Date: 9th Jun 2011

NTAF releases first industry specs for network test automation

The Network Test Automation Forum has announced that it has approved the release of the first set of specifications for enabling multi-vendor interoperability in network test labs.

The specifications define tool registration, discovery and activation functionalities that enable software and hardware from multiple vendors to automatically and seamlessly recognize and communicate with each other.

"Automation is and has always been a key strategic focus for test labs around the world," said Robert Ormsby, president of NTAF and director at Verizon. "These new specifications represent a major milestone towards standardizing network lab automation, which will be the cornerstone of multi-vendor interoperability."

The NTAF specification defines mechanisms for network entities, either lab equipment or software automation tool harnesses, to publish information that will allow other entities to integrate with them and control them in a generic manner. The specification also covers how these entities can register themselves and discover what other NTAF entities are available within their environment.

"It is very impressive to see competing test tool vendors and network test labs work collaboratively to achieve such success in such a short time to solve a complex problem," said Kaushal Agrawal, a board member of NTAF and senior director of engineering at Cisco. "The demonstration instantiated multi-vendor interoperability, a critical need for all network test labs in this age of convergence."