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Protocol and Load Test L2 – 3 Emulation Software
Emulate network protocol traffic to test infrastructure performance
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Protocol and Load Test L4 – 7 Emulation Software
Emulate application traffic to test network and security performance
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Hardware Accelerators for Protocol and Load Test
Hardware emulation for full-stack network infrastructure testing
Protocol and Load Test L2 – 3 Emulation Software
Keysight Layer 2 to 3 protocol and load test solutions enable rigorous validation of networking technologies during ASIC development and in the design and deployment of AI-scale data centers. Designed for performance, scale, and flexibility, our L2 to 3 emulation tools support early design validation, protocol conformance, and real-world traffic emulation across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Our Ethernet and protocol emulation software packages, including IxNetwork, IxANVL, and IxVerify, help ensure your network infrastructure performs as expected. Explore our protocol and load test portfolio to find the right solution for your application. Need help selecting? Check out the resources below.
Protocol and Load Test L4 – 7 Emulation Software
Keysight L4 / L7 application and network test solutions help you validate the performance, resilience, and user experience of services running across network infrastructure. Use Keysight IxLoad for high-scale, stateful traffic to stress firewalls, VPNs, and application delivery controllers (ADCs). Keysight AI Data Center Builder delivers enhanced AI workload emulation that reveals the true performance of AI data center environments when tested with specific AI training models and parameters. Keysight Elastic Network Generator provides a software engine with an open, industry-standard API for creating complex emulated traffic scenarios that can be deployed on Keysight hardware or containerized software agents. Keysight IxChariot provides lightweight, endpoint-based application emulation with KPI measurements for packet loss, jitter, delay, MOS, and video performance, used extensively in testing SD-WAN and wireless networks. For full topological validation, Keysight Fabric Emulator simulates entire Ethernet networks with fine-grain control. Select the tool that matches your test environment, traffic profile, and validation goals. Need help selecting? Check out the resources below.
Hardware Accelerators for Protocol and Load Test
Keysight hardware accelerators for protocol and load test enable the validation of high-speed Ethernet networks used in data centers. From benchtop traffic generators with deep analysis of Ethernet bit-error rate and forward error correction (FEC) to hyperscale traffic generators, these systems support full Layer 1 to 7 testing from 1GE to 1.6T network speeds. Emulate AI workloads, validate 800GE and 1.6T interconnects, emulate network congestion, and perform standards-compliant conformance tests, all with scalable, lab-optimized hardware. Choose a platform based on your required port count, interface speed, form factor, and protocol support. Explore our broad portfolio, from fixed-function appliances to modular chassis systems, to find the right solution for Ethernet validation, artificial Intelligence / machine learning (AI / ML) networking, and synchronization test at scale. Need help selecting? Check out the resources below.
Emulate anything. Optimize everything.
KAI Data Center Builder emulates real-world AI workloads to test every data path in your system at scale. Visualize AI data flows through every processor, every interconnect, every network element, and pinpoint performance bottlenecks.
Watch the video to learn how KAI Data Center Builder emulates every processor, interconnect, and network to maximize AI data center performance.
Explore Ethernet traffic emulator use cases
Ethernet traffic emulators support a broad range of performance and protocol testing, explore them all
AI data centers
How to Test AI Data Center Networks
Reproduce realistic network behavior of AI workloads
AI Data Centers
How to Validate Ethernet Interconnects in Data Centers
Maximize throughput for high-speed 800GE / 1.6T interconnects
AI Data Centers
Optimize job completion time and reduce AI training time
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Frequently asked questions
Ethernet traffic emulation is the process of generating real or synthetic packet traffic to simulate how Ethernet-based systems perform under realistic network conditions. Unlike basic packet replay, traffic emulation can reproduce complex traffic patterns at Layers 2–7, including bursty loads, congestion, application flows, and encryption protocols.
Engineers use Ethernet traffic emulation to validate performance, throughput, and behavior of switches, routers, NICs, and silicon, especially in high-speed environments like AI data centers, 5G transport networks, and cloud infrastructure. It helps uncover issues related to latency, jitter, packet loss, QoS degradation, and protocol interoperability before deployment.
Ethernet traffic emulation differs from simulation tools in that it uses hardware or software appliances to inject and receive actual network traffic at line rate. While network simulation models how devices might behave in theory, emulation provides true-to-life testing conditions using real packets and impairments.
This distinction is critical in environments like hyperscale data centers and RF backhaul links, where the precise timing and interaction of packets can impact latency, synchronization, and throughput. Traffic emulators also go beyond passive monitoring (like analyzers) by actively generating controllable load and measuring responses.
High-density Ethernet traffic emulators like Keysight AresONE, CloudStorm, and 800GE Multirate platforms are purpose-built for testing AI cluster interconnects, leaf-spine switching fabrics, and 400G to 1.6T deployments. These solutions support PAM4 signaling, FEC testing, fan-out topologies, and real-time performance measurement at full line rate.
For AI workloads, traffic emulators must generate high-throughput, low-latency packet flows with variable burst profiles to replicate GPU-to-GPU communication or training cluster traffic. Keysight AI Data Center Builder extends this further by modeling end-to-end AI network behavior, enabling validation of congestion handling, load balancing, and application-layer throughput in RDMA- or RoCE-based environments.