IxLoad® — IPSEC and Network Access Test Solution

Ensure A Smooth Growth Transition with Pre-Deployment Testing Experience

Problem: Manage Subscriber Growth and SLA Guarantees

Subscriber growth and exploding service offerings  are challenging existing access networks. Service providers are struggling to manage their networks with careful capacity planning and IPv6 transitioning considerations. But with subscribers that range from residential broadband customers using PPPoE or DHCP, to telecommuters using IPsec and enterprises using dedicated leased lines, it is difficult to assess the impact of network volatility as buildout occurs. Managed growth means avoiding outages and interface flaps and controlling quality of experience (QoE) for real-time and business-critical services as your access network evolves.

Solution: Scalable Emulation Test to Ensure Dynamic and Robust Access Networks

For high-performing multiplay networks, service providers need pre-deployment validation that includes realistic simulations of the dynamic behavior of subscribers accessing the networks. The IxLoad Network Access and VPN test solution provides a rich set of emulations with dynamic interface behavior that adds a new dimension of subscriber and network realism when testing application-aware devices.

Highlights

• Ensure smooth deployment by testing under  realistic access network scenarios—mixed subscriber types over same link and multiplay services over  emulated subscribers
• Stress-test and measure subscriber management capability KPIs
• Evaluate IPv6 readiness of handling IPv4, IPv6, and transition technologies such as 6RD/DSLite
• Ensure reliable service and subscriber QoE by characterizing performance of multiplay services over variety of network access technologies
• Validate the scale and performance of secure VPN gateways providing remote access for thousands of users
• Validate basic network security by testing port-based and web-based access control

Solution: Scalable Emulation Test  to Ensure Dynamic and Robust  Access Networks

For high-performing multiplay networks, service providers need pre-deployment validation that includes realistic simulations of the dynamic behavior of subscribers accessing the networks. The IxLoad Network Access and VPN test solution provides a rich set of emulations with dynamic interface behavior that adds a new dimension of subscriber and network realism when testing application-aware devices.

Key features:

• Realistically simulate dynamic interface setup and tear-down behavior linked with subscriber emulation
• Simulate network ‘blackouts’ and ‘brownouts’ and assess the impact of network volatility on application performance and subscriber QoE
• Correlate application-layer performance with network control-plane performance

Network Access and VPN Technologies Supported

Dynamic Control Plane (DCP)

DCP dynamically creates and tears down interfaces during testing. With DCP, every interface is created in conjunction with the new subscribers and the application traffic begins immediately after the interfaces are configured, replicating real-world subscriber behavior.

Network Failure Threshold (NFT)

NFT operates in conjunction with DCP and enables IxLoad to run tests even when some interfaces fail during the test run. A failure threshold controls the number of allowed failures, beyond which the test is aborted.