Application Delivery Testing at 100Gbps and Beyond

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1 Application Delivery Testing at 100Gbps and Beyond The Need for Speed 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GE) rapidly became the technology of choice for high speed connections to servers and network devices. Advancements in Ethernet lossless switching accelerated the convergence of transport and storage area networks, and reduced complexity and cost. The need to deliver more business applications to more users continues to drive the adoption of higher speed Ethernet technologies such as 40 GE and 100 GE. In most regions, users take broadband Internet access for granted. As a result, they spend more and more time online. Service providers must continually and reliably deliver higher speed and throughput to meet user expectations. Service providers annually spend billions of dollars building next generation application-aware IP networks in a bid to deliver exceptional performance. Their efforts have been largely successful -- according to Infonetics, North American voice, video, and data services revenue will reach $300B by Ixia s 100G+ Application Delivery Solutions Ixia s application services test solution meets the testing demands of today s modern networking applications and devices. Ixia s solution includes an integrated, multi-user hardware and software platform designed to maximize test equipment investment. It possesses the intelligence and horsepower to generate, measure, and critically analyze real application traffic. The components of the solution are: XM chassis high availability 12 or 2 slots, hotswappable and truly multiuser. Traffic load modules generate and analyze linerate traffic using network processors (NP). IxLoad test application awarding-winning application traffic emulation software. Consumers remaining continually connected impacts how mobile operators run their networks and do business. Many of the consumer services delivered over their networks -- video, music, social media, messaging, and hundreds of other applications that rely on Internet connectivity for real-time information -- are bandwidth heavy. Remaining competitive and profitable in this hyperconnected environment requires mobile operators to accelerate 3G/4G network deployments in order to meet the need for more bandwidth to more users. Global Internet traffic is also increasing at a rapid pace. By 2010, estimates show that a mere twenty typical U.S. homes will generate the same network traffic levels as the entire 1995 Internet. A report by CIP Technologies estimates that global traffic will double in two years, reaching a staggering 160 terabits per second -- higher than the total demand since Document No.: Rev E August Page 1

2 What is fueling the explosive demand for bandwidth? The major areas of growth driving the global IP traffic include: Consumer connectivity with various digital networks including music, video, and socializing All forms of video traffic including Internet video, HD content, digital downloads Broadband penetration in homes globally Mobile connectivity at broadband speeds More business being conducted within the Internet cloud What It Takes To Deliver Applications Network applications deliver services via sets of protocols, actions, and interactive behaviors. The advanced, content-aware devices included in such networks intelligently deliver these services end-to-end. Application aware devices detect not only the underlying network protocol, but also the content itself. Unlike routing platforms that make decisions based on network addresses, application aware devices use a combination of application recognition and content analysis to make forwarding decisions. Such devices include: Service load balancers (application delivery controllers) -- used as front-end servers that manage user sessions, accelerate and secure applications, and manage client-to-server interactions. Firewalls used as first-line defense in providing back-end services access to external and insecure networks, ensuring that only legitimate traffic is forwarded across networks. VPN concentrators -- provides users connection to business services, as well as secure and seamless interoffice connectivity between remote sites. Intrusion prevention (IPS) used to detect and neutralize thousands of application, network, and host based attacks by inspecting all packets inline. Traffic management devices -- used to recognize network applications and shape various applications based on business policies. Network pipes that deliver gigabits per-second of speed are quickly becoming saturated with traffic generated from hyper-connected applications from the Internet, enterprise applications, and mobile network access. Today s content-aware devices scale poorly when tasked with delivering applications quickly and reliably to end users. Network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) recognize the need for speed, and are bringing to market faster, more intelligent devices that are capable of scaling to the heights of next generation application delivery networks. Creating realistic application traffic (on the order of millions of user sessions, running at hundreds of gigabits per second) and reliably measuring key performance metrics of next generation, content-aware devices is a significant challenge for NEMs. Realistic Application Testing Challenges Content aware devices using deep packet inspection (DPI) at the application and payload layer are an evolutionary step in managing user traffic. As a general rule, the more inspection that occurs, the more processing power is required to maintain performance levels. Full DPI device qualification requires a multidimensional testing scope. Document No.: Rev E August Page 2

3 Key testing challenges include: Realistic emulation of application protocols, including transport protocols such as full TCP, UDP. Multiple protocol support with complete control of layer 7 configuration. Ultra-high number of user sessions, with millions of active users and IP addresses in use. Line-rate throughput performance, including exceptional small packet performance. Key performance metrics (KPI) for multi-dimensional tests at all performance level. Ixia s application delivery testing solution meets these demanding requirements. Ixia s 100G+ Application Delivery Solutions Ixia s application services test solution meets the testing demands of today s modern networking applications and devices. Ixia s solution includes an integrated, multi-user hardware and software platform designed to maximize test equipment investment. It possesses the intelligence and horsepower to generate, measure, and critically analyze real application traffic. The components of the solution are: XM chassis high availability 12 or 2 slots, hot-swappable and truly multi-user. Traffic load modules generate and analyze line-rate traffic using network processors (NP). IxLoad test application awarding-winning application traffic emulation software. Software Drives Innovation IxLoad assesses the performance of application delivery networks and devices using a highly scalable and integrated test design. IxLoad emulates true multi-protocol application traffic, measures key performance metrics and provides complete application-level statistics. Ultra-high-scalability testing with a single application Triple play traffic including core data, voice and video protocols Multi-protocol support per-user and/or per-ip address Visual scenario editor makes it easy to model test cases Subscriber-based modeling allows a user centric test configuration Real-world network configuration multiple subnets, multiple sub-networks, emulated routers Flexible IP and VLAN mapping, traffic to network associations for complex scenarios IPv4 and IPv6 support for several protocols Link layer protocols including DHCPv4, DHCPv6-PD, PPP/L2TP, IPSec, unique MAC addresses, emulated routers, single and QinQ VLANs, 802.1q, 802.1p Video and voice quality metrics (MOS) Integrated packet capture and analysis Extensive statistics and reports with an integrated report generation One-click automation using Scriptgen Document No.: Rev E August Page 3

4 Extensible Test Platform Ixia s test solutions use an ultra-high density, highly flexible chassis platform that accommodates all testing needs. Combined with the Xcellon Ultra-NP and NGY-NP performance load modules, IxLoad sets the highest standard for ultra-high application delivery testing. Xcellon Ultra-NP Xcellon Ultra-NP is an ultra-high density load module that delivers the most cost-efficient application traffic performance solution for 10G networks. It is ideal for cases where measurement of user sessions, concurrent connections, connections per second, and small packet throughput are of utmost importance. A single Ultra-NP 10G interface can generate unmatched performance using real application traffic. Features One 10G XFP and 12 dual-phy 1G test ports Advanced CPU and NP architecture Dynamic allocation of processors o Processing power from one to twelve CPUs can be aggregated over the 10G link o Multiple CPUs can be aggregated over one or more 1GE links for extreme performance density o Each 1GE port can be used individually as an independent client or server test port NGY-NP The NGY-NP is a family of multi-port 10G load modules with unparalleled scale, capable of generating massive application traffic. It is ideal for maximum layer 7 throughput and high number of user sessions. Features Two, four, or eight port 10G SFP+ test ports Advanced CPU and NP architecture per port Full feature-set for switch, router and application testing 160 Gbps of layer 2 traffic Supports fibre channel over Ethernet (FCoE) protocols On-Demand Performance and Scalability The Xcellon Ultra-NP and NGY-NP are powerful solutions offering several market differentiators. Leverage Ixia s mature XM test platform to deliver on-demand performance scalability Load modules are hot-pluggable and hot-swappable to ensure high availability Linear performance scaling per load module Industry leading 40 Gbps of layer 7 throughput with NGY-NP Incredible 10,000,000 user session count with Xcellon Ultra-NP Industry leading 700,000 sessions per second on Xcellon Ultra-NP Dramatic small packet performance on both load modules Document No.: Rev E August Page 4

5 The combination of the Xcellon Ultra-NP and NGY-NP platforms allow different performance metrics to scale independently of each other. Below are a few scenarios that highlight the solution s power and flexibility. Performance metric 1 Chassis Xcellon Ultra-NP 1 Chassis NGY-NP Summary Throughput 120Gbps 480Gbps Connections/sec 8.4M 5M Concurrent Connections 120M 76M Performance of Xcellon Ultra-NP and NGY-NP for client-side emulation only Ixia s application delivery test offering leverages more than a decade of IP test experience, and provides customers (be they NEMs, data centers, service providers, or enterprises) a truly comprehensive solution for all their testing scenarios and needs. Xcellon Ultra-NP offers the highest connections/sec, concurrent connections, and 10G performance. NGY-NP delivers true density via 40 Gbps of throughput from a single load module. Addresses the full testing requirements of application-aware devices with divergent throughput and user session/rate performance requirements. The award-winning IxLoad test application generates massive amounts of multi-protocol application traffic from a single application Runs on Ixia s mature XM chassis with single port ownership and true multi-user support Document No.: Rev E August Page 5

6 Ordering information: OPTIXIAXM2 2-slot XM form factor chassis, including integrated PC controller, power supplies, IxOS operating system, and IxExplorer client application OPTIXIAXM12 12-slot XM form factor chassis including integrated PC controller, power supplies, IxOS operating system, and IxExplorer client application Xcellon-Ultra NP-01, Application Network Processor Load Module, 1-10G or 12-Port Dual-PHY (RJ45 and SFP) 10/100/1000 Mbps NGY-NP8-01, 10 Gigabit Application Network Processor Load Module, 8-Port LAN/WAN, SFP+ interface with 1GB RAM per port NGY-NP4-01, 10 Gigabit Application Network Processor Load Module, 4-Port LAN/WAN, SFP+ interface with 1GB RAM per port NGY-NP2-01, 10 Gigabit Application Network Processor Load Module, 2-Port LAN/WAN, SFP+ interface with 1GB RAM per port IXLOAD-ADV-DATA, Software Bundle, Layer 4-7 Performance Test Application; Advanced data package enables: IxLoad PLUS-2012, IxLoad-MAIL, IxLoad-SSH, IxLoad- RADIUS, IxLoad-TFTP, IxLoad-Application-Replay, IxLoad-Stateless-Peer; Also includes ADVNET-DHCP, Impairment and Analyzer support. Document No.: Rev E August Page 6