GL Announces High Density 1 & 10 GigE Ethernet Test Solutions

Welcome to another March, 2017 issue of GL Communications' Newsletter providing information and insight into our High Density Ethernet Test Solutions using GL’s HD-PacketExpert™.  These HD units have high performance, wirespeed applications in:

  • Test Frame Loss at line-rate loads on up to 6/12 ports simultaneously
  • Test Frame Sizes from 64 to 16000 bytes on all ports simultaneously
  • Up to 100% wirespeed loads on all ports with scale back 90, 80.. percent
  • Measure Packet Loss, Packet Error Rate, CRC Errors, etc. on up to 6/12 ports
  • Measure MAC Address Learning Rates, and MAC Address Capacity
  • Wirespeed BERT and Smart Loopback on all ports
  • Wirespeed RFC-2544, Y.1564 (SAM) on up to 6/12 ports simultaneously
  • Multi-Stream traffic generation on up to 3/6 ports simultaneously
  • Automation through Scripting and APIs
12-Port PacketExpert™ w/ Embedded Single Board Computer (SBC) within a 19' 1U Rackmount Enclosure

12-Port PacketExpert™ w/ Embedded Single Board Computer (SBC) within a 19" 1U Rackmount Enclosure

24-Port PacketExpert™ w/ Embedded Single Board Computer (SBC) within a 19' 2U Rackmount Enclosure

24-Port PacketExpert™ w/ Embedded Single Board Computer (SBC) within a 19" 2U Rackmount Enclosure


Overview

GL’s High Density GigE and 10 GigE Ethernet Test Unit - HD-PacketExpert™ offers high densities of 12 or 24 GigE or 10 GigE Ports for testing GigE and 10 GigE switches, routers and networks.

This multi-device hardware unit incorporates all the features of a Single Wirespeed Quad Port 1 and 10 GigE PacketExpert™ units.  It combines a Single Board Computer (SBC) with Windows® OS, remote accessibility via Ethernet Remote Desktop, and user-friendly GUI or CLI for test automation. Each of the 12 or 24 GigE or 10 GigE Ports of the device supports auto‐negotiation and flow control.

The chassis of the unit comprises of both electrical and optical (fiber) interfaces. The Electrical Ports can operate up to 10/100/1000 Mbps line rates in Full Duplex mode, while Optical Ports can operate up to 1 GigE or 10 GigE line rate in Full Duplex mode. User defined Packet Size, Packet Rate, QoS for MAC, VLAN, IP, MPLS makes it a versatile tool to test any Ethernet based networking equipment or end to end Networks.

The HD-PacketExpert™ can be easily deployed and securely fixed to an equipment rack, and provides extraordinary scalability to test Switches, Routers and Networks end-to-end.


High Density Features

  HD-PacketExpert™ (12 Ports) HD-PacketExpert™ (24 Ports)
with 1 GigE ports with 10 GigE ports    with 1 GigE ports    with 10 GigE ports

Interfaces

12 are Electrical Ports (out of which 6 are Electrical/Optical), 6 Optical ports

6 are Electrical/Optical Ports; 

6x 1 GigE Optical ports; 6x 10 GigE Optical ports

24 are Electrical Ports (out of which 12 are Electrical/Optical), 12 Optical ports

12 are Electrical/Optical Ports; 
12x 1 GigE Optical ports; 12x 10 GigE Optical ports

All Port BERT

12 Ports (12 simultaneous 1Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 24 Gbps)

6 Ports (6 simultaneous 10 Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 120 Gbps)

24 Ports (24 simultaneous 1 Gbps  bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 48 Gbps)

12 Ports (12 simultaneous 10 Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 240 Gbps)

BERT/Loopback

6 Ports Bert (6 simultaneous 1Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 12 Gbps )

6 Ports Loopback (6 wirespeed 1 Gbps Loopback streams, totalling up to 12 Gbps)

3 Ports Bert (3 simultaneous 10 Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 60 Gbps)

3 Ports Loopback(3 wirespeed 10 Gbps Loopback streams, totalling up to 60 Gbps)

12 Ports Bert (12 simultaneous 1 Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 24  Gbps)

12 Ports Loopback (12 wirespeed Loopback streams, totalling up to 24  Gbps)

6 Ports Bert (6 simultaneous 10 Gbps bidirectional BERT streams, totalling up to 120 Gbps)

6 Ports Loopback (6 wirespeed 10 Gbps Loopback streams, totalling up to 120 Gbps)

RFC 2544

6 Ports (3 Port pairs - three simultaneous wirespeed 1Gbps bidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

6 Ports (3 Port pairs - three simultaneous wirespeed 10 Gbps bidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

12 Ports (6 Port pairs - six simultaneous wirespeed 1 Gbps bidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

12 Ports (6 Port pairs - six simultaneous wirespeed 10 Gbps bidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

RFC 2544 (Single Port)

3 Ports (3 simultaneous wirespeed 1 Gbps unidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

3 Ports (3 simultaneous wirespeed 10 Gbps unidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

6 Ports (6 simultaneous wirespeed 1 Gbps unidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

6 Ports (6 simultaneous wirespeed 10 Gbps unidirectional RFC 2544 tests)

Multi Stream Traffic 
Generator &  Analyzer (MTGA)

3 Ports MTGA, (Each Port generates and analyses up to 12 bidirectional streams, totalling to 36 bidirectional streams with a combined rate up to 6 Gbps) 

3 Ports Loopback (3 wirespeed Loopback streams, totalling up to 6 Gbps)

3 Ports MTGA, (Each Port generates and analyses up to 16 bidirectional streams, totalling to 48 bidirectional streams with a combined rate up to 60 Gbps)

3 Ports Loopback (3 wirespeed Loopback streams, totalling up to 60 Gbps)

6 Ports MTGA, (Each Port generates and analyses up to 12 bidirectional streams, totalling to 72 bidirectional streams, with a combined rate up to 12 Gbps)

6 Ports Loopback (6 wirespeed Loopback streams, totalling up to 12 Gbps)

6 Ports MTGA, (Each Port generates and analyses up to 16 bidirectional streams, totalling to 96 bidirectional streams with a combined rate up to 120 Gbps)

6 Ports Loopback (6 wirespeed Loopback streams, totalling up to 120 Gbps)

Functions

Wirespeed BERT

Wirespeed BERT measures Bit Error Rate on Layer1, Framed Ethernet (Layer2), MPLS (Layer2.5), IP and UDP layers. Supports generating various PRBS patterns such as 29-1, 211-1, 215-1, 220-1, 223-1, 229-1, and 231-1 including constant patterns such as All Ones, All Zeroes, Alternate Ones-Zeroes and user-defined test patterns ranging from 1 bit to 32 bits. Selection of optional sequence number insertion allows detecting out-of-sequence packets and packet loss.

RFC 2544 Testing

PacketExpert™ supports Throughput, Latency, Frame Loss and Back to Back tests as specified in RFC 2544. Similar to BERT, RFC 2544 can be performed 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.

Smart Loopback

PacketExpert™ has all Ports/2 Ports Loopback capability. It supports Layer-wise Loopback as well as Smart Loopback. Loopback Types:

  • Smart Loopback - Analyses incoming traffic, automatically detects and swaps Source and Destination MAC, IP, and UDP addresses before sending back the packet
  • Layer 1 - Loops back incoming packets as is
  • Ethernet - Swaps Source and Destination MAC addresses before sending back the packet
  • IP - Swaps Source and Destination MAC addresses, IP addresses before sending back the packet
  • UDP - Swaps Source and Destination MAC addresses, Destination IP addresses, and UDP Ports before sending back the packet

Multi-Stream Traffic Generator and Analyser

Multi Stream UDP/TCP Traffic Generator and Analyser is a hardware based Ethernet tester capable of generating multi-stream Ethernet traffic of varying packet length and also analyze the looped back traffic. The test results include Throughput, Frame Loss (Packet Loss), Frame Delay (Latency) and Frame Delay Variation (Jitter) metrics for each stream. Easily monitor the bandwidth performance using live throughput consolidated graphical view for all the streams (up to 16 streams per Port).


Key Features

  • High density Ethernet Ports with 12 or 24 Ports. Stack multiple HD-PacketExpert™ devices to handle large number of Ports
  • Selective-Port and Smart Loopback
  • Wire-speed BERT, RFC 2544, Multi Stream Traffic Generator and Analyser
  • Layer 1, Framed Ethernet (Layer 2), Stacked MPLS (Layer 2.5), IP (Layer 3), and UDP (Layer 4)
  • User selectable Electrical and/or Optical interface for half of the Ports allows mixed technology testing
  • Generate and capture Ethernet traffic on Electrical (up to 10/100/1000 Mbps) and Optical (1 Gbps or 10 Gbps) interfaces
  • All interfaces can run simultaneously and independently
  • Rack mountable
  • Detailed per-stream statistics like Throughput, Packet Loss, Delay and Jitter helps gain insights into network performance
  • Command line Interface (CLI) to access all the functionalities remotely such as using TCL (Tool Command Language) and MAPS™ CLI Client/Server architecture
  • Real-time results are presented per Port and all-Port basis in both tabular as well as graphical formats. Detailed test result reports for each of the simultaneous tests in PDF and CSV file formats

Important Application

  • Test multiport Switches/Routers with simultaneous Bit Error Rate Test (BERT)  for long term integrity testing
  • Perform long term service integrity testing prior to deploying Carrier Ethernet Networks with long term high density BERT testing
  • Testing Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), Q-in-Q (Stacked VLAN) enabled Networks
  • End to end testing of network paths, and network devices like Ethernet Switches/Router for QoS parameters
  • In-depth troubleshooting of the Carrier network in the event of network failures or impairments
  • SLA Benchmark Testing with RFC2544 Tests
  • Smart Loopback mode for single‐ended testing scenarios
  • Flood the test network with full wirespeed simultaneous Ethernet/IP streams (up to 96 streams from 6 Ports), and measure the IP performance metrics like Packet Loss, Delay and Jitter

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