Single platform solution for protocol emulation debuts

Agilent Technologies Inc. has announced the availability of a single-platform solution for protocol emulation and conformance testing of Ethernet operations, administration and maintenance (E-OAM). Network equipment manufacturers and service providers can use the Agilent N2X multiservices test solution, said to be the first of its kind, to ensure their Carrier Ethernet devices meet E-OAM performance and scalability requirements, conform to new international standards and interoperate in very large multivendor networks. As a single platform tool, N2X more rapidly and cost-effectively enables the deployment of reliable voice, video and data services over an Ethernet infrastructure.

Defined in IEEE 802.1ag and ITU-T Y.1731, E-OAM provides end-to-end Carrier Ethernet diagnostic capabilities that allow service providers to rapidly detect and locate faults, ensuring the reliable delivery of delay-sensitive triple play services.

"Lack of end-to-end OAM for Ethernet was one of the final barriers to the wide-scale adoption of Carrier Ethernet," said Rod Unverrich, business manager of Agilent's data networks operation. "Our new E-OAM products enable our customers to comprehensively test emerging Ethernet infrastructure technologies as well as the application services, such as IPTV, that operate over them."

The new Agilent N2X N5581A and N5585A emulations test a Carrier Ethernet device's protocol implementation against many thousands of similar emulated devices, enabling connectivity fault management scalability characterization in carrier-scale networks without a costly test-bed of thousands of real devices. The emulation software is complemented by the N2X N5718A CFM conformance test suite, which validates device compliance to IEEE 802.1ag, draft 8. Conformance testing is a prerequisite for regression testing of each software release.

The Agilent N2X multiservices test solution is available at a starting price of Rs.11.33 lakh ($28,000).

The Agilent TPA troubleshooting and monitoring solution is available at a starting price of Rs.6.07 lakh ($15,000).