diff --git a/jjb/bbsim-validation.yaml b/jjb/bbsim-validation.yaml
index ef271df..831ba42 100644
--- a/jjb/bbsim-validation.yaml
+++ b/jjb/bbsim-validation.yaml
@@ -57,7 +57,12 @@
       - string:
          name: EmulationMode
          default: '--set emulation_mode=default'
-         description: 'Emulation for BBSIM (both|aaa|default'
+         description: 'Emulation for BBSIM (both|aaa|default)'
+
+      - string:
+         name: TestTimeout
+         default: '300s'
+         description: 'timeout for each test case (increase as you scale up)'
 
     project-type: pipeline
     concurrent: false
diff --git a/jjb/pipeline/bbsim-validation.groovy b/jjb/pipeline/bbsim-validation.groovy
index e326407..f9a079c 100644
--- a/jjb/pipeline/bbsim-validation.groovy
+++ b/jjb/pipeline/bbsim-validation.groovy
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@
            #!/usr/bin/env bash
            set -eu -o pipefail
            pushd cord/test/cord-tester/src/test/cord-api/Tests/BBSim
-           robot -e serviceinstances -e onosdhcp -e notready -v number_of_onus:${params.OnuCount} BBSIMScale.robot || true
+           robot -e serviceinstances -e onosdhcp -e notready -v number_of_onus:${params.OnuCount} -v timeout:${params.TestTimeout} BBSIMScale.robot || true
            """
       }
     }