For a manufacturer shipping to Cable TV providers worldwide, testing set-top boxes one at a time could not keep up, and at fifteen minutes per box, volume was the bottleneck.
“When testing one device takes fifteen minutes, scale is the whole problem.”
A global manufacturing, sales, and service company offering turnkey solutions to Cable TV providers needed to automate the testing of Set-Top Boxes in an isolated Cable TV network environment. The existing process took an average of 15 minutes to test a single box, which could not keep pace with volume.
Partnering with ML arteka, a custom test automation platform was developed through R&D across multiple closed and proprietary platforms. Using barcode identification, the system ran many tests simultaneously while measuring industry-standard network and device parameters. Caching improved efficiency, and a system library housed diagnostic logs for every device tested.
The result: test time dropped from 15 minutes for a single box to 10 minutes for 20 boxes on each rack, with multiple racks tested at the same time, scaling to thousands of boxes.
Business Outcomes
A single-device bottleneck became a parallel, multi-rack platform measuring standard network and device parameters.
Tested simultaneously on each rack.
Down from 15 minutes for a single box.
Multiple racks tested at the same time.
The Transformation
From one box at a time to intelligent, parallel, multi-rack testing.
- 1
ResearchR&D Across Proprietary PlatformsConducted R&D across multiple closed and proprietary platforms to build an end-to-end intelligent automation tool. - 2
IdentifyBarcode IdentificationUsed barcode identification so many tests could run simultaneously against the right devices. - 3
MeasureStandard ParametersMeasured industry-standard network and device parameters across every box under test. - 4
OptimizeCaching and a System LibraryImplemented caching for efficiency and a system library to house diagnostic logs for each device.
The Business Challenge
Scale Was the Whole Problem
Turnkey Cable TV solutions demanded high-volume device testing that a 15-minute-per-box process could not deliver.
Isolated network testing
Set-Top Boxes had to be tested in an isolated Cable TV network environment.
Slow per-device testing
The existing process took an average of 15 minutes for a single box.
Proprietary hardware
Multiple manufacturers’ proprietary and embedded hardware had to be supported.
Business Outcomes in Detail
What the Numbers Mean
Tested simultaneously on each rack.
Down from 15 minutes for a single box.
Multiple racks tested at the same time.
Technology Snapshot
The Multi-Rack Platform
When the unit of work is a single device, the only way to scale is to change the unit. Moving from one box at a time to twenty per rack across many racks turned a linear bottleneck into a parallel platform.
Executive Questions and Answers
The questions leadership tends to ask when evaluating an approach like this.
Scale
How do you test thousands of boxes at once?
A multi-rack platform tests 20 boxes per rack in parallel, with many racks running at the same time, all identified by barcode and measured against standard parameters.
Efficiency
Where did the speed come from?
Parallelism plus caching. Test time went from 15 minutes for one box to 10 minutes for 20 on a rack.
Fit
How does it handle different hardware?
The platform was integrated across several manufacturers’ proprietary hardware and the company’s own embedded hardware.
