For over three decades, I have witnessed the challenges faced by service providers striving to ensure the integrity of their call-processing networks. New software releases, fix patches, fast features, server upgrades, and maintenance activities usually warranted the execution of regular regression testing. Often, operational organizations were tasked with maintaining tests, test plans, test environments, and test equipment on a massive scale.
Thirty years ago, service providers worked closely with vendors throughout the software delivery cycle (SDLC), testing and retesting critical calling scenarios. The typical SDLC was one to two years long, providing sufficient runway to detect, identify, and resolve potential service-affecting bugs or non-conformances.
A decade later, with the advent of soft switches, vendors raced to build and deploy smaller,cheaper, faster replacements for legacy big iron digital switches. Service providers adopting these new technologies faced the same challenges, albeit at a faster pace. In the years following, and up to the present day, enterprises’ appetite for secure and reliable multimedia communications between diverse devices and across various networks has continued to hasten the pace of innovation.
Change driven by cloud services has resulted in service providers having less and less time to execute critical tests before deployment, increasing the risk of issues. This is where automation comes into play. Programmatic execution, involving scheduled, repetitive, controlled, organized, and consistent testing, is mandatory for service providers to keep up with the evolving landscape.
The need for automation is no longer a luxury; it is a lifeline.
For more information, contact TekVizion
The Power of TAP
Enter the TekVizion Automation Platform (TAP). TAP is a game-changer for service providers in the telecommunications industry – designed to streamline the testing process, increase efficiency, and accelerate time to market for solutions and services. TAP is a comprehensive solution that addresses the pain points faced by service providers. It allows users to create, organize, schedule, and execute end-to-end call tests at incredible speed.
TAP enables service providers to:
- Create Tailored Test Cases: TAP provides a user-friendly interface to design and customize automated test cases perfectly aligned with service offerings.
- Maintain Test Cases: TAP provides capabilities for managing and updating test cases
test plans, and projects easily. - Automate Test Execution: TAP automates the execution of calling tests, scheduled or on-demand, effectively streamlining your testing processes to gain efficiency in time and resources.
Applicability to BroadWorks
BroadWorks-powered service offerings face all of the challenges mentioned above with deployment and testing. Legacy releases of BroadWorks continue to have fixes and features deployed via patches. Deployment continues to be controlled by the service provider. Yet the availability rate of patches outpaces the service providers desire and ability to deploy changes.
Newer versions of BroadWorks require the deployment of Release Independent (RI) software, combining many bug fixes and feature deliveries into single software distributions for servers and applications. While the rate of availability is preferable vs. that of patches, there is still no less of a need to exercise and test these prior to deployment to production networks. For service providers with BroadWorks at the core of their network, TAP has unique capabilities which enable integration of provisioning and API calls for test automation.
3 Ways TAP Enables BroadWorks Integration
The “BroadWorks Provisioning” Action
The TAP “BroadWorks Provisioning” action can be configured to issue any OCI-P request during the execution of automation scripts, allowing users to do such things as check or modify BroadWorks services assigned to a user, group, or service provider/enterprise.
The following image shows how the TAP “BroadWorks Provisioning” action might be configured to issue the UserCallForwardingAlwaysModifyRequest to enable CFA for a specific user.
The “Call Rest API” Action
The TAP “Call Rest API” action enables interaction with REST APIs for products and services deployed in telephony networks. BroadWorks service providers might leverage this capability to include BroadWorks XSI-Actions API calls in test scenarios.
The following image shows how the TAP “Call Rest API” action might be configured to issue a BroadWorks Xsi-Actions callforwardingalways GET method to achieve that.
Call Rest API:
BroadWorks Xsi-Actions CallForwardingAlways GETAnother example might be to change the CallFowardingAlways settings for a user with a BroadWorks Xsi-Actions API call. The image below shows how the TAP “Call Rest API” action might be configured to issue a BroadWorks Xsi-Actions callforwardingalways PUT method to achieve that.
Call Rest API:
BroadWorks Xsi-Actions CallForwardingAlways PUTAdditional headers are an important part of many REST APIs. BroadWorks XSI-Actions APIs are a perfect example. Individual BroadWorks XSI-Actions APIs may change after a major release. Such instances occur, for example, when features are propagated from a higher release back to a lower release, resulting in different behavior of the affected API.
In those instances, to retain backward compatibility, versions are assigned to the API(s) by the vendor. The existing version remains unchanged, whereas a new API version, often containing additional response data, is assigned a new version number. To control the usage of one or the other, the X-BroadWorks-Protocol-Version header can be included in the request containing the version desired.
For example, a change to the Release 23 (R23) BroadWorks Xsi-Actions device API was ported back from R24. If the desired API to call is the R24 version, specifically version 24.13, then an additional header, X-BroadWorks-Protocol-Version:24.13, must be included in the request. The image below shows how that additional header can be configured in the “Call Rest API” action.
Call Rest API:
BroadWorks Xsi-Actions Device GET With Version HeaderThe response received will conform to the BroadWorks Xsi-Actions API specifications provided by the vendor for version 24.13.
The “Execute Command” Action
The “Execute Command” action is another potent feature within TAP, enabling users to run commands locally on the server hosting TAP. The commands can be local executables, CLI commands, or scripts customized to your test scenarios.
This example configuration employs the curl command to issue the same BroadWorks Xsi-Actions Device request from a previous example, including the X-BroadWorks-Protocol-Version header, to retrieve the access device information for a BroadWorks user.
External Command:
curl issuing BroadWorks Xsi-Actions Device GETThe “External Command” action affords great flexibility. Custom scripts to execute external commands or programs can be incorporated into TAP test cases, facilitating granular control and functional testing in automated scenarios.
Finishing Thoughts
In a climate of constant change and accelerating timelines, delivering exceptional service quality is the key to success. TAP, with its BroadWorks Provisioning, Call Rest API, and Execute Command actions, empowers BroadWorks service providers to efficiently conduct rigorous testing. This includes, but isn’t limited to testing interactions with APIs, command line commands, and custom-built middleware.
By harnessing these capabilities, you can:
- Integrate API Testing: Automate BroadWorks Provisioning and XSI REST API calls within tests to ensure the quality and integrity of your service offering.
- Customize Test Cases: Execute local commands to extend test case capabilities while exercising the reliability and consistency of your services.
TAP’s versatility and user-friendliness make it an indispensable tool, enabling the delivery of high-quality and dependable services to consumers.
Are you ready to elevate your BroadWorks service offerings?
Try out the “BroadWorks Provisioning”, “Call Rest API”, and “Execute Command” actions in TAP and unlock enhanced testing capabilities today.
Contact us to learn more about how TAP can transform your testing processes and enhance the quality of your Unified Communications service offerings.
About the Author
Larry Arnaud is Vice President of Software Development at TekVizion. He has more than two decades of experience in telecom, with extensive experience in software development and support.
