Network Test Automation Forum

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NTAF represents any organization/individual interested in testing network devices, architectures or application performance.

Service Providers, End users Network Element Manufacturers Test Equipment Manufacturers Automation Solutions Vendors

Promote the interoperability of commercial testing tools and test infrastructure for the data communications and telecommunications industry.

Mission Statement:

What/Who does NTAF represent?

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NTAF Members

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Governed by members

• Define interoperability standards for the Network Testing Industry

• Any member can submit ideas for consideration• NTAF members will review the submissions and craft

standards based on the NTAF bylaws and operating procedures

• Published standards will be made available to interested parties

Robert Ormsby, Verizon (NTAF President)Todd Law, Spirent Communications (NTAF Vice President)Jitin Dhanani, Ixia Communications (NTAF Treasurer)Bruno Giguère, EXFO (NTAF Secretary)

Kris Raney, BreakingPointSteve Thomas, BTKaushal Agrawal, CiscoGordon Eddy, EmpirixJames Murray, EricssonLars Friedrich, JDSU

Members

Current Board of Directors

Board of Directors

Technical Committee

Marketing Committee

Officers:

Members:

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NTAF Governance

Create technical standards that are freely available Encourage participation and promotion of the standardsProvide interpretation of these standards Enable compliance certification with these standardsEnsure a “level playing field” for all membersProvide transparency to all members

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NTAF Guiding Principles

NTAF’s success is based on Compliance NTAF addresses both wire line and wireless networksEngage with existing standard bodies to leverage their work and identify “gaps” vs. re-working existing standardsIntroduce a common set of test suites that demonstrate NTAF compliance certification Create a Compliance Working Group (CWG) to further define and refine interoperability testing issues CWG will be a subset of the Technical Committee

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What’s the Challenge?

As new services are required a typical lab continues to expand in terms of networking equipment and equally the number of testing solutions required to test these new devices and services. Increased pressures to get devices/networks/services to the market place

as quickly as possible The majority of test solutions available are unique No standard for interoperability

NTAF aims to standardize Interoperability Test Integration and Automation

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Present Day Lab Management

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NTAF Focus

InteroperabilityIntegration Automation

Evolution of the NTAF Entity. Technical Goal:

NTAF Technical Introduction

First Face-to-Face meetingMontreal, Canada, April 2010

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Introducing the Technical Committee

• Define interoperability standards for the Network Testing Industry

• Any member can submit ideas for consideration• NTAF members will review the submissions and craft

standards based on the NTAF bylaws and operating procedures

• Published standards will be made available to interested parties

Board of Directors

Technical Committee

Marketing Committee

The Technical Committee has the responsibility of defining the content of the NTAF technical specifications. 

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NTAF Reference Model

NTAF Entity

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Key Decisions of the Montreal Meeting

Adopt XMPP as the core protocol for communication between NTAF entities.NTAF Entity Minimum Requirements

XMPP

Sends/Receives msgs using the NTAF schema

Supports the standard Request/Response model

Standard error handling

Simplified Entity Model, Interfaces refined down to:Activation

Discovery/capabilities

Actions (requests)

Notifications

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Introducing the Marketing Committee

• Define interoperability standards for the Network Testing Industry

• Any member can submit ideas for consideration• NTAF members will review the submissions and craft

standards based on the NTAF bylaws and operating procedures

• Published standards will be made available to interested parties

Board of Directors

Technical Committee

Marketing CommitteeThe Marketing Committee promotes awareness of NTAF, its members and facilitates industry adoption of NTAF specifications NTAF as an organization, promote its members and their contributions to the Network Test Automation community and to facilitate the industry adoption of NTAF specifications.

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Marketing Activities

The Marketing Committee advances industry awareness of NTAF and adoption of NTAF specifications by employing these channels to reach members and the industry:

Test ReportsWhite PapersWebinarsBlogLinked-in GroupNewsletterPress Briefings

Become a member today!

We encourage you to join us for what will prove to be an exciting and rewarding journey.

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NTAF – Service Provider benefits

As a Service Provider or End-user of network test automation, NTAF provides you with: The opportunity to help create test and automation specifications that will

be widely adopted by test and automation vendors, enabling you to cut down on test and test setup time and get your products/services to market faster.

The chance to voice your test and automation requirements to the industry in an open and transparent forum.

The opportunity to meet with your suppliers and competitors in an open environment to share ideas, best practices and requirements.

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As a Network Equipment Manufacturer, NTAF provides you with: The opportunity to help create test and automation specifications that will

be widely adopted by test and automation vendors. Enable you to cut down on test, development, and test setup time. Products to market faster, with decreased QA times. The chance to voice your requirements to the vendors of the test and

automation industry in an open forum. The opportunity to meet with your suppliers and competitors in an open

environment to share ideas, best practices and requirements.

NTAF – Network Equipment Manufacturer benefits

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As a Test Equipment and Automation Vendor, NTAF provides you with: The chance to participate in, and contribute to, a standards-setting

organization. Help create and implement accepted specifications and leverage best-in-class complementary solutions with minimum engineering effort.

The opportunity to meet your customers (i.e. Service Providers, End-users and Network Equipment Manufacturers) in an environment were you can demonstrate the true innovativeness of your company.

The ability to promote interoperability standards in the test community. Enable users of test and automation products (your customers) to benefit from your ideas and cut down on test infrastructure development time in order to bring products to market faster.

NTAF – Test Equipment and Automation Vendor benefits

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Thank you!

For further information and membership queries please visit website (http://www.ntaforum.org) or send email: info@ntaforum.org