Solution Highlights: 400GbE Put to the Test
The IEEE predicts that mobile devices, high-speed data center servers, internet-enabled entertainment, cloud computing and social media will push network link speeds to 1Tb/s by 2015 and 10 Tb/s by 2020. While the development of 400G network devices will help address the expanding demands for network capacity, they present new testing challenges and push the limits of today’s technologies. Testing 400G devices starts with validating the link’s ability to pass up to line rate traffic, as well as and testing the functionality, performance, scalability and quality of experience (QoE) of the upper-layer engines that deliver services.
Spirent has developed a complete testing solution for early design and development of 400G Ethernet systems, with a one-slot blade form factor compatible with Spirent’s existing chassis and its other Ethernet products. Key features of the solution include:
· Sending and receiving Ethernet frames from 64 to 16K bytes in length
· Generating and analyzing 400G traffic as a single stream running at line rate or as an aggregation of multiple streams
· Compensating for small clock differences between link partners with parts per million (PPM) adjustment
· Delivering per-port and per-stream statistics such as latency, frames out of sequence, frame counts and rates, and layer 1 statistics to help debug physical link problems
· Allowing modification of generated frame contents
Capturing received traffic at wire rate