxes used were featuring an Ethernet-based connection to gain access to the xDSL CPE/RGW. An HDMI connector was used to send the video contents to the high-definition TV screen. The video contents were not protected through the use of HDCP mechanism. High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is a form of digital rights management developed by Intel Corporation to control digital audio and video content as it travels across Digital Visual Interface (DVI) or or High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI). The resolution format used for High-Definition streams was for HD : 1440x1080 with a TVHD format of 1080i (interlaced). On the Standard-Definition side, the resolution format used was 544X576 for SD/MPEG4 and 544x576 for SD/MPEG4 streams.

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Figure 11 : Video over ip services test network configuration

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Service Plan for Standard Definition channels


N 1 2 3 4 5 Channel SD1 SD2 SD3 SD4 PC Linux 1 Label SD1 SD2 SD3 SD4 V-SD MP2-1 Group 232.0.1.1 232.0.1.2 232.0.1.26 232.0.1.4 234.0.4.12 @IP source 193.252.232.117 193.252.232.117 193.252.232.117 193.252.232.117 172.20.214.142 Type SD SD SD SD SD Multicast Dynamic Dynamic Dynamic Dynamic Dynamic Encoding MPEG4 SD MPEG4 SD MPEG4 SD MPEG4 SD MPEG2 SD Rate 3,4 3,4 3,4 3,4 3,8 6 PC Linux 2 V-SD MP2-2 234.0.4.13 172.20.214.142 SD Dynamic MPEG2 SD 3,8

Service Plan for High Definition channels

N Channel Label Group @IP source Type Multicast Encoding Rate

1 HD-1 HD-H264-1 232.0.1.200 80.12.211.97 HD Dynamic HD MPEG4 over MPEG2TS 9,425

2 HD-2 HD-H264-2 232.0.1.202 80.12.211.97 HD Dynamic MPEG4 HD 11,8

3 HD-3 HD-H264-3 232.0.1.204 80.12.211.202 HD Dynamic MPEG4 HD 11,8

4 PC Linux 3 V-HD MP2-1 234.0.4.14 172.20.214.142 HD Dynamic MPEG2 HD 11,8

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Triple-Play interoperability testing-suite scope


The triple-play interoperability test suite was encompassing so far the access network, the DSLAM backhaul network configuration and the triple-play services activation. In 2007, additional expertise was brought on the QoS and QoE aspects based on a dedicated tests offer performed by France Telecom R&D experts in the area of voice over ip and in the area of video network QoS issues.

Voice over ip testing issues


Compare to 2006 edition, the trend towards the support of the SIP protocol on the residential gateway is now a reality. The implementation is varying between vendors depending upon their experience in mastering voice over ip protocols. Some devices may however support different voip signalling protocol such as MGCP or H323 based on the firmware uploaded on the device. All devices have succeeded in establishing a end-to-end IP-to-PSTN or PSTN-to-IP calls. A few have experienced some troubles in registering to the SIP proxy. On the handheld testing tools side, the features are expanding but still the metrics concerned the RTP steams from which the R factor is derived so as to give a rate of the voice quality. This year, an improvement has been made in the area of the support offered to vendors. In fact, an expertise was proposed through a series of test that was targeting the following aspects in the area of voice over ip. These voice quality analyses were carried out using six different SIP gateways. For these tests, seven different DSLAMs were used in routed or bridged mode. The analyses were carried out using G.711 codec under different traffic conditions : VoIP service only, VoIP with Video Streaming, VoIP with video streaming and FTP down load. Several evaluations were conducted during a period of test lasting roughly 30 min. The following aspects were analysed: voice signal intrinsic quality once transmitted to the destination (called endpoint) end-to-end delay from a voice signal point of view voice signal attenuation once transmitted to the destination (called endpoint) signal to noise ratio at the called endpoint DTMF code integrity at the called endpoint

Once the full set of test passed, a detailed and confidential summary was given to the CPE vendor. The report was containing the test configuration, the measurements made together with the results mapped on a comparison with the recommendation made in the area of voice quality assessment. The goal of the "VoIP speech quality testing" is to evaluate the performance of different VoIP gateways with respect to speech quality. The VoIP gateways will be tested on IP-PSTN configuration. Residential gateways brought by manufactures for the test event were tested using an IP-PSTN configuration. The equipment under test was connected to one analog access of a speech analyser. The other access of the analyser was connected to a direct analog access to the French PSTN (see Figure below). As a result, the speech quality evaluation was performed on electric to electric configuration.

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IP Gateway under test PSTN

Analog access

Test System

Figure 12 : Test configuration. Speech quality analysis is perform on IP-PSTN configuration

The analyser use to perform the analysis is a D.S.L.A. (Digital Speech Level Analyser). The DSLA is able to establish a call and analyse the speech quality of the configuration under test. The measurements were performed on a dedicated network without any impairment. So the obtained metrics represent the "intrinsic performances" of the equipment under test. The probe DSLA use the model PESQ (recommendation UIT-T P.862) to evaluate the speech quality. PESQ is a psycho-acoustic model working with reference. The model compare the speech signal receive to the speech signal send use as reference to calculate a PESQ Score. A mapping function P.862.1 is used to transform PESQ Score in MOS Score. The MOS Score is establish on a 1 to 5 scale with 1 corresponding to very bad quality and 5 corresponding to excellent quality. Because we use an objective method, in listing and narrow band configuration, the MOS score determine during these tests are MOS-LQON. The reference test sample was a voice record of 4 speakers: 2 Men and 2 Women. The reference sample is a narrow band speech record (8 kHz sample). Before carrying out the analysis, a calibration process was necessary. For each way of transmission, the voice quality is determined for different sending level of the test sample (-5 dBm, -10 dBm, -15 dBm, -20 dBm and -25 dBm). The optimal sending level was determine for each transmission way and these levels were used during the test. All parameters characterizing the voice quality were assessed in the same communication. During this call, speech quality was evaluated sequentially in IP to PSTN and in PSTN to IP transmission way. The tests checked common requirements on speech quality and pass/fail criteria on DTMF transmission. The test plan carried out covered :

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presentation of the speech quality analysis, probe connection and inter-functioning validation test signal calibration (determination of the optimal level), speech quality analysis DMTF analysis result analysis editing report results presentation of the manufacturer The results for each manufacturer were summarized in a detailed individual and confidential test report. The individual test report was edited at the end of each equipment analysis and send (or given) to the manufacturer. In order to provide a quick overview about the results offered for each equipment under test a graphical result representation is derived in test report. All the results are shown on the same figure so as to give a "quick and easy to read" overview about the implementation including strength and weakness and a comparison with the recommended values. The results are summarized in a diagram called the "Quality Pie" The performances of the IP to PSTN configuration are plotted in the left site of the diagram and the performances of the PSTN to IP configuration are plotted in the right site of the "Quality Pie". Each characteristic (MOS Score, delay, attenuation, noise level and DTMF code integrity) is compare to a recommended value use as a threshold. If the characteristic value is inside the recommended range then the result is plot in green on the diagram. If the characteristic value is outside the recommended range then the result is plot in red. To make easier the result interpretation, the "recommended curve" (a circle) is also plotted on the diagram. So, each one can appreciate or evaluate the gap between the performances and the recommendations. The thresholds used for the "recommended curve" were: 3,90 for the MOS score with G.711 codec implementation 3,80 for the MOS score with G.726 32K codec implementation 3,60 for the MOS score with G.729 codec implementation 3,30 for the MOS score with G.723.1 codec implementation 200 ms for the End to End delay -55,0 dBm for Electric Noise Level 15 dB for End to End attenuation Pass for DTMF code integrity

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Measurement results : voice only

Company name : Hardware name : Version N : Codec : Date : Operator name : Operator address :

xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx G.711 with a payload of 20 ms th Wednesday 9 may 2007 Le Maguer C. France Tlcom R&D/TECH/SSTP 2 avenue Pierre Marzin 22307 LANNION CEDEX Tl. +33 (0)2 96 05 11 11 PSTN to IP 4,38 73,88 4,40 -55,92 OK IP to PSTN 4,39 99,42 9,70 -55,39 OK

MOS-LQON Delay (ms) Attenuation (dB) Noise (dBm) DTMF

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Measurement results : Voice with TV + FTP download

Company name : Hardware name : Version N : Codec : Date : Operator name : Operator address :

Philips with Broadcom DSLAM

G.711 with a payload of 20 ms th Wednesday 9 may 2007 Le Maguer C. France Tlcom R&D/TECH/SSTP 2 avenue Pierre Marzin 22307 LANNION CEDEX Tl. +33 (0)2 96 05 11 11 PSTN to IP 4,38 76,89 4,53 -55,97 OK IP to PSTN 4,38 99,71 9,83 -55,24 OK

MOS-LQON Delay (ms) Attenuation (dB) Noise (dBm) DTMF

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OVERVIEW OF THE EVENT


Whatever the technology used (copper, wireless network or optical fiber), there is a common and recognized need to increase the bandwidth in order to improve services for customers. In the near future, high bandwidth residential internet access will transit via optical fiber. The speed largely exceeds that with ADSL2 (max. 25Mbits/s) and is in line with VDSL2 (max 100 Mbits/s symmetrical). However, VDSL2 implies requirements that have been judged to be too heavy by some operators. Therefore, numerous players in the domain focus on optical fiber and VDSL2 which will, as a result, probably be the ultimate step of the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) evolution. The advantages of optical fiber are obvious for operators:

Passive emission on the fiber implies the removal of some network components together with their maintenance costs. The optical fiber, even on a long distance, offers a much higher transmission capacity than traditional copper cables.

That's why, optical fiber should therefore become more attractive than copper. The market will be attracted by the offer and the operators' ability to create tomorrows services , such as high definition TV, video on demand, Visio conferencing, peer to peer, virtual 3D worlds which will benefit from rates reaching 100 Mbits/s. The event is today a landmark testing event which offers an unprecedented opportunity to focus on different promising technologies among which VDSL2, G-PON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) and high-definition TV.

xDSL (ADSL2, ADSL2Plus, VDSL2) are modem-based technologies operating on phone cables
initially designed for voice communication (bandwidth from 300 to 3.4 KHz). The bandwidth has been increased 10 times over the past ten years, and it has now reached 100 MHZ for VDSL2, therefore enabling 100Mbits/s per subscriber.

G-PON / FTTH (Fibre To The Home) will be tested in Lannion this year on the basis of the G-PON
technology (Gigabit Passive Optical Network). This technology offers the possibility to carry thousands of Gigabits on a single fiber and to serve a group of 64 clients. Each client will therefore receive a symmetrical flow of 100 Mbits/s , offering the possibility of three high definition video channels. G-PON has been adopted by major optical fiber operators in the world.

Triple Play Application: Triple Play services (including internet access, IP telephony and video over IP) will benefit from the increase of bandwidth, and reduction of costs. A new generation of DSL equipment capable of carrying all sorts of services (voice, video, data) and meeting the needs of the Triple Play Market is developing and must therefore comply with telecommunications standards. High Definition Television brings to the user a better image quality, better sound, and a format close to human vision.

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Conclusion
This edition of the triple-play over broadband technologies interoperability and performance Plugtests has again be successful both in terms of participants (about 40 companies did show up) and in terms of current technological challenges such as the support of High-Definition Digital TV on residential gateway and the delivery of end-to-end voice over ip calls using SIP protocol. On the multi-play side, participants were provided with a fully-equipped triple-play position. The focus was made this year on new access network configurations taking into account the new features available on DSLAMs such as routed-mode or cross-connect mode. On the Audiovisual side, the unicast VoD service was improved with the use of RTP/RTSP protocols. The issue of the quality of experience (QoE) was also tackled more deeply as it becomes more and more burning when bundling several bandwidth consuming services. High-Definition TV flows, requiring for some of them roughly 14 Mbps for being error-free delivered, have to cohabitate with the must-bedelivered critical services like voice over IP. In addition, different telephony over IP devices such as cordless DECT were proposed for performing some end-to-end calls towards the PSTN. The multiplicity of services that could be carried over the DSL line during the event, were bringing some complex issues with regards to network access engineering and home network management. More and more interoperability tests will have to be performed in the future years as the CPE device will have to interfere not only with different DSLAM equipments. The end-user PCs and the Set-Top-Box will be have to share the CPE resources especially with additional phone handsets with diverse connectivity like ethernet-based, USB-based, bluetooth-based or Wifi-based. On the video side, things are also evolving rapidly with new media centre devices, DVD players or multi-TV set service offering. These bandwidth consuming services will then occupy permanently the access line bandwidth by downloading or uploading contents. It means that the QoS delivered to each of the interface carrying QoS critical services will be a major challenge for CPE vendors. For the 2008 edition, one direction is to go beyond ADSL and VDSL2 by introducing different optical access networks technologies such as PON (FTTx) and G-PON so as to have the full spectrum of fixed access broadband technologies. The good integration of these technologies into a converged network, possibly into a single chassis and into a single management system, could be some focus points for the plug tests. At the access node level, some security features and the associated tests, like IP and MAC spoofing attacks, could be proposed. Also at the access node level, mechanisms to ensure high availability and service continuity, such as resiliency in case of link or node failure could be proposed and tested. Over the Ethernet backhaul network, some IP and MPLS features could also be proposed. Interoperability at the level of routing protocols could be another focus point. In addition, some advance testing tools in the area of voice quality measurements would be interesting together with some tools for saturating the access network with ip streams. In fact, most of the measurements performed were made with almost no load on the DSLAMs or G-PONs nor on the backbone network. The Triple Play Over Broadband Technologies ETSI Plugtests Event was a great success for all involved parties: the participants, the technology, the DSL industry in general, the standardization (ETSI, FSAN), the technical organizers of the event (France Telecom and CETECOM ICT Services). The combination of physical layer interoperability testing and triple-Play application testing was a straightforward approach, which lead to a high number of participating companies ending up to an extremely busy and fruitful testing week.

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The reader of this document is invited to also read the further information that is provided at http://www.etsi.org/plugtests/.

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About France Telecom Orange Labs


France Telecom is one of the world's leading telecommunications carriers, with 119,6 million customers on the five continents (220 countries and territories) and consolidated operating revenues of 46.1 billion euros for 2003 (23.2 billion euros for 1st semester 2004). Through its major international brands, including Orange, Wanadoo, Equant and GlobeCast, France Telecom provides businesses, consumers and other carriers with a complete portfolio of solutions that span local, long-distance and international telephony, wireless, Internet, multimedia, data, broadcast and cable TV services. France Telecom is the second-largest wireless operator and Internet access provider in Europe, and a world leader in telecommunications solutions for multinational corporations. France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges. France Telecom puts technological innovation at the heart of its concerns. With 3 400 researchers and 7100 patents, its R&D division is the engine of its innovation capability, in France and abroad. Its role is to anticipate technological revolutions and new uses, providing innovation to offer customers the best from telecommunications, simultaneously imagining today the technologies which will be part of their daily life tomorrow. Its R&Ds results have put the Group in the leading position in Europe in terms of telecommunications research and development. Established on 16 sites, including 8 abroad (London, San Francisco, Boston, Tokyo, Warsaw, Beijing, Seoul, New Delhi), the researchers of France Telecom are involved in the design and the development of approximately 70% of the products of the group.

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ANNEX

Spirent Communications
Abacus 5000 is a fully integrated IP and PSTN telephony test system in a single platform. Abacus 5000 test methodology allows users to objectively measure voice quality (MOS, PSQM, PSQM+, PESQ, PESQ-LQ, Rfactor, J-MOS) under realworld voice stream load generation. Other test methodologies are advanced trunking signaling, functional testing, capacity, performance, interoperability, conformance, robustness, triple play testing voice in the presence of video and data traffic, video quality testing with full reference video quality software, IPTV passive real-time video quality monitor based on V-factor and distributed testing with multisystem Abacus. Spirents Video Test System (VTS) responds to the urgent need of determining IPTV video quality in real time and under different network conditions. It is based on a no-reference model. VTS provides 24/7 real-time video quality test results based on Moving Picture Quality Metrics (MPQM) V-Factor technology. In addition, VTS detects SLA violations in real time for multiple video streams in parallel.

http://www.spirentcom.com

Abacus 5000 Test System

Spirent Test Center

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AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES
Triple Play Analyzer/Distributed Network Analyzer based on J6900A Triple Play Analyser, a solution for Video (IPTV; VOD), Voice (VoIP), and Data services. Able to run as a software only application (ie. Laptop) or as a client integrating to Agilent data acquisition hardware: J6803B (base platform) plus J6830A (Fast Ethernet) or J6832A (Gigabit Ethernet) or any underlying WAN line interface
The Triple Play Analyzer (TPA) software application allows network professionals to troubleshoot, monitor, analyze, maintain and optimize real-time voice, data, and video services over next generation IP networks. The TPA is part of the Agilent Network Analysis and Troubleshooting Solutions and provides a top level dashboard view that shows the performance of IPTV, VoD, VoIP and broadband data applications in a single window with the ability to drill down and view extensive Quality of Experience (QoE) measurements for the select services. When analyzing a converged triple play network, it is critical to deploy a single solution capable of analyzing voice, video and data services simultaneously to get an accurate representation of the overall quality of experience achieved by the end user. QoE is not solely a function of network bandwidth, voice and video transport stream metrics and/or traffic characteristics, but rather how all features and services interact with each other from the end-users perspective. The Triple Play Analyzer provides the crucial measurements needed for all service types to accurately and passively measure the endusers QoE. The included protocol and network analysis features, with support for over 500 protocols, allows you to perform deep packet troubleshooting and analysis for each service type, or to select flows to identify the root cause of service degradations.

http://www.agilent.com

IXIA
Ixia is a leading provider of multiport traffic generation, performance analysis, and conformance validation systems. These systems are used to accurately and reliably assess the data communications equipment that make up the high-speed, sophisticated networks of today. IxLoad is a highly scalable solution for accurately assessing the performance of content-aware devices and networks. IxLoad creates real-world traffic scenarios at the TCP/UDP (Layer 4) and Application (Layer 7) layers. IxLoad can emulate clients and servers for Web (HTTP and SSL), FTP, Email (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP),

http://www.ixiacom.com

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Streaming (RTP and RTSP) and services such asDNS, DHCP, LDAP and Telnet. IxLoad also provides emulation of DDOS attacks inline with the above protocols. IxChariot is the industry's leading test tool for emulating real-world applications to predict device and system performance under realistic load conditions. IxNetwork offers users the flexibility to customize the application to meet a wide range of requirements for testing complex network topologies consisting of thousands of routing or switching devices. Millions of routes and reachable hosts can be emulated within the topology. IxNetwork also provides users with the ability to customize millions of traffic flows to stress the data plane performance. IxVoice is a comprehensive hardware and software test framework that provides unified VoIP and PSTN test solutions for the telecom/network equipment manufacturer, carrier and enterprise markets. With its cost-effective and scalable test libraries it addresses all major VoIP protocols: SIP, SCCP (Skinny), H.323, MGCP, H.248 (MEGACO) as well as TDM and analog telephony services.

IXIA 250 Test System

IXIA 1600T and IXIA 400T Test Systems

Shenick Network Systems


Shenick diversifEye offers an integrated approach to network, application layer, and security attack emulation with quality of service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) testing to determine real world performance limitations as today's newest communications services and infrastructure is deployed. Shenick diversifEye offers a highly granular and scalable emulation and analysis test environment with per-application flow, per-user, per-port configuration, emulation and analysis in both real time and long run performance modes.

http://www.shenick.ie

DiversifEye Layer 4 to 7 testing tool

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ACTERNA / JDSU
Handheld tester for TriplePlay : - HST-3000, modular platform for the field o Supports all the xDSL interface (ADSL, ADSL2+, ReADSL, VDSL2 o Able to test the services : IP, VoIP, IPTV, FTP, Internet o Able to test FTTx link o Able to test Ethernet & Metro-Ethernet : RFC2544, VLAN, multipleStream traffic generation SmartClass, point solution for DSL test : o Supports all the xDSL interface (ADSL, ADSL2+, ReADSL, )

http://www.jdsu.com

HST-3000

Service assurance solution : - QT-600, it is an Ethernet Probe which is place somewhere in the backbone and manages by a SUN Server for any on demand Ethernet/IP test, VoIP test and IPTV test Protocol Analyzer : - DA-3600A : Its an Ethernet/IP and ATM Traffic analyzer, which can support on-line : o VoIP calls monitoring (signaling analysis and QoS measurement on 64000 simultaneous calls) o VLAN, MPLS o IP Traffic analysis up to layer 7 (top talker, top application, capture file, filter, trigger, trending graph o Application response time measurement o Expert system o Etc

QT-600

DA-3600A

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