In the fourth of our five-part series on full lifecycle testing and continuous assurance for mobile services, we consider how automation accelerates the validation of new releases in your pre-production network – and how it can ensure effective quality control under your governance policies.

This is the fourth blog in our five-part series, which explores automation and testing over the entire service lifecycle in mobile networks. We’ve already considered the concept of automated testing and active monitoring throughout the service and software lifecycle and outlined their essential steps: from detecting issues in the production network, lab replication and regression testing, pre-production staging and from there back to the live network again.

This continuous loop of activities is essential – not just for troubleshooting and maintaining experiences for your customers, but also for delivering new capabilities and services. As such, it’s important both to get this right – and also to be able to enhance efficiency and accelerate progress. Unless you do, the agile, continuous delivery and innovation, and service excellence to which you aspire cannot easily be achieved.

Pre-production validation are vital steps in lifecycle assurance of mobile services

In this blog we cover your pre-production (or staging) network, which is where you have to perform those final validation tests before pushing a new release, patch or update into the live network – and comply with your quality systems.

Your pre-production network provides an isolated, safe environment that mirrors as closely as possible the live production environment in which your customers interact with your networks directly.

It’s a replica in micro scale, which allows you to run validation testing in as accurate a manner as possible – even down to bug-to-bug compatibility with the deployed and live software versions and packages.

As such, it enables a controlled transition between your lab network and live deployment. Nothing should reach this environment until it has already been thoroughly tested for both functionality and performance in a lab environment.

The thing is, though, that while this lifecycle trajectory is hardly new and should not be unfamiliar, the pace at which we need to move through it has changed. We need to accelerate cycles, and we also need to ensure compliance with relevant governance.

This means that software releases are more controlled than ever – so how do we satisfy both demands: getting new updates into the network faster while also ensuring oversight?

Automated validation – and compliance

The answer lies in automation and integration. In the pre-production network, it’s necessary to run the complete suite of tests optimized for the release again, to ensure compatibility with the latest production builds.

Of course, that repeats test and validation processes that will already have been undertaken in the lab, but the motivation here is to examine behaviour in an accurate model of the live environment. It’s the final step in the quality control process – which we can accelerate with automation.

If we automate, we can ensure that, when a software update moves through the CI/CD/CT pipeline and is passed for release to the pre-production network, the relevant test suite can be triggered instantly – and, when complete, the software can be deployed into the live network according to the release authorisation processes in place.

But we also need to integrate so that accurate reports of the test scenarios performed, and their results are shared with other systems in the operational domain, so that we can maintain accurate records that are of audit quality.

Emblasoft Evolver offers a solution to both challenges. It provides both the comprehensive functional testing for the 4G/5G Core Packet, Messaging, Voice/IMS, IPX/GRX, and more that you need – supported by full automation and integration to orchestration platforms and other operational systems.

So, when the update is ready for validation in the pre-production network, your orchestration system can automatically trigger Evolver to run the requisite suite of tests, with the required conditions.

An integrated quality control system

The results for every test are collected and presented both to users and also to your logs and control systems as a record to ensure compliance with governance and procedures. These results are also important for acceptance testing with your vendors, of course – so on every level, it’s important to enhance efficiency and speed.

The records and reports generated mean that, should it be necessary, audits can be conducted with access to clear evidence, showing that the correct procedures have been followed for releases into production environments – and that the appropriate quality thresholds have been reached.

This is essential – Evolver is not an isolated test silo. It’s both a solution that supports every generation of your mobile network and technology footprint and also an operational tool that is completely integrated with your wider automation programmes and with your oversight and control systems.

A single, versatile solution

Of course, Evolver is a comprehensive solution, supporting functional, performance, regression, and stress testing across mobile core networks including your 5G SA / NSA, IMS, VoLTE, EPC and other investments, together with  interfaces such as Diameter, SIP, HTTP/2, and legacy protocols like SS7.

Evolver provides granular control over signalling and traffic simulation, allowing precise definition of flows, triggers, and the behaviours to be tested. Its broad protocol support and stack-level visibility enable deep validation of service interactions, interworking, and network and code behaviours before deployment.

With full support for automation and CI/CD integration, Evolver helps you innovate faster, verify more thoroughly, troubleshoot and assure performance, ensure security and compliance, and identify issues prior to launch by reproducing and automating complex test scenarios with ease – while ensuring complete compliance with your governance and quality control processes.

Watch out for the fifth and final blog in our series on full lifecycle assurance for mobile services, or get in touch today to find out more.