Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Vendor Toolse2e Tools BOF

John H. Moore

Technical Director

NC-ITEC

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Topics

• Discussion of two of the network test tools used in the NC-ITEC– SmartBits– AX/4000 Broadband Test System

• Both platforms from lab partner Spirent Communications

• Focus on e2e testing

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Common Characteristics• GUI runs on Windows PC and connects to

test hardware over IP• Hardware comes in mainframe and portable

versions• Variety of interface types (WAN to OC-192,

Ethernet to 10 GE)• Support for time sync via GPS or CDMA• Good support for protocols of interest for the

REN community (IPv4/IPv6 unicast, IPv4 multicast, MPLS, VLANs, etc.)

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Major Distinguishing Characteristics

• SmartBits– Higher port densities– RFC 2544 style test (SmartFlow)

• AX/4000– Lower port density– More detailed analysis of traffic– Continuous bit-stream– Can do BERT and delay-line functions

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Example 1: Lightpath Demo QoS Test

• Objective: Evaluate QoS configuration for Abilene that gives preferential treatment to MPLS traffic

• Location: Test-bed at NC-ITEC lab• Method:

– Run several types of traffic in two classes • Assured Forwarding (AF) & Best Effort (BE)

– Increase bandwidth of BE traffic and evaluate where drops are seen

• Test platform: AX/4000

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Example 2: IGP Resiliency Test

• Objective: measure recovery time of e2e traffic stream after link outage

• Location: Test-bed at NC-ITEC lab• Method:

– Build test-bed with multiple paths – Yank cable on primary path– Measure recovery time and packet loss

• Test platform: AX/4000

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Example 3: MPLS Service Test

• Objective: Examine performance of inter-AS MPLS path over Abilene

• Location: Abilene, between NC-ITEC and IU NOC

• Method: – Setup testers at either end of MPLS tunnel– Synchronize clocks with CDMA– Evaluate performance (latency, packet loss)

• Test platform: SmartBits

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Spring 2004 Member Meeting

Thanks!

• Contact:– jhm@nc-itec.org