Procket Uses Spirent IPv6 Testers

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Spirent Communications (NYSE:SPM) (LSE:SPT) today announced that Procket Networks performed a series of groundbreaking tests on its PRO/8812 system using Spirent's SmartBits TeraRouting(TM) Tester and its new TeraMetrics(TM) XD modules.

The test featured a fully loaded PRO/8812 router with 240 ports of 1000BaseSX and 24 Ports of 10GBase LX. It offered IPv6 traffic in a meshed traffic pattern, as defined in RFC2889, the known industry standard for IPv6.

"Spirent's SmartBits products were used to demonstrate that Procket's PRO/8812 could switch multiple packet sizes without performance degradation," said Cary Hayward, director of marketing, Procket Networks. "The results of these tests helped confirm the IPv6 performance of our routers to current customers like AARNet, the company that operates Australia's academic and research core backbone."

AARNet offers core internet transport as well as Voice and Video services over IP, in addition to other value-added services to a worldwide network supporting 37 Australian universities and Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

IPv6, the next generation Internet Protocol, was designed to replace the current Internet Protocol IPv4. Because today's Internet has run on IPv4 for nearly 20 years, there is a growing shortage of IP network addresses. IPv6 solves this problem and improves network routing and configuration processes.

"The shortage of network addresses in Asia is particularly critical and Procket is poised to take advantage of that market with its PRO/8812 router," Hayward said.

As part of the test, Procket used Spirent's TeraMetrics XD series of modules, which offer "Dual Media" Ethernet connections. Each module can simulate the millions of clients and servers to fully stress test a device or network. TeraMetrics XD modules can generate realistic traffic at different layers and measure specific metrics for each layer. Additionally, these modules can simultaneously correlate data plane tests with control plane traffic, such as routing, to provide the most realistic performance measurements. Procket also used Spirent's TeraRouting Tester, an easy-to-use application that allows network service providers and network equipment manufacturers to precisely determine the performance of a router under a variety of realistic and worst-case scenarios, including the testing of dual-stack implementations of IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.

"Spirent has been a leader in IPv6 by providing test solutions to validate the next generation of devices such as Procket's PRO/8812 router," said Mark Fishburn, vices president of technical strategy for Spirent Communications. This test is one of the largest known port tests done in the industry proving IPv6 capabilities on a mass scale."

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Procket Networks Inc.