FREMONT, CA – Companies from across the communications and networking industries in the field of network testing have joined forces to form the Network Test Automation Forum (NTAF).
Launched Tuesday, the goal of the new organization is to establish interoperable solutions that help the networking industry cut time, cost and complexity out of test-automation activities. With representation from service providers, network equipment manufacturers and test and measurement vendors, NTAF advocates a customer-centric and device-agnostic framework that meets the automation needs of customers and the network test industry as a whole.
“Our goal is to provide complete transparency in the Forum’s activities and ensure a level playing field for all members,” said NTAF president Keith Kidd, in the announcement. “By encouraging industry wide participation, NTAF is working toward establishing interoperable testing solutions for service providers, network equipment manufacturers, and other enterprise organizations with large network deployments.”
In addition to BreakingPoint Systems, BT, Cisco, Empirix, Ericsson, Fanfare Software, Ixia, JDSU, Spirent Communications, and Verizon, Canadian telecom test and measurement equipment manufacturer EXFO is a founding member of NTAF.
"With the creation of NTAF, we feel that the entire test automation industry will come together and supply service providers, network equipment manufacturers and test equipment vendors with unified technical test specifications," said Vikas Arora, CTO of EXFO, in a statement. "By having a single organization promoting standardized technical specifications, we are confident that interoperability between test components will be achieved, resulting in reduced testing time and simplified test-automation architectures, which will cut the cost of product test cycles".
