SCIENCE

Ixia has announced that its Higher Speed Ethernet (HSE) testing solutions were successfully used to demonstrate high speed Ethernet networking products and systems throughout SC10, the international conference for high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, held this week in New Orleans, LA. Ixia's HSE 100, 40 GbE, and 10 GbE products played a prominent role in many vendor demonstrations, and were also featured at the Ethernet Alliance interoperability booth.

The continued growth of bandwidth-hungry video applications and smart phones has resulted in greatly increased Internet traffic. While deploying next-gen virtualized servers utilizing multiple 10 GbE connections, data center operators have discovered that they need top-of-rack and end-of-row switches with 40 GbE interfaces. 40 GbE data center switches and routers are the first step in this evolution, and were displayed by multiple network equipment manufacturers throughout SC10.

Ixia has led the test industry in the development of HSE test tools since 2008 with the introduction of its "K2" HSE test solution. Ixia 40 GbE interfaces, along with Ixia's IxNetwork layer 2/3 test application, were used to support switch demonstrations throughout SC10. Line-rate traffic allowed the vendors to fully validate their switch performance and functionality.

The bandwidth demands of service providers will exponentially increase as more mixes of media-rich traffic are prioritized and converged from the edge-to-core. Ixia and Juniper Networks teamed to create a live demonstration of a 100 GbE core-to-edge network, powered by the newly introduced Juniper Networks T4000 Core Router and the MX3D Series Universal Edge Router with Ixia's "K2" 100 GbE testing solution. This demonstration highlights the new levels of performance and capacity necessary to meet user experience requirements into the next decade.

Ixia's layer 1-7 test solutions for 10, 40 and 100 GbE network products, with data center bridging (DCB) support, were used at the Ethernet Alliance's interoperability demonstration. The Ethernet Alliance is a global community of system vendors, component vendors, end users, industry experts, and university and government professionals committed to the continued success and expansion of Ethernet technology. The Ethernet Alliance also recently completed a Higher Speed Ethernet (HSE) interoperability plugfest at Ixia's iSimCity that included suppliers of systems, test equipment, transceivers, and cables. The report was distributed at SC10 and is available online.

Key Facts:

--  Ixia's K2 solution tests HSE components and systems. K2 load modules feature CFP MSA and QSFP+ interfaces to cover the range of 100 GE and 40 GE systems. BERT, layer 2-7, and PCS lane test features, which are unique to HSE, are provided.

--  The Ethernet Alliance booth at SC10 featured a comprehensive technology demonstration, which included 10 GbE, 40 GbE, and 100 GbE devices, as well as converged traffic including Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), iSCSI, iWARP, and RDMA over Converged Ethernet   (RoCE).

--  Ixia's 10 GbE interfaces feature full layer 2-7 network testing, including support for the broad range of DCB technologies.

Supporting Quotes:

--  "Ixia test solutions are the standard used by network equipment manufacturers worldwide for their Ethernet products -- at any speed," said Dave Schneider, Sr. Manager of Market Development at Ixia. "Our widespread presence throughout the SC10 floor demonstrates our    overarching presence in the test and measurement industry."

--  "Ixia played an important role in the Ethernet Alliance's SC10 exhibit. Their test hardware and applications were instrumental in our data center bridging and higher speed Ethernet demonstrations," said Thomas Scheibe, Chair of the Board at the Ethernet Alliance. "Ixia's    ability to generate real-world traffic and provide performance measurements helped prove that these new Ethernet technologies are ready for the data center and carrier networks."