Network Performance Testing

Spirent published a press release a couple of days ago regarding a set of product agnostic solutions branded Spirent NoCode.  According to the press release, Spirent NoCode is “the first commercial implementation of the TAA Automation Continuum and delivers an integrated, modular, multi-vendor, multi-layer test framework with test and lab management capabilities covering operations, test, systems and device automation.”

There are four areas addressed by NoCode currently:

• Physical Infrastructure – sharing equipment and scheduling
• Environment – integrates with other automation environments, standard communication specifications, automates configuration and pass/fail criteria.
• Test Case – author test cases without coding
• Test Cycle – regression and execution of tests

The vendors involved in providing this functionality include:

• Spirent
• Gale Technologies
• MRV
• Fanfare

In reading the supporting documentation, here’s how the solution is broken out:

Physical Infrastructure

Gale provides AutoLab or Lab Manager depending on the need for topology and scheduling.  MRV provides L1 switching and interconnectivity, and Spirent provides consulting to put it all together.

Environment

Fanfare provides iTest for test authoring, Spirent provides professional services to help implement.

Test Case

Spirent provides a whole host of tools including TestCenter, Avalanche, TestCenter Command Sequencer, and many other pieces.  Again, Spirent is providing the consulting to glue this all together.

Test Cycle

Gale provides AutoTest to manage test cases, create suites and campaigns, and schedules and executes them.  Spirent is present as well putting it all together.

One of the interesting things in all of this is Spirent’s presence throughout the process.  Spirent Professional Services has always been a strong part of their organization, and has provided many clients with excellent support and assistance in connecting different pieces of technology together.  I’ve spoken with a number of folks who have had very good experiences here.  I’m assuming the same group of folks are involved here.

The jury’s out as to whether I’m a big fan of the above – part of these efforts are to make the implementation and connectivity between all of these vendors as easy for a customer as possible.  I’m hoping consulting isn’t required for every implementation, or it sort of negates the flexibility and simplicity – of course we’ll have to wait and see for the first implementation, and we should also remember that new ventures always need a little more hand holding until they become more widely accepted.

It’s a pretty interesting set of folks all collaborating to provide a single solution from beginning to end of the test cycle.  It will be good to see these sorts of collaborative efforts continue for all of the various groups out there moving forward with this sort of effort.  I would like to see the first implementations of NoCode and other solutions in a real lab with real results and customers benefiting from it.  I’m sure we’re not that far away from seeing that as well!

For a while I have been contemplating opening the forums back up again, as it seems there are more folks out there both reading the blog, and interested in commenting on things.  I’ve had a bunch of folks emailing me on various fronts, and also a few people posting comments on the blog.

I don’t think I would give up the blog – I would integrate it somehow into the forums, but I’m wondering if there is enough interest to have an open forum not affiliated with a test vendor, and allow for articles, a link directory, and blog space for anyone who registers.

If you’re interested, please post a comment or drop me an email…

IXIA announced a test, which they will be showing at Interop this week, of Arista Networks’ new 48-port 10GBASE-T solution.  They used their IxYukon 10GBASE-T solution, which can be scaled up to 96 ports per chassis.

From a pure deployment scenario, I haven’t been seeing a lot of folks using 10GBASE-T yet, but it is an interesting choice.  In thinking about fiber versus copper, most of the solutions I’ve seen have been focused on fiber, and most people have built the infrastructure to support that.  I can see 10GBASE-T being popular within an individual rack itself, as it is much easier to cable, and not as prone to problems with damage, etc.

However, most of the articles I’ve read focus on folks re-using CAT5e/6 architecture for 10GBASE-T which is also an interesting idea.  I think we’ll see this pick up over the next year or two as folks add more and more virtual computing clusters that require larger data connections, but I’m not sure how many people actually use it now…

Anyhow, interesting test, and definitely an interesting switch from Arista.  For those of you at Interop, you should stop by IXIA’s booth and check it out.  I’m not there this year, so it’d be great if someone can post here any of their thoughts on the test itself at Interop.

I’ve been looking forward to evaluating BreakingPoint’s Elite system for some time.  Over a year ago, I had the chance to see their previous system, the 10K, but at the time it couldn’t test the device that my company makes, so we moved on.

We have the Elite in house now, and so far it’s interesting.  So far the evaluation is going well – I’m on my own much of this week (by design) to fumble around and find the different things I’m interested in.  So far I have successful connection per second and throughput tests going through our device under test, and have fiddled with a bunch of the options to tune things exactly the way I want.

There’s a lot left to figure out – perhaps I’ll post some of my thoughts later this week after we’re done.

IXIA announced today another successful test of 100GBPS technologies, this time via their Higher Speed Ethernet load module, known as K2, and using a  CFP MSA  compatible optical module.  They’re going to have it on display during Interop – hopefully they’ll be more info then too.

10 months ago we saw another demo from IXIA, which I wrote about.  At the time, we were using forums instead of the blog, and there were a lot of comments from some sharp folks, all mostly centering around the fact that a truly agreed-upon standard for 100GBPS technologies hasn’t been hammered out yet.  Things have changed a bit since then, but there’s still some contention.

It’s good to see vendors like IXIA getting things working this early in the process.  I’m hopeful that the IEEE will approve things on time (in 2010?) for Higher Speed Ethernet, and we’ll be able to use technologies like the K2 for production ready products then.

Info on Higher Speed Ethernet:

• IEEE P802.3ba 40Gb/s and 100Gb/s Ethernet Task Force
• IEEE 802.3ba on Wikipedia

One of the best posts in a long time that I’ve read was from Dennis Cox over at BreakingPoint.  The full article can be found here.

I particularly enjoy his opinion on the rest of the market, and the other Big Two.  I also really enjoy the fact that the rest of the market does seem to be looking at what BreakingPoint is doing, and starting to mimic them.

Personally, I’m very excited about the new things that BreakingPoint is bringing to the market, and looking forward to many new strides there going forward…

Shenick announced their new diversifEye software version 5.2 yesterday, which includes a number of updates and new features.   Most notably, the ability to test session initiation protocol (SIP) controlled video on demand (VoD).   I would imagine there are a lot of carriers and providers that would benefit greatly from this feature, and I’m not aware of anyone else having this functionality yet.

Other additional updates include (from their press release):

• Enhanced capture replay capabilities with support for UDP/IP replay such as Skype™ and PCAP substitution.
• Upgraded post-test analysis reporting tools.
• HTTP ‘POST’ (File Support) and ‘Header’ Updates.
• Increased productivity and test flexibility with;
  • Test support for an enhanced range of VoD servers,
  • Subscriber emulation activity cycles, emulating individual users enabling/disabling broadband access during a test cycle,
  • Full HD 1080i over UDP/IP/RTP video flow support for broadcast applications.
• Increased visibility with TCP connection timing statistics.
• Additional OS platform support.
• In addition to testing IPTV, VoD, VoIP, DPI, security devices, IPv4 and/or IPv6, newer diversifEye applications include:
  • DOCSIS & EURODOCSIS 3.0
  • WiMAX & LTE
  • DLP