20 August 2003 Rockville, MD Lightwave -- From product upgrades to software enhancements, Spirent Communications has rolled out a host of new products this summer for three of its performance analysis platforms. The new capabilities are designed to speed the development and deployment of next-generation networks and services more efficiently and with less risk.
According to Mark Fishburn, vice president of technical strategy for Spirent Communications, "We've added new features and capabilities in the areas of broadband access, enterprise security, IP telephony, and routing. We're improving our solutions with automation, setup wizards, and scripting tools to quickly perform tests and move network equipment to the next phase of product delivery, whether that be manufacturing, quality assurance, customer evaluation, or full-scale network deployment."
Spirent's set of summer upgrades include:
PPPoX Emulation for RPT: Spirent's PPPoX test application is now available on an automated RPT framework, which reduces the time required to configure complex tests. Users can define 32,000 subscribers on a single AX/4000 port or 256,000 subscribers on a single chassis. Users also can emulate real-world traffic loads as subscribers log in and log out as well as test session capacity and rate to determine the performance limits of an aggregation device.
Spirent SmartBits TeraMetrics ATM Interface: Spirent's TeraMetrics ATM module enables comprehensive testing of next-generation DSLAM, metro edge, and core router systems. When used with Spirent's quality of service (QoS) analysis software and TeraRouting Tester, this module delivers complete IP over ATM performance and scalability testing. TeraMetrics ATM module supports hundreds of routing sessions, more than 8,000 virtual circuits per port, and two ports per module. The module fully works with all other Spirent SmartBits modules in the TeraMetrics and SmartMetrics family of products.
Avalanche/SmartBits 5.20: Spirent provides a unified Layer 2-7 performance analysis test platform for generating real Internet conditions and load from its award-winning SmartBits chassis. It now supports testing for distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks inline with real multi-protocol traffic and significantly increases Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) performance. Version 5.20 also includes: increased streaming media performance; new network connectivity with support for 10 GbE and dual media 1/100/100 Ethernet; TCP/IP improvements including VLAN tagging; and IP fragmentation
Abacus 5000 2.0: Spirent's Abacus 5000 2.0 general release delivers a test system that integrates multiple media, interfaces, protocols, and QoS mechanisms in a single system. Abacus 5000 2.0 allows equipment manufacturers and service provider labs to verify performance, functionality, and voice quality of carrier-grade soft switches and media gateways and enterprise IP telephony applications.
Spirent Abacus2 2.3: Spirent's Abacus2 2.3 release provides enhanced user flexibility and functionality on the industry's highest density, integrated real-time voice and video test and analysis system for TDM and VoIP. Abacus 2.3 release also adds fax bypass capabilities to facilitate testing of Fax over IP applications.
Router Performance Tester (RPT) 4.43 2547, Martini & VPLS Performance Tests for Spirent's AX/4000: Spirent's RPT 4.43 provides a test platform for evaluating complex Layer 2 and Layer 3 MPLS VPNs PE router implementations. This application bundle for RPT includes three sub-applications, one for each of the major MPLS VPN technologies. Users can test Provider Edge (PE) routers by simulating core network topologies and VPN sites to verify the quality, scalability, and profitability of a service platform with fewer engineering resources in less amount of time.
RPT 4.43 Framework Enhancements: Spirent's RPT 4.43 also includes framework enhancements that increase its power and flexibility for faster and more realistic test results, including Web software update utility, online Web portal to direct users to discussion groups and example configuration files, an improved test scheduler that allows multiple tests to be executed in serial or parallel for batch testing and complex tests scenarios, and a custom script event that allows users to insert user-defined Tcl scripts into the event scheduler for test configuration or other test-related tasks.
Spirent SmartBits Automation: Spirent SmartBits Automation is a software tool that enables all Spirent SmartBits users to develop tests over multi-protocols including ATM, Multicast, MPLS, and IPv6. In addition to an application programming interface (API), a script automation interface (SAI) allows non-programmers to easily automate testing. When combined with the GUI-to-SAI capabilities of other SmartBits applications, test lab engineers can increase productivity with the ability to visually configure and save tests without writing a line of code. Test automation enables unattended testing of regression testing, manufacturing qualification and large-scale testing. With SmartBits Automation, users can improve product quality and reduce development costs by automating complex or repetitive test cases.
Spirent SmartWindow 7.70 for its SmartBits Test System: SmartWindow software provides an interactive, functional test and measurement environment for SmartBits Ethernet, Fibre Channel, packet over SONET, WAN, Frame Relay, and ATM network interface technologies up to 9Gbps line rates. A user may test complex protocols such as IP, IP Multicast, IGMPv1/v2/v3, and Class of Service (CoS), over IPv4 and IPv6 with a minimum of effort. Measurements regarding latency, latency distribution, packet loss, frame variation, and packet sequence tracking can be all determined for Layer 2 and Layer 3 network devices such as hubs, switches, routers, and multi-layer equipment. Spirent includes its SmartWindow software with every SmartBits chassis.
Spirent SmartBits SmartFlow 3.0: Spirent's SmartBits SmartFlow software is a comprehensive application designed to analyze the performance and behavior of policy-based network devices using quality of service. With release 3.0, complex network traffic patterns for IPv4, IPv6, VLAN, and Multicast flows may be simulated, reported, and exported from the user interface to script format for automated testing environments. The new release now extends to enterprise and carrier networks where services such as bandwidth provisioning can be easily configured and tested with the traffic provisioning rates per VLAN and CoS and bandwidth utilization reporting. ATM support has been added for testing broadband-based applications, multicast groups per port, and multiple VLANs per subnet.