IxLoad Virtual Edition (VE)

Virtualized Multiplay Services Testing

Problem: The Many Unknowns of Virtualizing Applications, Networks, and Services

The next generation of networks need to adapt quickly and facilitate change. Strategies like Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software Defined Networking (SDN) provide powerful flexibility gains by moving functions like customer premises equipment (CPE), load balancing, firewall security, evolved packet core (EPC), and integrated management systems (IMS) off from dedicated hardware onto virtualized servers. Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) need to deliver the same or better performance than the traditional network. The customer quality of experience (QoE) is at risk unless the virtualized network applications are properly tested to ensure the functionality, performance, security, and reliability touted by the new technologies.

Solution: A Highly Elastic, Portable, and Easy-to-Use Solution for Testing and Validation

IxLoad VE delivers comprehensive functional and performance testing to validate user QoE in physical and virtual networks. IxLoad VE emulates web, video, voice, storage, VPN, wireless, infrastructure, and encapsulation / security protocols to create realistic scenarios. It provides a flexible traffic generation and analysis solution to validate physical and virtual applications and networks. A modular system design enables the ability to deploy virtual test ports inside virtualized network devices and allows IxLoad VE to elastically scale with your cloud infrastructure. The real-time QoE metrics let you drill down to quickly identify network degradations and isolate breaking points. Because IxLoad VE is as easy to use as it is effective, you do not have to be a protocol expert or virtualization expert to achieve complete end-to-end service validation.

The IxLoad VE subscription model is aligned with enterprise project-based IT OpEx funding requirements. Acquire the tools quickly, scale up and scale down as project needs demand, and deploy anywhere with virtualization speed and simplicity.

Visit www.keysight.com for more information on the IxLoad VE product.

Highlights

• Test the functionality / performance of application aware devices such as virtual firewalls, application delivery controllers, storage servers, and other application servers.

• Accelerate the time to market by conducting tests earlier in the development lifecycle. Automate the tests to be re-used across the virtual or hardware versions of IxLoad.

• Identify and isolate application performance issues in the data center by using flexible test tool deployment, which can be easily moved, changed, or scaled up / down.

• Assess how virtual machine mobility impacts application reliability and scalability. Run the tests during live migration to ensure minimum network downtime.

• Validate next generation 5G / NFV networks by testing within Private Clouds / Telco Clouds powered by OpenStack or VMware vCenter orchestration.

• Understand how network applications are affected by deployment within different Public Clouds such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, or Oracle Cloud.

• Leverage subscription-based licensing that enables the flexibility of pay-as-you-grow OpEx model with different feature tiers available in multiple performance levels (such as 1G / 10G / 100G).

Key Features

• Provides comprehensive protocol coverage across a large set of networking applications.

• Includes Data, Voice, and Video subscriber emulation along with the associated protocols.

• Enables end-to-end testing of converged wireless / wired application delivery infrastructures.

• Supports advanced subscriber modeling to create realistic scenarios for subscriber QoE testing.

• Finds the maximum performance via an internal goal seeking algorithm based on test objectives.

• Measures metrics like concurrent connections, connection rate, simulated users, or throughput.

• Hundreds of application traffic flows for Stateful L47 Traffic enabled by the AppLibrary engine.

• Powerful statistics engine with high level aggregated views as well as detailed drilldown views.

• Common IxLoad user interface and experience across both Hardware / Virtual products.

• Easy transition between Hardware / Virtual platforms through common configurations and scripts.

• Enables end-to-end testing from a single pane of glass across virtual and physical environments.

• Comprehensive hypervisor support for standalone hypervisors such as VMware ESXi and KVM.

• Comprehensive orchestration support in Private Clouds based on VMware vCenter / OpenStack.

• Comprehensive support for Public Clouds inside Amazon AWS / Google Cloud / Microsoft Azure.

• Includes Virtual Machines with Virtual Chassis / Virtual Load Module / Virtual Test Appliance roles.

• Provides software optimized for protocol emulation and traffic generation in virtual environments.

• Flexible all-inclusive subscription licensing model reduces startup cost and enables easier growth.

• Common License Server shared among IxLoad VE, IxNetwork VE, BreakingPoint VE, and others.

• Full automation capabilities with REST, TCL, Perl, Python, and Ruby API support.