Spirent Intros HyperMetrics a Multi Dimensional Test Solution

For consumers, products being introduced to the market that require the use of the Internet sometimes are not as expected. As with anything technologically new or the first of its kind, glitches are abundant, Microsoft Vista comes to mind.

 

Chris Chapman, Senior Technical Evangelist, took some time explaining Spirent’s new product with TMC (News - Alert), moreover he explained why, “When a new service is rolled out, for example IPTV, the tolerance of the customer to be able to continue on with that service or [discover] that the quality is so bad that [they] going to cancel the service and/or potentially cancel the voice and data services along with it is a very high risk for most of our customers.”

 

Therefore, Spirent has come up with a solution to make sure companies, before they send out a product that they’ve invested much of their time and money into, is right the first time it is released.

 

Introducing the HyperMetrics family of modules on the award winning Spirent TestCenter platform. HyperMetrics is the industry’s first solution with an innovative multi-core architecture that addresses port density as well as the critical aspect of realism required to ensure Quality of Experience (QoE) for new services helping to maximize return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) throughout the test lifecycle.

 

“With the evolution to intelligent content aware networks, service providers and network equipment manufacturers need to furnish tools and functions to plan, measure, monitor, and assure evolving traffic patterns, new services, and optimized application performance,” said Michael Howard (News - Alert), principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

 

“This is not an easy task—it means that increasing port density or adding new protocols is necessary but clearly not sufficient for test engineers. What’s required are realistic network environments representing the end-to-end complex conditions of next-gen IP networks including aspects such as scalability and performance,” Howard continued.

 

According to company officials, HyperMetrics’ high density, multi-core architecture delivers enhanced realism with scalability and performance along with the capability to reallocate processing power to conduct complex yet realistic testing. The emphasis on performance and application realism rather than just port density enables test engineers to invest in a single solution for all their testing needs ultimately reducing capital expenses, while staying within limited operational budgets.

 

“As the testing standard for tomorrow’s networks, Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics goes beyond advanced functionality to include investment protection,” said Tim Jefferson, general manager, Converged Core Solutions group at Spirent Communications (News - Alert). “In this tough economic environment our customers require a solution that allows them to test to new levels of enhanced realism with scalability and performance.”

Chapman states that for companies to keep their clientele, they need to know, “How can I test that quality of experience? So to actually get those 21^st century needs, no matter what else [the testing service] does, it has to be able go down to the individual subscriber and then from there it has to measure what an individual QoE is like? Companies need to know how they perceive TV, for example, or how they perceive those voice calls, or how do they perceive those eCommerce transactions.”

 

The Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics modules are designed to offer network equipment manufacturers and service providers a robust and scalable test platform with a flexible user experience for conducting end-to-end Layer 2-7 multi-play testing at gigabit or 10gigabit line rates. The modules, available in a of variety of port densities, include the HyperMetrics Converged (CV), HyperMetrics Converged Multi-play (CM) and HyperMetrics Application Performance (AP) modules.

 

What Chapman wants companies to understand is that, “Spirent is the industry’s first multicore, multithreaded software and hardware architecture which enables the future. We have an innovative architecture that provides enhanced realism with scalability and performance, meeting the customer’s needs now and for the future. Our dynamic multicore processes allow us to reallocate the tests to the specific test case, thus enhancing the RoI because it says we’re flexible in dynamics and we can sustain the test equipment economic value by providing complete test coverage from a single platform with flexibility when or if the test needs to be changed.”

 

As director of Strategic Services within the Performance Analysis Broadband (PA-B (News - Alert)) division at Spirent Communications, Chris Chapman is responsible for the Global Spirent Proof of Concept (SPOC) Lab Network and engaging customers with the testing projects at the lab. With more than 25 years experience in the telecommunications industry, he is also the worldwide corporate technical evangelist for Spirent’s solutions.

 

Chris joined Spirent in 1998 within the sales organization in Silicon Valley territory. Prior to Joining Spirent, Chris was a senior Systems Engineer at MCI/Worldcom, and specialized in IP interconnect and end-to-end Quality of Experience (QoE).