Performance test company Ixia announced at NXTcomm that has received certification for its provider backbone transport protocol testing solution from the Nortel-led Carrier Ethernet Ecosystem, which was formed last year at NXTcomm.
The company will make its emulation available this month as part of its IxNetwork 5.30 SP2. The emulation to be first in the industry to be based on a full protocol stack
For the Nortel certification, Ixia used IxNetwork software with the PBT protocol emulation running on the XM2 chassis and the XMV16 16-port gigabit Ethernet load module. PBT emulation also is supported on Ixia’s new IxYukon 10 GbE high-density platform.
PBT is considered a viable option for service providers looking to replace legacy transport services such as frame relay, ATM and SONET/SDH with Ethernet technology in their next-generation metro and medium-haul networks. PBT can be used as an alternative or complementary service to MPLS. Because it is service-agnostic, for other access technologies.
Mike Adams, vice president of strategy and architecture, Metro Ethernet Networks at Nortel, said considering Ixia’s functional, performance and scalability testing capabilities, they’re in a good position to help advance the industry.
