Overview |
Main Features |
Applications |
User Interface
Operation |
Product Types |
Specifications |
FAQs |
Buyer's Guide
Overview
IPNetSim™ can simulate an entire IP network in a single box. All the conditions encountered in a real-time IP network are
simulated such as network latency, network delay variation (jitter), bandwidth, congestion, packet errors, bit errors and other link
impairments independently in both directions at speeds of up to 100 Mbps (or1Gbps per link). The IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO can
emulate up to 4 separate individual links simultaneously to an aggregate throughput of 4 Gbps, making it ideal for both multi-link
configurations and multi-user labs. The compact 1U-sized appliance includes both copper and modular fiber/copper Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces in IPNetSim™ 1Gbps series.
The IPNetSim™ emulates a WAN (wide area network) link between two local networks. It can be used to test IP end point
devices such as Gateways, IADs, IP phones, Soft phones, and so on for voice, fax, data, or multimedia transmission over IP.
The IPNetSim™ offers an efficient and economical way to emulate terrestrial, wireless, internet, satellite, or private network
links to validate and troubleshoot networks and applications under a spectrum of real-world conditions. Through an intuitive,
browser-based graphical interface, you can install the IPNetSim™ and begin testing within minutes.
 |
Terrestrial:
The IPNetSim™ can emulate the bandwidth, delay, and loss characteristics of
T1, E1, T3, E3, OC-3, ATM, xDSL, Frame Relay, and dial-up modems. Use IPNetSim™ to find the most cost-efficient WAN
technology to meet your performance requirements. |
 |
Wireless:
Mobile wireless networks offer great convenience for professionals on the road and fixed
wireless can be a boon for disperses communities, but performance may not match terrestrial options. Use IPNetSim™ to find out
if wireless solutions fit your needs. |
 |
Internet:
Use IPNetSim™ to find out beforehand about e-commerce connections when the
Internet is busy and the quality of IP calls to plan for appropriate counter measures. |
 |
Satellite:
With latency in excess of 500 ms and bit error rates as high as 1x10-6,
satellite networks can create havoc for protocols and applications. The IPNetSim™ was especially designed to accommodate the
long delays and high error rates of satellite networks, and includes the ability to simulate bit errors in addition to packet loss. |
Main Features
- Easy to use – No software required to install. Just plug in the Ethernet cables and specify the link conditions
for emulation. The Ajax-based GUI combines the responsiveness of an application with the convenience of a standard Web browser
interface.
- Bandwidths up to 100Mbps / 1Gbps – Emulate WAN bandwidths of up to 100 Mbps or up to 1Gbps depending
on the product type. With IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO, WAN bandwidth can be emulated up to 1Gbps in each direction per link, and
across 4 separate links to an aggregate of 4 Gbps With a packet-processing rate of 250,000 packets per second & higher, the
IPNetSim™ can easily handle 45 Mbps of 64-byte packets in each direction.Multiple Links (IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO only):
With the ability to emulate 4 separate, independent links, the Linktropy 7500 PRO is a compact and cost-effective alternative to
multiple WAN emulation appliances. Independent pairs of Ethernet interfaces for each link make configuration of multiple links as easy
as a single link.
- Delay up to 10 secs – Emulate latency in constant, normal or uniform distribution in either direction starting
from 1ms up to 10secs.
- Error emulation – Emulate bit error rates as low as 1x10-14. Specified loss can be packet
loss rate, bit error rate, or both.
- Congestion - Determine the effect of congestion on bandwidth and jitter-sensitive applications by specifying
the background link utilization and its burstiness.
- Unique IPNetSim™ scheduler – IPNetSim™ Scheduler allows any combination of emulation
parameters to vary over time, making link outages, variable bandwidths links, route flapping, satellite rain fade, and wireless
interference with high-flexibility. IPNetSim™ can automatically adjust to the link conditions between specified end states.
- Traffic Monitor – Provides a visual display of the current traffic conditions, including throughput graphs, link
statistics. Up to 24 hours of statistics history can also be downloaded for analysis.
- Unsurpassed precision – IPNetSim™ simulates link bandwidth with microseconds resolution and performs
bit error rate calculations with 256-bit precision, ensuring accurate and reproducible results.
- Bridging/Routing - IPNetSim™ can be configured as a bridge or router, which makes it easy to install in
a wide variety of network environment.
- Automated testing – Series of tests can be run using IPNetSim™ scheduler or the command line
interface, which makes IPNetSim™ ideal for automated product testing.
- Match real link behavior – adjustable framing overhead allows accurate emulation of any layer. Queuing delay
can be modeled with queues set in packets, bytes, or milliseconds to match actual WAN hardware
- Advanced emulation parameters – Verify that applications and networking equipment properly handle
anomalous packet reordering and duplication conditions without inducing stability or performance problems. Adjust the framing
overhead and maximum queue depth to match real link behavior.
- Copper and Fiber Gigabit Ethernet interfaces – Connect using either copper or modular fiber/copper
Gigabit Ethernet interfaces using IPNetSim™ 1Gbps series. The interfaces makes it easy to simulate a WAN without routers,
or other costly equipments.
Applications
- Network Validations:
You have to choose between terrestrial wireless, satellite, and other WAN technologies
to connect between offices across the globe. The cost trade-offs are easy to quantify, however, the parameters such as delay, jitter,
and loss affect performance of critical applications. Estimating the bandwidth required to keep applications running can be known by
emulating the links in the lab with different conditions and demonstrating performance to all decision makers before the choice is
made.
- Equipment Testing:
Use IPNetSim™ to find out if addition of equipments such as accelerator,
compression device, traffic shaper, cache, or application proxy can improve the performance of the network before you purchase.
- Troubleshooting:
Use IPNetSim™ in the lab to pinpoint the cause in the application failure and validate
solutions without disrupting the production network.
- Application Testing/ QA Testing:
Use IPNetSim™ to test if the networking equipment, software, and
client/server based applications works under any condition on a local network as well as from a remote place located across the
town or on the other side of the world before your users complain. With the ability to emulate 4 independent links, the
IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO allows 4 individual developers to use the device simultaneously, saving time & money.
- Website Performance:
See your website as your users experience and make sure its responsive. Verify that
your e-commerce system does not leave your customers hanging when their link goes slow
- VoIP:
Voice over IP sounds perfect in demonstrations on the LAN, but quality diminishes with latency, jitter
and packet loss. Test VoIP network using IPNetSim™ under real-world conditions to verify if it meets the quality requirements
before you deploy.
- Video and IPTV:
Video and television are moving to IP networks, but how will they look with loss and
congestion on the link? Use the IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO to help ensure a clear picture.
- Product Demonstrations:
Use IPNetSim™ to demonstrate your products on customer sites and trade
show by simulating the actual network conditions. Avoid the hassles of installing on a production network and eliminate surprises
with a pre-configured test. The IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO allows you to run 4 tests in parallel to demonstrate performance of
WAN accelerators, load balancers, VPNs, and other networking equipment
- Product Benchmarking:
The IPNetSim™ 1Gbps PRO allows you to test 4 separate products in parallel
through independent links, providing a direct comparison between competing solutions for video, voice, and other networking
applications.
User Interface
The IPNetSim™ is configured using a simple browser-based interface. Screen shots for the different configuration tabs
are shown below:
Link Emulation
This screen contains all of the link parameters that can be emulated with the IPNetSim™. Basic emulation parameters
of Bandwidth, Delay, and Loss are always visible.
Screen Shot of Link Emulation
Bridge / Route
Settings in this screen help the end user to use the IPNetSim™ function as a bridge or router.
Device Settings
The device name and MGMT interface settings are configured on this screen
Screen Shot of Device Settings
Save / Load
The Save / Load screen is used to store emulation parameters or reload a stored emulation. The Save / Load tab also
provides the ability to rename and delete stored emulations.
Upgrade
The Upgrade screen is used to upgrade the IPNetSim™ firmware or install a new license key.
Monitor
The Monitor screen displays real-time transmission statistics and throughput graphs of the traffic over the emulated link. For each
direction, there is a table of statistics, graph of the transmission rate, and a table of average transmission rates. The currently running
emulation parameters are also displayed.
A table of statistics displays the following real-time data for the specified direction:
- Count of bytes & Ethernet frames transferred over emulated link.
- Number of frames dropped due to packet loss, bit errors, configured queuing limits, and the percentage of frames received.
- Count of number of frames & its percentage being duplicated.
- Total number and percentage of frames subjected to reordering
Scheduler
Scheduler is used to configure dynamically changing emulation parameters or automate a series of separate tests. This can be
configured with up to ten separate sets of link conditions to run in series. The IPNetSim™ automatically transitions the link
conditions between each stage using up to 1000 intermediate steps.
Screen Shot of Scheduler
Operation
The IPNetSim™ is managed through a browser-based Internet Explorer version 6 or later, or Mozilla Firefox GUI over an
Ethernet connection to a dedicated management interface.
Initial configuration of the management interface requires either:
- PC running a supported web browser that can be configured and placed on the 10.0.0.0/255.0.0.0 network.
- PC with an RS-232 serial port running HyperTerminal or other terminal emulation software.
IPNetSim™ can be installed between two LAN segments as shown in the diagram. Depending on configuration, the
IPNetSim™ acts as either a transparent learning bridge or a router between the Ethernet segments connected to the LAN A
and LAN B ports of the unit. Frames received on one port are subjected to the emulated WAN conditions before being forwarded to
the other port.
Emulation conditions are configured on the IPNetSim™ GUI and operate independently in each direction.
When functioning as a bridge, the IPNetSim™ is not limited to emulating IP networks, but can emulate any type of network
so long as the traffic is encapsulated in Ethernet. In addition to IP, the IPNetSim™ can be used with IPv6, IPX, AppleTalk, SCPS,
and proprietary network and transport layer protocols.
Product Types
IPNetSim™ - 100Mbps of through bandwidth (Item No IPN010)
- 1 link rated to 100 MB/s full duplex
- 250,000 packets per second
- 2 x 10/100/1000Base T Gigabit Ethernet emulation
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps of through bandwidth (Item No IPN100)
- 1 link rated for 1 GB/s
- 3 MB packets per second
- 4 x 10/100/1000baseT Gigabit Ethernet or 4 x SFP Gigabit Ethernet
- Different front panel configuration and enhanced capability
- Copper and modular fiber/copper Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
Ideal for benchmarking, demonstrating, and troubleshooting a wide variety of high-speed networking applications, including:
- Client/server applications
- Remote storage and backup
- Voice over IP
- IPTV
- WAN acceleration
New parameters have been added, Link Utilization (in %) and Burst Size (in bytes). The parameters are used to control the
amount of bandwidth available to the real traffic at any moment. This can be used to emulate the effect of loading related bandwidth
restrictions on a test application and the parameters can be varied using the Scheduler.
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps w/ 4 links through bandwidth (Item No IPN400)
- 4 separate links of 1 GB/s
- 3 MB packets per second
- 4 x 10/100/1000baseT Gigabit Ethernet and 4 x SFP Gigabit Ethernet
- Copper and modular fiber/copper Gigabit Ethernet interfaces
- Capable of emulating up to 4 separate links with an aggregate throughput of 4 Gbps.
- Plus all the above features of 1Gbps (Item No IPN100)
Specifications
| Capacity |
| Max. Emulation Rate |
up to 100 Mbps full duplex (for Item No IPN010)
Up to 1 Gbps full duplex per link (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400)
|
| Max. Packet Rate |
From 250,000 packets per second (for Item No IPN010)
3 million packets per second (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400)
|
| Product Types |
IPNetSim™ - 100Mbps of through bandwidth (Item No IPN010)
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps of through bandwidth (Item No IPN100)
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps w/ 4 links through bandwidth (Item No IPN400) |
| Emulated Links |
1 link (for Item No IPN010, IPN100)
4 links (for Item No IPN010, IPN400) - Aggregate to 4 Gbps
|
| Primary Emulation Settings |
| Bandwidth |
300 bps - Max. rate in 1 bps increments |
| Delay |
0 ms – 10 sec. in 0.1 ms increments; constant, uniform, normal distributions |
| Packet Loss Rate |
0 – 100% in increments of 0.0001% |
| Background Traffic |
0-100% in increments of 0.1% |
| Bit Error Rate |
Rates to 1x10-14 |
| Additional Emulation Parameters |
Bit error rate, packet reordering, packet duplication, queue depth, framing overhead.
IPNetSim™ scheduler for emulation of dynamic WAN conditions |
| Warranty and Support |
| Hardware warranty |
1 year |
| Support and Maintenance |
1 year, including all firmware upgrades |
| Interfaces |
| Emulation |
For Item No IPN010
2 x 10/100/1000baseT Copper Gigabit Ethernet
For Item No IPN100, IPN400
8 Total:
4x 10/100/1000baseT Gigabit Ethernet
4x SFP Gigabit Ethernet |
| Management |
1 x 10/100/1000baseT Copper Gigabit Ethernet 1x RS-232c serial console
|
| Environmental and Physical Specifications |
| AC Input Voltage |
Auto ranging 90 VAC to 264 VAC |
| AC Input Frequency |
47 to 63 Hz |
| AC Input Current (Max) |
4.0 A (for Item No IPN010) 8.0 A (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400) |
| Maximum Power Draw |
200W (for Item No IPN010) 350W (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400) |
| Dimensions |
For Item No IPN010 16.75" W x 14.4" D x 1.75" H (1 RU) 42.5 cm W x 36.5 cm D x 4.35 cm H (1 RU)
For Item No IPN100 and IPN400 16.8" W x 18.0" D x 1.75" H (1 RU) 42.6 cm W x 45.7 cm D x 4.35 cm H (1 RU) |
Weight
Product
Shipping |
12 lbs. (5 kg) (for Item No IPN010) 18 lbs. (8 kg) (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400)
17 lbs. (8 kg) (for Item No IPN010) 23 lbs. (10 kg) (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400) |
| Temperature |
Operating: 0° to 40°C (32° to 104°F)
Storage: - 20° to 80°C (-4° to 176°F) (for Item No IPN010)
- 4° to 185°F (20° to 85°C) (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400)
|
| Humidity |
Operating: 10% to 90% (non-condensing) (for Item No IPN010)
10% to 95% (non-condensing) (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400)
Storage: 10% to 90% (non-condensing) (for Item No IPN010)
10% to 95% (non-condensing) (for Item No IPN100 and IPN400) |
| Certifications |
FCC, CE Mark |
FAQs
- Who uses the IPNetSim™?
The IPNetSim™ is designed for anyone who needs an accurate, easy-to-use, cost-effective way to simulate WAN conditions,
including:
- Corporate IT Managers
- Application and equipment developers
- Military network developers
- Sales and SE professionals
- Networking equipment resellers and system integrators
- Q/A teams
- Test labs
- Can the IPNetSim™ emulate long delays?
Yes. The IPNetSim™ was designed with satellite and other long latency conditions in mind and can handle delays of up to 10
seconds in each direction.
- Can the IPNetSim™ emulate individual end nodes?
No. The IPNetSim™ emulates the WAN link itself. It is not a traffic generator.
- How does the IPNetSim™ differ from competing WAN emulation solutions?
Until now, there were only two alternatives: high-end WAN emulators and freeware. High-end WAN emulators offer a wide array
of features, but their prices puts them out of range of most users while their complexity make them difficult to use. Although freeware
has no upfront cost, the time wasted in installation and configuration of the source code makes them unproductive, and the resulting
systems are constrained in precision and performance.
The IPNetSim™ is the culmination of a mission to offer the precision and performance of a high-end WAN emulator without
the cost, designed to be far easier to use than anything else available.
Buyer's Guide:
| Item No. |
Item Description |
| IPN010 |
IPNetSim™ - 100Mbps of through bandwidth |
| IPN100 |
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps of through bandwidth |
| IPN400 |
IPNetSim™ - 1Gbps w/ 4 links through bandwidth |
| |
Related Software |
| PKV100 |
PacketScan™ (Online and Offline) |
| PKV101 |
PacketScan™ - Offline |
| PKV105 |
SIGTRAN |
| PKS100 |
PacketGen™ (includes PacketScan™) |
| PKS101 |
SIP Core (additional) |
| PKS102 |
RTP Soft Core (additional) |
| PKS110 |
Packet H.323 |
PKS120
PKS121
PKS122
PKS123 |
Message Automation & Protocol Simulation (MAPS) for SIP
MAPS - SIP Conformance Suite
MAPS for Megaco
MAPS - Megaco Conformance Suite |
| PKS201 |
RTP Hardware Core (120 Port) |
| PKB100 |
RTP ToolBox™ |
* Specifications are subject to change without notice.