5G PlugFest Summary
Introduction:
Aviz Service Nodes(ASN) enhance network observability, which operates on general-purpose hardware and offer significant cost savings and optimal performance. ASN provides essential Subscriber intelligence by metadata extraction and correlation for 4G-LTE, 5G-NSA, and 5G-SA networks to achieve comprehensive network analytics.
To validate accuracy and performance along with the KPIs of the ASN product, we utilized the Spirent Landslide to emulate the 5G and 5G-NSA components.
Landslide is a versatile platform designed to test and emulate 5G and O-RAN mobile networks on both traditional and cloud-native infrastructures. It simulates real-world traffic from millions of mobile subscribers to extensively test the 5G core in standalone and non-standalone configurations.
Master Topology
Features validated by Spirent
Metadata Extraction and Validation:
ASN works on different 5G-SA, 5G-NSA and 4G-LTE interfaces for metadata extraction and achieves the correlation between User and Control Plane. It involves identifying, retrieving, and verifying relevant metadata from various interfaces of Telecom networks, to ensure its accuracy and consistency. Effective metadata extraction and correlation by ASN are crucial for ensuring better data management, analysis, and decision-making.
"The comprehensive metadata extraction and correlation capabilities of ASN are designed to provide unparalleled network insights, ensuring our clients can make informed decisions quickly and accurately."
Handling Handovers:
In 5G networks, handover entails shifting an active call or data session from one cell or base station to another. The ASN manages the smooth extraction and correlation of control and user packets throughout this handover process. The ASN possesses the capability to manage all potential handovers in both 5G and 5G-NSA scenarios.
Application identification:
The primary purposes of identifying applications in telco traffic are traffic management, quality of service (QoS), security, billing, and analytics. ASN’s deep packet inspection identifies applications using the Server Name Indication (SNI), application IP address, destination port and application behavior.
Performance and scalability:
The ASN possesses the capability to manage a maximum of three million subscribers in both 5G and 5G-NSA networks. Additionally, it extracts and correlates control packets for a user plane traffic of up to 150 Gbps. The ASN’s validation includes handling mixed packet sizes of traffic equivalent to real-world scenarios.
Landslide's ability to emulate complex 5G network environments has been instrumental in validating the high performance and scalability of Aviz Service Nodes, ensuring the solutions meet the rigorous demands of modern telecom networks.
For the detailed test report and the performance benchmarking, click here.
FAQs
1. What is the role of the Aviz Service Node (ASN) in 4G-LTE, 5G-NSA, and 5G-SA networks?
Aviz Service Nodes (ASN) enhance network observability by extracting, correlating, and analyzing metadata from user and control planes across 4G-LTE, 5G-NSA, and 5G-SA interfaces. ASN provides deep subscriber intelligence to optimize network performance, security, QoS, and analytics across mobile core networks.
2. How was Spirent Landslide used to validate the capabilities of Aviz Service Nodes?
Spirent Landslide was used to emulate large-scale 5G network environments, generating traffic from millions of mobile subscribers. This allowed Aviz Networks to validate ASN’s metadata extraction accuracy, handover management, application identification, and performance scalability under real-world telecom conditions.
3. What application identification capabilities does ASN offer in telco networks?
ASN uses deep packet inspection (DPI) techniques to identify applications by analyzing Server Name Indication (SNI), destination IP addresses, ports, and behavioral patterns. This ensures better traffic classification, QoS enforcement, billing accuracy, and security threat detection within telecom networks.
4. What performance and scalability benchmarks were achieved by ASN during validation?
Aviz Service Nodes demonstrated the ability to support up to 3 million subscribers while managing correlated user plane traffic at up to 150 Gbps. This performance was validated under mixed packet size scenarios, ensuring ASN’s readiness for large-scale 5G deployments.
5. How does ASN handle user and control plane correlation during 5G handovers?
During 5G and 5G-NSA handovers, ASN ensures seamless metadata extraction and packet correlation between old and new base stations. This guarantees uninterrupted subscriber session tracking and maintains full network visibility even during complex mobility events.
6. Is ASN compatible with both traditional and cloud-native telecom network deployments?
Yes. ASN runs reliably on traditional telecom hardware and cloud-native cores. This ensures operators modernizing their 5G infrastructure retain continuous observability and deep subscriber intelligence.
7. How does ASN support multi-vendor 5G and O-RAN deployments?
ASN is vendor-agnostic and supports:
- Standard 4G/5G interfaces
- Diverse RAN and core elements
Consistent metadata extraction and correlation across multi-vendor environments
This makes it ideal for open RAN and heterogeneous networks.
8. Can ASN be deployed at the edge for real-time subscriber analytics?
Absolutely. ASN’s lightweight, x86-based architecture enables efficient edge deployment. This allows operators to perform local correlation, app detection, and anomaly checks close to the user, reducing latency and improving real-time insights.
9. What security benefits does ASN offer through application-level visibility?
By using deep packet inspection (DPI) and behavioral analysis, ASN:
- Detects unauthorized or malicious apps
- Enhances security enforcement
- Provides context-rich metadata for proactive incident response and compliance reporting
10. What differentiates ASN from other observability or DPI solutions in the market?
ASN combines:
- High-scale subscriber intelligence (up to 3M subscribers)
- Real-time handover correlation
- 4G/5G multi-interface support
Spirent-validated performance up to 150 Gbps
All delivered in a single, platform-agnostic package purpose-built for modern telecom networks.
