Network Testing and Analytics

Network testing could have a wide spectrum. It is not confined to lab testing with all configurations preset and all results easily reproducible. It could go to field testing with a much larger and even operational network as the testbed. This could also be hybrid testing with parts of the testbed being real and the other parts being emulated or even simulated. Although testers are usually limited to a few engineers or researchers, they could also be crowdsourced volunteers who are ordinary users. As we have expanded our series to include analytics, we are encouraging analytics-based network testing that mines more data and observations from the operational network. After all, if no interesting and useful insights can be found in the test results, network testing and its methodology are not effective enough for the developers of protocols and algorithms.