Agilent Tests DS3 Channels

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) today announced industry-first RouterTester tools for testing the ability of lower-speed DS3 channelized equipment to deliver IP services to large numbers of metro/edge customers. This will now enable the verification of equipment handling multi-speed, multi-protocol routed traffic from thousands of users at one time, reducing testing costs. Channelized equipment permits providers to expand their potential customer base by allowing routers to deliver IP services, such as VPNs, to all users, regardless of their network access speed. Channelized interfaces are used to aggregate large numbers of individualized customer DS3, DS1 and DS0 links. The new RouterTester interface card contains six test ports, for testing of up to 1,344 channels per card. Each of these test channels can transmit and receive integrated wire speed traffic and routing protocol test streams for capture and analysis. The interface can be configured for support of DS3 (framed and unframed), DS1, Fractional DS1 and DS0 testing. Beta customers for the product include Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks."Use of channelized equipment to increase access and aggregate traffic is the key to speeding deployment and increasing the attractiveness of metro/edge IP services to many customers," said Bill Wood, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Advanced Networks Division. "But until now, there was no way to independently verify the ability of this equipment to handle multi-speed, multi-protocol routed traffic from thousands of users at one time."The interface offers PPP and Cisco HDLC encapsulation of IP packets; support for routing (BGP, OSPF, ISIS, RIP) protocols on every channel; and multi-channel IP Packet and PRBS generation and performance analysis, including channel and stream statistics.Agilent Technologies Inc.