SGT Solutions, a South African company certified as B‑BBEE level two specialising in systems integration, has partnered with Keysight, and they were awarded the initial phase of a West African telecommunications operator’s initiative to enhance customer service delivery.
Solution implemented for the operator
The Keysight product suite deployed is known as Hawkeye – a platform that continuously measures network performance and service status 24×7×365. When issues arise, Hawkeye identifies, quantifies and assists in resolving them before customers experience service degradation.
Hawkeye is an operational solution for distributed production networks. It supports active monitoring for network assessments, enabling measurement, control, troubleshooting and verification of network infrastructure using predictable traffic injection. The system is based on an open framework designed for integration with OSS/EMS and IT environments.
Key benefits
- Continuous SLA, QOE and QOS monitoring – maintain awareness of network quality and receive alerts for critical events.
- Service verification and validation at start‑up – ensure users experience quality services from day one, reducing support costs.
- Faster troubleshooting – isolate network or application‑specific issues quickly using targeted validation tests.
- Network performance and customer experience assessments – objectively evaluate service quality and analyse performance trends.
High‑level solution components
The Keysight solution includes:
- Hawkeye Management Servers – a pool of servers configured to control and report active tests, built on a MySQL database.
- Active Probes – a combination of XR3000 (16 units) and ixProbes (10 units), as well as multi‑OS software probes (Windows, Linux, Android, Docker, etc) deployed across distributed network locations. These probes perform tests ranging from layer 2/3 traffic injection to complex application‑level service testing.
About Hawkeye
Hawkeye provides:
- A web‑based platform for multi‑user access, scheduling, data storage and real‑time analysis.
- Deployment flexibility using turnkey hardware or software probes.
- Continuous real‑traffic injection based on schedules.
- Distributed testing across on‑premises and cloud environments.
- Real‑time pass/fail verification.
- Rapid fault detection with interval testing.
- Trend analysis based on time‑of‑day and day‑of‑week patterns.
Endpoints (probes)
Keysight probes generate active traffic on the network to validate performance and service availability. Measurements include (but are not limited to):
Network KPIs
- Upload and download speed
- One‑way latency
- Round‑trip time (RTT)
- Packet loss
- Downstream and upstream jitter
- Mean opinion score (MOS)
- Voice call quality metrics
Video KPIs
- Encoding rate
- Start time
- Initial download rate
- Average download rate
- Download interruptions
- Buffer stall count (initial and recurring)
- Buffer stall duration
- Average bit rate
Web KPIs
- Page load time
- Session length
- DNS resolution time
- Web page loading time (ms)
QOS policy profiling
- Bandwidth shaping and QOS enforcement across up to six service classes (TCP/UDP).
Additional tests
- FTP simulation
- SLA assurance and benchmarking
Partnership value
The collaboration between the West African telecommunications operator, SGT Solutions and Keysight delivers substantial benefits, including enhanced network visibility, pre‑launch service assessments, advanced troubleshooting and detailed performance insights.
“The Hawkeye portfolio is a market‑leading solution. We at SGT Solutions are elated to work with the West African telecommunications operator and Keysight to improve QOS and QOE and enhance the value realised across the network,” said Suraj Ramlall, CTO, SGT Solutions.
SGT Solutions specialises in integrated, leading‑edge and comprehensive solutions across the entire telecommunications spectrum. SGT Solutions’ vision is to be the innovative systems integrator of choice for telecommunications solutions. “Your partnership to telecommunications success.”
As a trusted Keysight partner, SGT Solutions is committed to leveraging its technical expertise, combined with Keysight’s leading technologies, to provide the West African telecommunications operator with a competitive advantage in the telecommunications market. To achieve this, all functions within SGT works closely with customers to ensure a complete network ownership cycle: from analysing user requirements through concept design and planning to implementation and, where required, ongoing operations. This includes continuous optimisation of networks throughout their life cycle. We aim to market ourselves effectively and execute with excellence.
Keysight
Keysight, a global leader in design, emulate and test solutions, traces its origins to Hewlett‑Packard’s test and measurement division founded in 1939, later spinning off from Agilent Technologies in 2014. Keysight provides an extensive portfolio supporting various industries and empowers engineers and researchers worldwide to design, test and optimise electronic systems with precision.
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