How can I simulate millions of users to test real-world network and application performance?

To accurately validate how applications behave under load, especially in today’s AI- and cloud-driven environments, you need a traffic generator that emulates actual user behavior. Scalable Layer 4–7 testing solutions allow you to simulate millions of concurrent users accessing services like voice, video, messaging, and web-based applications. These tools replicate session-level behavior, TCP/UDP characteristics, application-layer protocols, and real-world usage patterns across access, edge, and cloud networks. This kind of realistic emulation helps identify performance bottlenecks, latency issues, and quality of experience (QoE) degradation before deployment. Keysight IxLoad extends this capability by providing advanced subscriber modeling and a library of real application flows to mirror modern user behavior. It can emulate multiplay services at scale, including voice, video, data, and encrypted traffic, ensuring realistic workloads for service validation. With both hardware-accelerated and virtual editions available, IxLoad gives you the flexibility to scale from compact lab setups to hyperscale user emulation across production networks.

How do I verify cloud-native and hyperscale infrastructure performance under high traffic loads?

Modern cloud applications must support dynamic scaling and multi-tenant isolation while maintaining low latency and high throughput. Testing these environments requires emulating terabit-scale Layer 4–7 traffic with granular session control and diverse protocol mixes. Performance validation tools designed for hyperscale environments allow you to push cloud-native platforms to their limits, measuring how well services handle session ramp-up, service chaining, and resource orchestration across hybrid cloud architectures. The ability to automate and replicate workloads in physical, virtual, or public cloud environments ensures testing scales with your infrastructure. IxLoad is designed for exactly this type of hyperscale validation. The virtual edition supports cloud-native deployments on public or private cloud platforms, while hardware-accelerated systems deliver massive traffic loads in a compact footprint. Both share a unified software architecture, making it easy to reuse test assets across environments. This combination enables you to validate performance, scale, and resiliency of cloud-native infrastructure under the most demanding traffic conditions.

What’s the role of application-layer testing in CI / CD pipelines?

In agile and DevOps workflows, it’s critical to validate application-layer performance early and often. Modern test platforms support unified test architectures that work across hardware, virtual machines, and cloud deployments, making them ideal for continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI / CD). You can deploy consistent test assets for regression testing, feature validation, or release benchmarking using API-based automation to trigger tests, collect metrics, and flag performance regressions. This approach enables faster iteration without compromising service quality or user experience. IxLoad integrates seamlessly into CI / CD pipelines through extensive API support and automation frameworks. Tests defined in the GUI can be exported to automation scripts, while REST APIs allow orchestration within DevOps toolchains. Its consistent architecture ensures the same tests can be run across virtual, cloud, or hardware environments, making it easier to validate every release under realistic traffic conditions. By embedding IxLoad into CI / CD workflows, teams accelerate delivery cycles while maintaining application performance and user experience.

How do I ensure quality of experience (QoE) across voice, video, and OTT services?

QoE testing involves more than just throughput or latency metrics. It requires simulating real user behavior and measuring service-specific KPIs. For example, voice traffic is sensitive to jitter and packet loss, while video requires sustained bandwidth and minimal buffering. Comprehensive application-layer test tools emulate the exact traffic mix seen in modern networks, from SIP-based voice calls and adaptive bitrate (ABR) video streams to encrypted OTT traffic. Built-in QoE scoring and KPI monitoring help you evaluate session stability, stream quality, and overall service reliability across complex multiservice networks. IxLoad enhances QoE validation with full support for voice, video, and over-the-top traffic emulation, including encrypted services. It measures detailed quality metrics such as jitter, packet loss, and streaming continuity, providing actionable insights into user experience. By emulating millions of subscribers with diverse service mixes, IxLoad enables you to benchmark session stability and media quality under realistic conditions, ensuring your services meet end-user expectations at scale.

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Application and security testing for on-premises and cloud networks

Keysight IxLoad validates Layer 4 – 7 application and security performance across physical, virtual, and cloud-native environments. It emulates voice, video, and data traffic, encrypted traffic, and cyberattack scenarios at scale, enabling rigorous testing of firewalls, ADCs, and load balancers. A virtual edition enables scalable testing without requiring hardware endpoints, while APIs enable CI / CD integration for automated release testing. When hyperscale loads are required, hardware accelerators deliver this scale in a compact hardware footprint. Both virtual and hardware-accelerated versions share a unified software architecture, enabling asset reuse across multiple lab or production environments. Select your IxLoad license based on your protocol support needs. Request a quote for one of our popular configurations today. Need help selecting? Check out the resources below.

Multiservice user emulation

Simulate millions of users running voice, video, messaging, and encrypted traffic, mirroring real-world usage across access, edge, and cloud networks.

Full-stack security validation

Validate firewalls, ADCs, and load balancers with realistic application mixes, encrypted sessions, and negative / malformed traffic.

High-volume workloads

Deliver high-scale Layer 4 to Layer 7 traffic with precise session control to validate hyperscale data centers and cloud-native infrastructure performance.

Unified test architecture

Enable consistent asset deployment and automation across hardware, virtual machines, and cloud platforms for agile, scalable testing.

Protocol support

Tier 1 — data protocols, Tier 2 — data and storage protocols, Tier 3 — data, storage, voice, video, and security protocols
License options

Perpetual, Subscription - 1 year