Ixia and VIAVI to Showcase Industry’s First Fully Interoperable 400GbE Test System with Forward Error Correction (FEC) at ECOC 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany
Calabasas, Calif. and Milpitas, Calif., September 14, 2016 – Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading provider of network testing, visibility, and security solutions, and VIAVI Solutions (NASDAQ: VIAV), a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions, have joined forces to showcase the world’s first public interoperability demonstration of a test system running bi-directional 400GbE line rate traffic with RS-544 Forward Error Correction (FEC) as currently defined in the IEEE 802.3bs draft standard. The demonstration, which is intended to prove that the technology is ready for adoption, will be shown in the VIAVI booth (#550) at the ECOC 2016, the largest conference on optical communication in Europe, to be held in Düsseldorf, Germany, September 19-21, 2016.
Industry-leading network equipment manufacturers are heavily investing in the development of new Intellectual Property (IP) and ASICs for the next generation of higher speed switches and routers to address the growing bandwidth requirements of expanding hyperscale data centers. Carriers and service providers also need to address these requirements. Robust test tools are needed throughout this development to identify potential bugs and eliminate ASIC and hardware re-spins, which waste human resources, increase development costs, and delay time to market.
Ixia and VIAVI Solutions plan to demonstrate full interoperability of independently developed MAC, PCS, and RS-544 FEC IP by each company, including the critical FEC element that enables 400GbE error-free data packets to be carried over fiber links, on readily available hardware components. This demonstration is intended to show that it is now possible to successfully bring products to market that interoperate in accordance with emerging 400GbE standards and are ready for adoption by network equipment manufacturers as well as companies that need to move forward with their 400GbE implementation.
Jerry Pepper, distinguished engineer at Ixia, stated, “We are proud to be a key part of the first public 400GbE FEC/PCS demonstration of two independent implementations that interoperate successfully. We understand the importance to the 400GbE ecosystem to have robust test equipment available at this critical time in the development of new IP and ASICs.”
Ixia’s full portfolio of network infrastructure test systems, including the 400GbE test system, offer the same send/receive capabilities on all speed ports, with packet lengths as small as 49B, which is smaller than the minimum Ethernet frame size. It is also capable of sending and receiving a single 400GbE line rate flow at any packet size.
VIAVI’s Optical Network Tester (ONT) has been proven in lab testing of 100G components, and now has the industry’s first 400G support to include FEC and PAM4 modulation. Pioneers of the high-speed network ecosystem now have a comprehensive, integrated platform for design, development, and validation of 400G technologies including CFP8 pluggable 400G optics.
400GbE technology is a leading edge technology, and this demonstration is intended to confirm that the key elements, including field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), CFP8 (CFP2 form-factor pluggable) optics, CFP8 connectors, and IP, are available and ready to build the next generation of high speed optical networking products.
“It is a very exciting time in high speed networking technology, and we are delighted to work together with Ixia to demonstrate the first stages of a vibrant and healthy 400GbE ecosystem,” said Paul Brooks, 400G technology lead, VIAVI Solutions. “We are all committed to helping our customers successfully bring 400GbE products to market with the confidence that they can interoperate and perform to expectations.”
As an IEEE Task Force contributor, Ixia has intimate knowledge of the FEC requirements. Customers benefit from the experience and expertise Ixia has in testing 400GbE at line rate. This allows development and test engineers to uncover interoperability and network equipment performance issues early in the product cycle. Ixia will demonstrate FEC with traffic at the full line rate of 400GbE, which is approximately 600 million packets per second. In this demonstration, real-time FEC encoding will take place on the outgoing traffic data path, and at the same time FEC error correction will operate on the incoming traffic data path.
VIAVI has a long history of application tools covering the highest speeds of optical network technology. As a member of IEEE, OIF, Ethernet alliance, and ITU-T, VIAVI provides the industry with confidence that the most up-to-date knowledge and practices are on hand to cover the challenges of bringing product to market through IC and module validation, as well as through the complexities of FEC-based interconnects carrying time-sensitive payloads.
About Ixia
Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA) provides testing, visibility, and security solutions, strengthening applications across physical and virtual networks for enterprises, service providers, and network equipment manufacturers. Ixia offers companies trusted environments in which to develop, deploy, and operate. Customers worldwide rely on Ixia to verify their designs, optimize their performance, and ensure protection of their networks to make their applications stronger. Learn more at www.ixiacom.com. Connect with Ixia via LinkedIn, Twitter, Ixia Blog and YouTube.
About VIAVI Solutions
VIAVI (NASDAQ: VIAV) is a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions to communications service providers, enterprises and their ecosystems, supported by a worldwide channel community including VIAVI Velocity Solution Partners. We deliver end-to-end visibility across physical, virtual and hybrid networks, enabling customers to optimize connectivity, quality of experience and profitability. VIAVI is also a leader in high performance thin film optical coatings, providing light management solutions to anti-counterfeiting, consumer electronics, automotive, defense and instrumentation markets. Learn more about VIAVI at VIAVI Solutions. Follow us on VIAVI Perspectives, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
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