CALABASAS, Calif. -- Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading, global provider of converged IP network test solutions, today announced that the latest version of its Carrier Ethernet testing solution now validates large-scale IEEE 1588v2 and SyncE timing synchronisation technologies essential for mobile backhaul transport over Carrier Ethernet-based networks. Ixia will demonstrate its timing test solution at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress (CEWC) 2010 event taking place September 20th – 23rd in Warsaw, Poland.

Carrier Ethernet over IP has emerged as a cost-effective alternative to legacy TDM networks for flexibly handling bandwidth-hungry data traffic over mobile backhaul networks. However, Carrier Ethernet must satisfy the strict timing requirements of 2.5/3G wireless mobile backhaul. IEEE 1588v2 and Synchronisation Ethernet (SyncE) technologies can be deployed separately or in conjunction across mobile backhaul network devices to provide the timing accuracy required for voice and other time-sensitive applications. As carriers scale network traffic, there is a real risk to the operation and stability of the timing protocols themselves that can result in missed call handovers, frequency drift, and even network downtime.

Ixia’s comprehensive Ethernet Mobile Backhaul test solution includes conformance, functional, interoperability, and performance testing of both IEEE 1588v2 and SyncE implementations. Ixia’s testing solutions emulate both master and slave clocks as well as the numerous protocols and traffic types typically carried over a mobile backhaul network. This multi-dimensional test strategy empowers service providers to create network conditions in a controlled lab environment so each chip, device, or multi-device system can be tested at scale in a reliable and repeatable manner. By scaling the number of emulated slave clocks and rate of timing protocol messages, service providers can evaluate the tradeoffs between timing performance and scalability — critical for network capacity planning and service verification.

In a separate release

WARSAW -- Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading, global provider of IP performance test systems, is currently participating in an extensive live, public Carrier Ethernet multi-vendor interoperability showcase at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress (CEWC), September 20-23, in Warsaw, Poland. The showcase is organised by the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC). Ixia played a critical role in testing key technologies that enable cost-efficient, scalable and reliable delivery of services over Carrier Ethernet for the network equipment vendors’ routing and switching devices in the showcase. Cutting-edge Carrier Ethernet enabling technologies, including timing over packet (ToP), provider backbone bridging (PBB) working with virtual private LAN services (VPLS), and MPLS-TP solutions are being demonstrated.

Carriers are replacing legacy TDM-based mobile backhaul networks with Carrier Ethernet in order to more cost-effectively scale networks to accommodate bandwidth-hungry mobile devices. SyncE and IEEE 1588v2, also known as precision timing protocol (PTP), are two protocols that carriers use to achieve the clock synchronisation needed to carry time-sensitive traffic, such as voice, over a packet-based Ethernet backhaul networks. At the EANTC showcase, Ixia is used to emulate both the PTP grandmaster clock and PTP slave clocks to demonstrate the functionality and interoperability of SyncE and 1588v2 implementations across different vendors and device types.

Provider Backbone Bridging (PBB) technology is critical to improving the scalability of Virtual Private LAN Services (VPLS); Ixia testing solutions emulate VPLS and PBB PE routers in order to generate appropriately encapsulated traffic. These tests ensure PBB and VPLS interworking and validate improved VPLS scalability.

MPLS-TP adds transport-like operation, OAM, and resilience characteristics to carrier-class MPLS technology, making it an attractive option for access, aggregation and backhaul networks supporting broadband, business and mobility services. Ixia testing solutions emulate MPLS and MPLS-TP protocols as well as PE routers to validate interworking and service delivery between MPLS and MPLS-TP transport domains.

Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA)