Testing your application on a carrier network sets up another challenge.
This is especially true if you want to support multiple carriers. Two of the
highest hurdles to jump are: understanding and adapting to the carrier’s
infrastructure, and overcoming location-based obstacles.
Understanding a carrier’s infrastructure is fundamental to developing a
good test plan. Initially, you would think that your mobile application uses
a carrier’s network like an IP wireless hotspot. Not so. Figure 11.1 illus-
trates the ‘‘typical’’ infrastructure of most wireless carriers. The first differ-
ence is that the protocol is not IP-based; it is usually an RF-based protocol