Rackmount Ethernet Testing - PacketExpert™
24th, Jul 2020
Welcome to another GL Communications' newsletter! GL's PacketExpert™ Ethernet testing platform can be placed in 1U or 2U rack enclosures. In such a configuration, PacketExpert™ can test up to 24 ports simultaneously with full duplex traffic at 1 Gbps. This allows equipment manufacturers to comprehensively test the performance of their devices (switches and other layer 2 infrastructure) from one single testing platform.
6 PacketExpert™ Devices in a 2U rack enclosure connected to a 24 port 1G switch
Overview
PacketExpert™ contains many industry standard testing modules. By default, PacketExpert™ includes bit error rate testing capabilities, loopback mode functionality, and RFC 2544 testing. PacketExpert™ can come in either portable units or as a 1U or 2U rack enclosure. 1U can hold up to 3 PacketExpert™ devices and 2U can hold up to 6 PacketExpert™ devices. The rack enclosure contains a single board computer (Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OS) which controls all the PacketExpert™ devices via USB connections. The computer contains HDMI, USB, and Ethernet ports for both local and remote access via Remote Desktop Protocol. PacketExpert™ is easy to use and can come with both a graphical user interface and command line user interface. PacketExpert™ provides automation and scripting abilities using Python and C#.
Applications
PacketExpert™ provides applications to test your layer 2 devices for performance; it can measure bit errors, throughput, packet loss, latency, and other metrics. You can also view graphs while running the test. PacketExpert™ can run tests as long as necessary and can generate reports in PDF or CSV files. Deploying the PacketExpert™ in rack enclosures is ideal for lab testing where the user does not need to frequently move the test equipment.
PacketExpert™ can generate various streams of traffic through the device or network under test. The user can send Ethernet frames with VLAN tags, MPLS labels, IP data and UDP or TCP payloads. By varying the headers, the user can send traffic to different destinations at different data rates and with different payloads, making the PacketExpert™ the complete traffic generation tool.
PacketExpert™ can test both electrical and optical connections by using SFPs and can perform testing up to 1 Gbps. For enhanced capability, consider the PacketExpert™ 10GX, which can perform testing at up to 10 Gbps.
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