CALABASAS, CA -- Ixia (Nasdaq:XXIA), a leading provider of high-speed, multiport network performance analysis and network monitoring systems, today introduced the Ixia Fabric Tester, a multiport fibre channel traffic generator and analyzer, aimed at optimizing high-performance and high-density storage networks. The Ixia Fabric Tester is targeted for use by switch developers and manufacturers, Storage Area Network (SAN) system integrators and SAN end-users to assess the performance and integrity of the latest fibre channel switched fabrics. The Ixia Fabric Tester is the product of an OEM agreement with Xyratex (www.xyratex.com), a leader in data storage technology with extensive experience in the SAN performance validation arena. "The Ixia Fabric Tester features the well-known Ixia core competencies of extreme scalability and high port density," said Eran Karoly, Ixia's vice president of Marketing. "With the introduction of our Fabric Tester product, we are extending our expertise and market reach into the Storage Area Networking space." "We are excited about the relationship with Ixia," commented Will Leonard, senior vice president of Storage Networking at Xyratex. "Our Fibre Channel Fabric Tester technology is an ideal fit for Ixia's product range and provides a strong capability for competing in the Storage Area Networking market." The Ixia Fabric Tester provides unrivaled scalability, supporting thousands of individual ports within a chassis-chained configuration, and 200 ports within a single rack, offering traffic generation and analysis at both gigabit and two-gigabit speeds. The Ixia Fabric Tester offers the industry's most comprehensive Class of Service support, including Class 2 and 3 traffic, as well as the most extensive mapping capability of Upper Layer Protocols (ULPs), such as IP, SCSI and FICON. "Addressing a key requirement of the SAN industry, our product is unique in delivering simultaneous Throughput and Latency calculations in real time. And with extensive real-time graphs, it is easy for users to effectively assess performance characteristics when simulating a large number of independent fibre channel devices generating high volumes of traffic," added Karoly. The Ixia Fabric Tester with integrated QoS metrics and standard Tcl scripting provides a powerful SAN testing environment that accurately characterizes the behavior and performance of fibre channel fabrics.