spirent testcenter software and hardware new features 5 · seamless bidirectional forwarding...

December 2019

Spirent Communications

Spirent TestCenter Software and Hardware New Features 5.05

Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features

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Contents

New Products and Features ............................................................................................. 3

Hardware Features ............................................................................................................ 3

Software Features ............................................................................................................. 4

Spirent Support ............................................................................................................... 17


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New Products and Features Hardware Features

Spirent PX3-QSFP-DD 8 Port Appliance

This new appliance now supports Auto Negotiation and Link Training.

Note: in 50G mode Auto Negotiation and Link Training is 4x50G

• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-750A







Spirent FlexE-100 QSFP28 Test Module

This test module supports FlexE (Flex Ethernet), a key technology that is being considered in ITU-

T G.mtn to enable bandwidth scalability and network hard slicing.

Spirent FX3-QSFP28-6, 6-port QSFP28 Test Modules

These new test modules are included in this release:

• FX3-QSFP28-6-50A

• FX3-QSFP28-6-100A

• FX3-QSFP28-6-125A

• FX3-QSFP28-6-150A • FX3-QSFP28-6-175A • FX3-QSFP28-6-225A


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Software Features

Spirent TestCenter Enhanced L4-7: New Hardware Support

Spirent Enhanced L4-7 support has been added for the following modules:

▪ MX2-10G-S4

▪ MX2-10G-S8

▪ MX2-10G-S12

▪ DX2-10GQ-C16

For the latest list of supported hardware, refer to FAQ18968.

https://support.spirent.com/SpirentCSC/SC_KnowledgeView?cid=null&id=FAQ18968


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Multi-Gig: 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G Support on FX2/MX2 1G/10G Load Modules and NIC-47

100M, 1G, 2.5G, 5G, and 10G speeds (using a Multi-Gig/NBASE-T SFP transceiver) are now

supported on Spirent FX2/MX2 1G/10G load modules and NIC-47. Only 2.5G and 5G speeds are

licensed based (chassis-based licenses).

Part Number Description

ACC-7103A MULTIGIG (IEEE P802.3BZ) SFP+ TRANSCEIVER FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G &

NIC-47, 30M

BPK-1367 2.5G CHASSIS BASED LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47

BPK-1368 5G CHASSIS BASED LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47

KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1367-8 2.5/5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47

KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1367 2.5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47

KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1368 5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47


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Control Plane Independent S-BFD Reflector Emulation

Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 adds support for control plane independent seamless bidirectional

forwarding detection (S-BFD) reflector emulation.

Seamless Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (S-BFD), is a simplified mechanism for using BFD

with a large proportion of negotiation aspects eliminated, thus providing benefits such as quick

provisioning, as well as improved control and flexibility for network nodes initiating path monitoring.

SBFD runs in an asymmetric behavior, using initiators and reflectors.

The initiator performs a continuity test to a remote reflector by sending S-BFD packets. The

initiator maintains the BFD state and client context. The reflector listens for incoming SBFD control

packets and generates S-BFD response control packets. The reflector is stateless and only reflects

the S-BFD packets back to the initiator.

Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 supports only S-BFD reflector device emulation. You can use PDU templates to create and send S-BFD packets as an initiator.

To use this feature, select the BFD protocol and create a BFD device first.


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Select the “Enable S-BFD” checkbox to enable S-BFD on the emulated device.

You can then configure the source and destination MAC addresses, source and destination IPv4 or

IPv6 addresses, and IPv4 or IPv6 gateway addresses.

Launch the “BFD Control Plane Independent Session” configuration editor to add a control plane

independent BFD session, and then enable and set the value for “My Discriminator” field in the

session. The “My Discriminator” value must match the value of “Your Discriminator” in the S-BFD

session on the initiator.

You can view the statistics for transmitted, received, and dropped packets for each S-BFD session in TestCenter IQ.


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You can use PDU templates to create and send S-BFD packets as an initiator.


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ISIS Flex-Aglorithm Definition Flags Sub-TLV and Flex-Algorithm Prefix Metric Sub-TLV

Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 added support for flexible algorithm definition flags sub-TLV within

the ISIS flexible algorithm definition (FAD) sub-TLV.

To enable this feature, select an ISIS emulated device, then click the “Edit LSP/IIHs…” menu

option to launch the LSP editor.

Click an LSP, then select the “Capability TLV” tab. Click the “+Add Sub-TLV” option and the “+SR-

FAD Sub-TLV” option in the drop-down menu to add a flexible algorithm definition (FAD) sub-TLV.

You can then select the SR-FAD sub-TLV, click on the drop-down menu in the “Flex Algorithm

Sub-TLVs” column and select the checkbox for “Definition Flags.” You can then add flags in Hex

byte format separated by a comma. The default value for the definition flags is 0x80.

Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 also added support for ISIS flex-algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV

for both IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes.

To use this feature, click on an LSP, and then select the “IPv4 Routes” or “IPv6 Routes” tab. Click

on the ISIS route, click the “+Add Sub-TLV” option, and click “+Add Flex Algorithm Prefix Metric

Sub-TLV” option in the drop-down menu to add a flexible algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV.


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You can then set the values for the Algorithm and Metric fields.

You can customize the type value of Flex-Algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV in ISIS global options.

The default type value is 5.


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WPA3 and Enhanced Open for 802.11AX

The new WPA3 as the next generation of Wi-Fi security protocols and Enhanced Open securities

are now supported with 802.11ac Wave-2 gears and 802.11ax gears. The new WPA3 security

supports WPA2/WPA3 Personal and WPA3 Personal through a profile setting; WPA3 Enterprise

support over 802.11ax will be implemented in the next release. The GUI screen captures for both

WPA3 and Enhanced Open are shown below.


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802.11AX AP Emulation

Spirent TestCenter WLAN Wi-Fi 6 platforms including the Spirent C50 appliance and MX2 test

modules can now be configured to perform WLAN Access Point (AP) emulation for WLAN device

testing. An overview of the feature called Wi-Fi 6 AP emulation is summarized below:

▪ Support IEEE 802.11ax Standard

▪ Support either cabled conductive testing or a shielded RF environment such as an RF

chamber for OTA testing

▪ Emulate multiple virtual APs (SSIDs) from a single port

▪ Test WiFi devices such as smartphones, tablet, smartwatch, laptop, smart TV, etc. as

DUTs

▪ Add-on feature on the top of the Spirent TestCenter WLAN multi-client emulation platform

▪ Support on per port base configuration for either 2.4GHz or 5GHz radios

▪ Common Spirent TestCenter GUI with all protocols support over either wired (Ethernet) or

WLAN (wireless) interface

▪ Support both Spirent TestCenter traffic capability and iPerf traffic model

▪ Support both 802.3 and 802.11 packet capture in AP emulation mode

The following AP features are supported with AP emulation:

▪ Number of SSIDs (up to 16 on the same radio)

▪ Network Names (SSIDs)

▪ Various personal WPA/WPA2 and WPA3 (licensed) security and encryption support

▪ Channel number

▪ Channel bandwidth (20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, 160MHz)

▪ MCS Type, CTS/RTS, beacon internal, guard Time Interval

▪ Rate adaptation and rate selection

▪ TX power attenuation (up to 16dB internal TX power attenuation)

▪ Channel attenuation up to 63.5dB on per chain

▪ Support 4x4 MIMO with 3-radio profile and 8x8 MIMO with 2-radio profile

▪ Explicit Beamforming, SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO

▪ DL/UL OFDMA, DL MU-MIMO

▪ Other 802.11ax features such BSS color code and TWT

▪ DFS test mode and channel switching

▪ Different Country/Region support

Introducing the feature of Wi-Fi 6 AP emulation enables Spirent TestCenter Wi-Fi 6 test tools for

WLAN device testing on both functional and performance. This covers a wide range of device test

cases; for example:

▪ Wi-Fi 6 functional and throughput performance

▪ New Wi-Fi 6 features such as 1024GAM, OFDMA, Mu-MIMO, BSS color, TWT, etc.

▪ Both control and data plane features and performance of WiFi devices

▪ Device Personal and Enterprise security (802.1x) type

▪ Impact of WiFi noise on the same or adjunct RF channel

▪ Device stability testing

▪ Interwork with various mixes of different 802.11 mode clients

▪ Benchmark or baseline for UDP and TCP throughput in uni-directional or bi-directional


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▪ RFC-style testing with clients across APs through the RF interface

▪ Throughput versus packet size, IPv4, IPv6, DHCP performance

▪ Device roaming testing

▪ Rate versus range (RSSI, pathloss) testing

The AP emulation is a licensed feature. You can order using the part numbers listed below for

each Spirent TestCenter WLAN platform.

Part Number Description Platform

BPK-5001 WIFI AP Emulation Package for Spirent TestCenter Test Module

C50-BPK-5001 WIFI AP Emulation Package for Spirent TestCenter C50 C50

80 Emulated Clients per Radio

Spirent TestCenter 5.05 release supports 80 emulated client counts per radio, for either the 11ax C50 appliance or the 11ax MX2 test module.

1588 Timespan View: IL Buffering

Spirent TestCenter 5.05 release supports the capability of logging a user-defined number of packets to be captured for post-mortem analysis, whenever the time offset is outside a particular range, defined by maximum and minimum values.


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Sequence Numbers/Drop Frames (higher rates)

When this feature was introduced with Spirent TestCenter release 5.04, it was limited to 1pps.

Release 5.05 now introduces support for this feature with higher data rates.


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Spirent TestCenter IQ Events Enhancements

Spirent TestCenter and TestCenter IQ release 5.05 introduces integrated event management. The

high-performance events framework captures the events generated in real time by the running

Spirent TestCenter application. You can view and manage these events using the rich set of tools

included in TestCenter IQ. For example, you can –

• be notified of new events via an intuitive events dashboard

• browse, sort, and filter events generated by various protocols, test modules, and chassis hardware

• view the events in time series charts, along with any other counters you choose

• see cumulative counts of different events on the events dashboard

• acknowledge events

The powerful events management feature provides an array of benefits:

• Rapid fault isolation, resulting in faster defect resolution times

• OpEx savings due to faster test completion times

• Faster development cycles due to ease of debugging


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Spirent Support

To obtain technical support for Spirent Communications products, please contact our Support

Services department using any of the following methods:

Americas

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: https://support.spirent.com

Toll Free: +1 800-SPIRENT (+1 800-774-7368) (North America)

Phone: +1 818-676-2616

Hours: Monday through Friday, 05:00 to 17:00 Pacific Time

Europe, Middle East, Africa



Phone: +33 (1) 6137 2270 (France)

Phone: +44 1803 546333 (UK)

Hours: Monday through Thursday, 09:00 to 18:00, 9:00 to 17:00 Friday, Paris Time

Asia Pacific



Phone: +86 (400) 810-9529 (toll-free mainland China only)

Phone: +86 (10) 8233 0033 (China)

Operating Hours: Monday through Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 Beijing Time

Company Address

Spirent Communications, Inc.

27349 Agoura Road

Calabasas, CA 91301

USA

The latest versions of user manuals, application notes, and software and firmware updates are

available on the Spirent Communications Customer Service Center website at

https://support.spirent.com.

Information about Spirent Communications and its products and services can be found on the main

company website at https://www.spirent.com.

© 2019 All of the company names and/or brand names and/or product names referred to in this document, in particular,

the name “Spirent” and its logo device, are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Spirent plc and its subsidiaries,

pending registration in accordance with relevant national laws. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are the

property of their respective owners.

mailto:[email protected]

https://support.spirent.com/






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