End-to-End Testing and What it Means for Telecoms

End-to-end (E2E) testing refers to the testing of an entire application flow, from the beginning to the end of the user journey, as well as the entire application stack, from back-end code to the database, the front end, and the network itself.It is typically very user-oriented and is used to test that an entire application behaves correctly

with all sub-components working as expected while maintaining data integrity. Data integrity is particularly important in telecoms, where individual components may work well but fail when introduced as part of a wider network. As such, E2E testing is very important in the telecoms industry.

Digitalization in the telecom industry

The digitalization of the telecom industry has opened up the industry to adopt newer and better testing practices. Once data and processes are digitized, they can take advantage of the benefits of digitalization, such as test suite analysis and automated testing, to automatically identify areas of concern in a test suite and develop tests for them — even helps in making an effective disaster recovery plan! The autogeneration of testing and test data not only widens the scope of what can be covered with a test suite but, it also reduces the existing burden on testers and frees up more of their time for other purposes.

The need for E2E testing in the telecom industry

The need for extensive E2E testing is very apparent in the telecom industry in particular, where networks and systems are frequently made up of many different components, many of which have dependencies on other sub-components. This intricate network should be tested individually, but it is only with E2E testing that a broader picture of the real-world user experience becomes clear.

Data quality and data integrity are both vitally important in the telecom industry. Dropped packets, incorrectly routed data, or loss of data fidelity can be hugely detrimental to a company’s reputation in the telecom industry. There is a need to ensure that data reaches its destination uncompromised, which cannot be achieved by testing the individual components alone.

E2E testing is therefore crucial within the telecom industry, as it gives companies a ‘big picture’ approach to testing. E2E testing should be extensive, as it must cover a very wide range of test cases. It is therefore important to have a very well defined and structured E2E test suite.

E2E testing in telecom software

End to end service verification is one of the most common and important cases for testing in the telecom industry, for which E2E testing is well-suited. E2E testing is very user-focused, with test cases being composed from the very first step a user takes when connecting to a network to the very end. In telecom software, test cases must be developed to deal with a variety of different potential use cases and must also cover a wide range of potential events that may occur during the process.

Due to this, use cases should be focused not on the minutiae of how different network components react but based on real-life use cases of the network. Risk analysis should be performed to help provide data-driven decisions to direct the test cases to areas they are most needed.

As an example, test cases should be developed to cover a typical user journey with consideration for realistic possibilities that may occur mid-call. So, tests should be created to consider whether a user puts a call on hold, whether they are roaming and crossover networks, if a call is dropped, or if another call is received at the same time.

Best practices in E2E testing automation for telecoms

Picking a mature and well-developed testing framework is vital, as it guides the direction and structure of the entire test suite. E2E testing should be applied after tests on individual components have been finished. This is because E2E testing takes a very broad look at the use of a telecom network, so pinpointing the location of specific issues can be complicated. Knowing each individual component has already been tested can help testers when investigating faults discovered in E2E testing.

Automated testing allows for the integration of continuous testing and parallel testing. These approaches to testing allow for a far greater volume of tests to be conducted and can help with the development and maintenance of regression test suites. Large test suites can become very expensive to maintain and timely to run, so adopting procedures that minimize testing downtime and parallelize the running of tests helps to conduct more extensive testing in the same amount of time.