The MultiService Forum launched a permanent test bed last week at the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory that will support testing of all MSF Implementation Agreements and future agreements around IPTV, quality of service, location management and operations support systems.

“There is a lot of work being done around the globe on standards development … but standards don't go far enough for the needs of major carriers who are trying to implement networks against multivendor procurement specifications,” said Roger Ward, president of the MSF. “So we focus on the physical implementation of standards, the output from [which] validates commercial implementation agreements that MSF members can use in real-life procurement situations.”

After a short pilot program involving Huawei, Tektronix and Vodafone, the lab will take on the NGN Media Gateway Interoperability Test in early 2008. There it will test the “Mc Interface” between the Mobile Switching Center Server and the Media Gateway. The Mc Interface is an essential element in the evolution of the mobile circuit-switched domain to a Bearer Independent Core Network architecture and an all-IP implementation.

“The impetus [for the test bed] is to allow MSF members to do testing on those 21 implementation agreements and test scenarios from GMI 2006 on a year-round basis,” said Kristen Harris of the UNH/IOL. “It allows vendors to test according to their product cycles, when they are ready to test as opposed to the GMI scenarios, which tend to be around service provider procurement.”

The Global MSF Interoperability events are biennial gatherings of members who use carrier labs around the globe to test the standards and implementations around IP multimedia subsystem and other next-generation network scenarios. The forum launched a certification program in July, which the test bed will help facilitate.