Ashok Tripathi

Director of Engineering

Hyderabad, Telangana, India21 yrs 5 mos experience

Most Likely To SwitchHighly Stable

Key Highlights

Expert in 5G and telecommunications testing.
Proven leadership in managing large test teams.
Strong background in integration and system verification.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a Telecommunications Testing Expert with extensive experience in 5G and system verification.

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Skills

Core Skills

5g TestingIntegration TestingTest ManagementPerformance TestingE2e TestingSystem VerificationFunctional TestingSoftware Development

Other Skills

5G NR Sub-6mmW Small CellARM CortexRFICsRF and PHY/MAC layerTest Strategies4G FDD/TDDFemto/small cellsCSM/Cell Site ModemTest StrategyTest AutomationStability TestingKPI ReportingLTE TestingTest Planning

About

-Test Lead for Qualcomm India's FSM (Femto/Small Cells) and CSM (Cell Site Modem) Product lines for 5G, 4G, 3G networks - Good insight in wireless and data communication protocols: 5G L1, 4G(LTE, LAA, eMTC, NBIOT), 3G(HSPA, HSDPA, HSUPA, WCDMA), Voice Over IP, TCP/IP - Have lead teams of various sizes varying 5-50 in various projects. Responsible for line management and technical guidance of the team. - Strong expertise in building a team from scratch, ramping up team members and mentoring them to enhance their technical and team skills - Expertise in Integration Testing, Functional Testing, IOT, Field & System Verification, End-to-End Testing, System Verification & Integration of E2E/PET systems in WCDMA & LTE, IP, Network & lab planning, customer interaction & demos. - Expertise in LAB/hardware & system planning, estimations, test case planning & Scenario Identification for Functional / System Verification (RNC) for Admission Control & Mobility Control & 3G Layer3 Protocols. - Proficient in Test Lifecycle management like Test Planning and reviewing, Test Cases writing, Test Case Execution and Tracking, Defect Analysis and RCA. -Femto/Small Cells/Cell Site modem/CSM/RNC / mcRNC / I-HSPA Adapter System knowledge. Call & Interface Integration

Experience

21 yrs 5 mos

Total Experience

7 yrs 1 mo

Average Tenure

11 yrs 6 mos

Current Experience

Qualcomm

4 roles

Director

Promoted

Aug 2025 – Present · 8 mos

Engineer, Principal/Manager

Dec 2021 – Aug 2025 · 3 yrs 8 mos

Managed the integration and system test team of 60 members for 5G NR Sub-6 and mmW Small Cell projects, a solution with ARM Cortex based SoC along with RFICs, with a focus on RF and PHY/MAC layer and platform.
Architected innovative test strategies for 5G Sub-6 TDD/FDD and mmW cellular products, resulting in seamless customer trials and deployments with industry-leading OEMs and operators.
Provided ongoing support and maintenance for 4G FDD/TDD products, ensuring the reliability of existing technologies.
Ensured lab and infrastructure for seamless execution.

5G NR Sub-6mmW Small CellARM CortexRFICsRF and PHY/MAC layerTest Strategies+3

Engineer, Senior Staff/Manager

Promoted

Jun 2017 – Dec 2021 · 4 yrs 6 mos

Role - Test Lead for Femto/small cells and CSM/Cell Site Modem product line.
Product – Qualcomm’s FSM chipsets provide multi-radio small cells solution(5G, 3G HSPA and 4G LTE) for residential and enterprise users. Latest developments are 5G mmW and Sub-6. CSM chipsets provide solution for 5G mmW, Sub6.
Team Leadership
Leading a team ~40 test engineers including full-time employees & consultants.
Responsible for leading overall test team from QIPL for FSM and CSM; which includes line management of sub leads, mentoring them for various roles, co-ordination across sites in different Geo and Lab/Infrastructure handling ( Across SW, Test, CE).
Test Management Responsibilities
Developing test strategy for different product lines and respective milestones - ES(Engineering Sample), FC(Feature Complete), CS(Commercial Sample)
Reviewing test designs for the new features and identifying test infrastructure needs
Tracking of Test Projects and guiding the team in resolving ‘conflicting demands’ or ‘unforeseen obstacles’
Assessing the efficacy of the testing and taking up corrective actions
Regular escape bug analysis of customer reported issues, and taking corrective actions to improve test design or strategy
Contributions in building test infrastructure
Managing a lab with about 200 test setups. Total capital expense on the lab is ~ $20 mn.
Lab catered to variety of testing done for small cell products. Typical equipment in the lab included UE simulators(TM500, JDSU), Real UEs, RF Faders(VR5, SR5500), EPCs(Polaris, EXFO, Cisco), Traffic Generators(D500), IMS Servers, Sanjole, Nomad, Keysight EXF MXG, VXT, VSA, CATR, ODU, RF tunnel, RnS FSW, SMW
Strived continuously to improve the reliability of Lab. ~150 fully automated test setups, clocking the average of 12-14 hours/day
Test Automation
Aggressively driven test automation efforts. Established test automation cadence such that all new features tests gets automated 100% by FR

Femto/small cellsCSM/Cell Site ModemTest ManagementTest StrategyTest AutomationIntegration Testing

Engineer, Staff / Manager

Sep 2014 – May 2017 · 2 yrs 8 mos

Role - Test Lead for Qualcomm’s small cells Performance and Stability Team.
Product – Qualcomm’s FSM chipsets provide multi-radio small cells solution(3G HSPA and 4G LTE) for residential and enterprise users.
Team Leadership
Leading a team of 18 test engineers including full timers & consultants. I was responsible for leading performance and stability test team; which includes line management of sub leads, mentoring them for various roles, co-ordination across sites in different Geo, ensuring timely delivery of patch/releases.
Test Management Responsibilities
Developing test strategy for various milestones - ES(Engineering Sample), FC(Feature Complete), CS(Commercial Sample)
Reviewing test designs for the new features and identifying test infrastructure needs
Assessing the efficacy of the testing and taking up corrective actions
Regular escape bug analysis of customer reported issues, and taking corrective actions to improve test design or strategy
Preparing KPI and customer reports.
Test Automation
Close to 100% setup utilization through Semi Automated test framework.
100% Automation for patch testing.

Performance TestingStability TestingTest StrategyKPI ReportingTest Management

Alcatel-lucent

Technical Specialist

Jun 2014 – Sep 2014 · 3 mos · Bangalore

Project: WCDMA : NodeB and RNC Large Capacity Testig

Aricent

5 roles

Engineering Project Manager

Nov 2013 – Jun 2014 · 7 mos

Project: eNodeB Testing, LTE E2E Testing.
Role: Engineering Project Manager.
It involves E2E Testing with Nodes like EPC lite, IMS HSS, UEs and eNB.
Execution of this project along with the WCDMA System Verification project in parallel.
Responsibility:
LTE domain ramp up & lead expertise built up within team.
Major role & involvement in complete h/w, environment & setup details & people estimation, IP Plans & etc.
Setup of E2E lab with EPC lite and IMS HSS.
Detailed study of LTE features, planning test cases for features, and reviews.

E2E TestingLTE TestingTest PlanningTest Management

Engineering Project Manager

Promoted

Jan 2011 – Jun 2014 · 3 yrs 5 mos

January 2011- June 2014, At Aricent, Gurgaon.
October 2009- December 2009, At NSN, ESPOO (Finland).
Project: WCDMA: End to End System Verification.
Role: Technical Leader and Engineering Project Manager
Lead of the Project: Establishing E2E lab for SYSTEM VERIFICATION for three product lines; NSN McRNC (Multicontroller RNC), CRNC & I-HSPA Adapter. The set up is exact simulation of field setup as in Customer Networks with all real elements. Setting up the entire LAB from the scratch.
The setup: Each setup includes 3 RNCs (McRNC / CRNC / I-HSPA) setup with multiple Flexi_BTSs. Real commercial UEs Rel5, Rel6, Rel7 & Rel8 keep making all types of calls (Voice, PS, Video, MultiRAB) in varying mobility conditions through digital attenuators. The UEs are connected to a Mobile Call generator and in RF protection. The UEs keep making calls 24*7 & all system logs, KPIs are collected. The test-bed is so planned that all mobility & state transitions scenarios are hit as in real Field ENV. This is done by varying the attenuation of the cells as per planned scenarios. And UEs then keep moving in the cells to hit the desired scenarios.
Responsibility:
For the complete lab setup, hardware planning & estimations. IP plan, Test plan & automation scripting from scratch.
RCA & DQA analysis & implementation
Detailed KPI analysis of Telecom, HSDPA, HSUPA & Handover Control
UE call generations. Mobility control & ENV Maintenance. 24 * 7 log analysis & bug raising & co-ordination.
Line Management.

System VerificationLab SetupTest AutomationTest Management

Technical Leader (R&D NSN BU)

Promoted

Jan 2009 – Dec 2010 · 1 yr 11 mos

August 2010 – December 2010, At NSN, ESPOO (Finland).
Project: NOKIA-I-HSPA: End to End System and Field Verification.
Lead of the Project: Working with the SYSTEM & FIELD VERIFICATION team for NSN RNC, WCDMA technology with system under test as RNC. The set up is exact simulation of field setup as in Customer Networks with all real elements. I have been a part of NSN Finland (ESPOO) team for the same & have setup a similar LAB here at Aricent for RNC maintenance testing.
The setup: The setup has 10-15 I-HSPA adapters (~20-30 cells). Real commercial UEs Rel5, Rel6, Rel7 & Rel8 keep making all types of calls (Voice, PS, Video, MultiRAB) in varying mobility conditions. I-HSPA adapters are kept in Field & the drive path is set to generate mobility & variation in radio conditions. The test-bed is so planned that all mobility & state transitions scenarios are hit as in real Field ENV.
Responsibility:
Detailed KPI analysis of Telecom, HSDPA, HSUPA & Handover Control
UE call generations. Mobility control & ENV Maintenance. 24 * 7 log analysis & bug raising & co-ordination.
Customer support and query handling.
Execution of this project along with the WCDMA PET Verification project in parallel.
January 2009- December 2010, At Aricent, Gurgaon.
Project: NSN-RNC: WCDMA PET Verification.
Lead of the Project: Stability, Capacity and Performance of the RNC under normal load and also under overload situation is verified. Key parameters are KPIs, throughput, BHCA, Erlong, Unit load etc.
The setup: Based on the information from real life traffic and capacity of RNC, test cases are dimensioned. Nodes except SUT are simulated with PET.
Responsibility:
For the complete lab & filed setup & maintenance from scratch. It involved through system level knowledge gaining & immense exposure at all interfaces.
Detailed KPI analysis of Telecom, HSDPA, HSUPA & Handover Control
Customer specific setup configuration and testing for early bug finding.

Functional TestingIntegration TestingTest Planning

Technical Leader Testing, Senior Software Engineer & Software Engineer

Apr 2005 – Dec 2008 · 3 yrs 8 mos

Project: NOKIA RNC & I-HSPA Adaptor, Functional Testing Team.
Role: Technical Leader Testing, Senior Software Engineer & Software Engineer
Project: NOKIA-I-HSPA (Internet – High Speed Packet Access) Integration & System Verification team.
Role: Technical Leader Testing & Senior Software Engineer Testing
RNC FT: The system under test is the Radio Network Controller (RNC). Rest of the environment is simulated. Responsible for Writing & executing Test Cases for basic Admission Control and handover control for NBAP, RRC, RNSAP, RANAP Interface and testing the functionality within the RNC. TTCN2 and TTCN3 used as scripting languages. Planning Test Cases for Correction Requests. Debugging, & raising SPR.
Onsite FT Support: I have worked in NSN, ESPOO (Finland) from September 2007 to December 2008 for similar activity as mentioned above.
Re-Architecture FT: Supported RRC and common channel re-architecture. With this I was involved in testing of various features starting from basic features to complicated ones from Handover Control, Telecom Signaling and Admission Control area. And helped in debugging the issues under heavy time pressure.
I-HSPA FT: The I-HSPA Adaptor is a solution for low cost packet-switched calls with less delays & high capacity which supports HSDPA & HSUPA & all functionalities of an RNC. I have planned HSDPA & HSUPA scenarios for functional testing in all areas of Telecom & Handover including, Basic Call, State Transitions, Soft-Softer HOs, Hard HOs, Relocation Scenarios, Serving Cell Change & etc.

Software DevelopmentC Programming

Software Engineer

Aug 2004 – Apr 2005 · 8 mos

August 2004 - April 2005: At Hughes Software Systems, Gurgaon (Currently Aricent).
Project: RNC Appl. Stacks and CN RANAP.
Role: Software Engineer
Development of NBAP encoder and decoder libraries and functions.
Programming Language - C

Financial Decision Support SystemVC++Software Development