Applications for Advanced Ethernet Testing

Overview

GL's PacketExpert™ 10GX is a comprehensive Ethernet Tester available for 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps networks. PacketExpert™ 10GX finds use in testing a wide range of networks - from testing individual links/switches, testing local Ethernet/IP networks (LAN), end-to-end testing of Wide Area Networks (WAN), testing Core/MPLS networks, validate Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and much more. The PacketExpert™ 10GX includes two 10/1 Gbps Optical ports, and two 10/100/1000 Mbps Electrical/Optical capable ports.  The 10/1 Gbps Optical ports can be down-shifted to support 1Gbps Electrical/Optical ports, thus offering 4 Electrical / 4 Optical 1 Gbps ports for ethernet testing.

The latest enhancement includes
100 Mbps (100 Base-FX) support on optical ports in addition with 1 Gbps link speed.

PacketExpert™ 10GX

The PacketExpert™ applications supports multiple functionalities: Wirespeed BERT and Loopback, RFC2544 Tests, Record Playback, PacketBroker, Multi-stream Traffic Generator and Analyzer, ExpertTCP™, ExpertSAM™, and IP WAN Emulation. All these functionalities can be remotely accessed via Command line Interface (CLI) with additional licensing (CXN100) using Client APIs (Python, TCL, C#) and MAPS™ CLI client/server architecture.



Important functionalities supported by PacketExpert™ 10GX (PXN100)

with Base License with Additional License Hardware Options
  • Portable and Rack-mount
  • 2x 10G Optical Ports
  • 4x 1G Electrical Ports
  • 4x 1G Optical Ports


Continue reading below to know more about these applications.

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Wirespeed BERT, Loopback and
RFC 2544 Testing
Wirespeed BERT, Loopback and RFC 2544 Testing
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G) 

User can perform Wirespeed BERT simultaneously on all Optical or Electrical ports. The application allows generating and analyzing specific BER patterns through Ethernet frames at specified rates. The payload (or pattern) of received frames are analyzed in detail to detect errors and mismatch in the payload. Test can be performed at all layers - Layer1, Framed Ethernet (Layer2), Stacked VLAN (Q-in-Q), Stacked MPLS (Layer 2.5), IP and UDP.

Perform Throughput, Latency, Frame Loss and Back to Back tests as specified in RFC 2544. Similar to BERT, RFC 2544 can be done over Framed Ethernet (Layer2), Stacked VLAN (Q-in-Q), Stacked MPLS, IP or UDP. RFC 2544 allows the test frame to be configured with Stacked VLAN and Stacked MPLS. This way end to end RFC 2544 test can be conducted across a Carrier Ethernet/MPLS network.
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IP WAN Emulator
(IPLinkSim™, IPNetSim™)
IP WAN Emulator
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G)
Optional:  (IPN107)

IPNetSim™ - Multi-Streams IP WAN Emulators help to test the performance of WAN network-dependent applications by emulating the WAN conditions in a local setup easily and cost effectively. IPNetSim™ emulates a bidirectional WAN IP Link with from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps full duplex link. For each direction, incoming traffic can be identified into separate user defined streams (up to 16 streams for 1 Gbps pipe and up to 4 streams for 10 Gbps pipe).

IPLinkSim™ also supports a single stream WAN IP Link with a 10 Gbps or a 10/100/1000 Mbps full duplex link, where all the incoming traffic is streamed as a single link, which can be modified to simulate network impairments.
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ITU-T Y.1564 standard Carrier Ethernet Validation (ExpertSAM™)
ITU-T Y.1564 standard Carrier Ethernet Validation
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G)
Optional: (PXN106)

ExpertSAM™
is intended for multiservice testing to measure the maximum performance of the Network Under Test or the Ethernet-based services for its ability to carry a variety of traffic (voice, data, and video) at defined performance levels. In particular, it is aimed at addressing limitations of legacy RFC 2544 test procedures, especially for Service Level Agreements (SLA).

The ITU-T Y.1564 is built around two key subtests, the Service Configuration Test (SCT) and the Service Performance Test (SPT).

Both tests perform round-trip measurements in combination with a remote loopback and provide the following KPIs to validate the network path under test - Information Rate (IR) or Throughput, Frame Loss Ratio (FLR), Frame Transfer Delay (FTD) or Latency, and Frame Delay Variation (FDV).
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Packet Capture & Playback
Packet Capture & Playback
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G)
Optional:  (PXN105)

Wirespeed Capture and Playback
module allows network administrators to capture traffic at wirespeed, and precisely simulate/recreate live network traffic conditions.

A powerful wirespeed hardware-based filter allows to capture only packets of interest, reducing the bandwidth needed to transfer to host.

The hardware supports simultaneous Packet Capture and Playback on the same port.
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Multi Stream Traffic Generator & Analyzer
Multi Stream Traffic Generator & Analyzer
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G)
Optional:  (PXN108)

Multi Stream UDP/TCP Traffic Generator and Analyzer is capable of generating multi-streams (up to 16 UDP/TCP streams) Ethernet traffic of varying packet length and analyzing the loopback traffic. Supports ExpertTCP™ test methodology based on RFC 6349 to measure TCP throughput, RTT and optimal window size.

Test tool supports both Ethernet traffic generation and analysis capabilities. 
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Wirespeed Ethernet Tap
(PacketBroker™)
Wirespeed Ethernet Tap
Platforms: Portable/Rack (1G, 10G)
Optional:  (PXN107)

The PacketBroker™ allows the Ethernet test tool to be used as a highly precise non-intrusive Wirespeed Ethernet Tap. It has all the necessary features packaged within to capture real world traffic, define multiple filters for drilling-down to traffic of interest, generate triggers based on packet filters, and transmit filtered/aggregated/ modified packets for detailed packet data analysis.
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