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TesLA Alliance Frequently Asked Questions
On August 26th, the TesLA alliance was formed IP network testing industry leaders. Below are some commonly asked questions about TesLA (Test Lab Automation). For more information on the alliance and its members, please go to http://www.teslaalliance.org/tesla_members.html.
Q: What is TesLA?Q: Why should I be interested in the TesLA framework?
Q: What does the TesLA framework include?
Q: What are the benefits to adopting TesLA standards (a.k.a TesLA Framework)
Q: Who are the members of TesLA?
The TesLA (Test Lab Automation) Alliance is an open industry alliance of IP test vendors working together to author, publish, support and implement standards that enable seamless and vendor agnostic Test Lab Automation. Key points about TesLA are:
- TesLA is a non-profit entity established in the United States in 2008.
- The alliance members are drawn from various companies in various segments of the Network Lab and Test & Measurement industries.
- They include vendors of layer1 switches, traffic generators, Wan emulators, test automation solutions, lab management solutions, and network test security solutions among others.
- The alliance is governed by Bylaws agreed upon by all members as part of their membership agreement.
- The alliance is run by the Board of Directors formed of representatives by the various members of the alliance.
- The alliance is guided by the TesLA Customer Advisory Board (CAB), which is a group of representatives from leading global service providers and network equipment manufacturers that have a vested interest in the goals of the alliance. The CAB provides a customer's perspective of the future of IP test automation and provides advice and guidance to the TesLA Alliance as it moves forward with the strategic planning and implementation of the framework
In response to customer demands, the IP networking industry is experiencing a technological revolution in the development of products and services. The convergence of communication services onto IP networks extends from routing and switching to content aware security, deep packet inspection, voice, video, and complex application networking functions. As device complexity increases and product life cycles shorten, customers are focusing on improving business processes, increasing operational efficiency and ensuring higher quality. These mandates for improved productivity and reduced costs require an IP network test lab to use test solutions from a variety of vendors in order to optimize their lab usage. These dynamics are influencing the test industry to develop improved test methodologies and to standardize test tools and test automation solutions. TesLA alliance charter is author, publish, support and implement standards to achieve these goals.
Q: Why should I be interested in the TesLA framework?The TesLA open automation standards ensure interoperability among members' products, making it easy for customers to improve efficiency and productivity. They also promote the use of efficient, standardized test methodologies that help improve test coverage and product quality in the face of the rapid product release cycles.
Q: What does the TesLA framework include?The TesLA framework is comprised of standards for various Test Automation interfaces that are published by the alliance. For the initial phase, the different areas of interfaces that comprise the framework include:
- Lab Management Interfaces - a fundamental physical layer building block necessary to deliver truly unattended test automation and maximize lab equipment utilization.
- Plugin interfaces – primarily addresses script Authoring - a test definition standard that allows different DUT and test automation devices to be commanded and configured from a single scripting interface. This obviates the need for highly skilled programmers with detailed knowledgeable of each proprietary programming API.
Other areas of test automation like Scheduling, Reporting etc will be added to these standard's initiatives in future phases of TesLA standards development.
Q: What are the benefits to adopting TesLA standards (a.k.a TesLA Framework)- Maximize ROI - TesLA's unifying framework increases the utilization of CAPEX investments, both for devices under test and test equipment. The open standards promotes a reduction in OPEX expenses for automation by reducing the effort required to integrate and maintain the different testing solutions provided by the members.
- Minimize time to market - TesLA framework provides a seamless integration of members' products, allowing products to be tested faster and with high repeatability. Less time spent getting the test automation tools to cooperate means more time for testing and quicker time to market. The suite of testing solutions offered by TesLA members form a complete test automation solution that offers true unattended test execution, making the test lab more productive and freeing up the test engineers to develop new tests for future automation.
- Increased quality and customer satisfaction - Through more robust testing with the TesLA framework, companies will deliver better products with fewer defects - reducing product support costs and increasing customer satisfaction.
The founding TesLA members are APCON™, Codenomicon™, Fanfare™, Ixia™, Mu Dynamics™, QualiSystems™ and Shunra™. Additional members will be joining the alliance. For a complete list of current members, go to http://www.teslaalliance.org/tesla_members.html.
Q: Where can I get more information about TesLA?You can learn more about TesLA at http://www.teslaalliance.org/. You can find the current list of members, information regarding the alliance, and links to the members' web sites there.
Q: How do I contact TesLA?You can contact TesLA by sending an email to: