IXIA XMVAE GE Load Modules

This chapter provides details about Ixia's XMVAE-Gigabit Ethernet test modules the specifications and features.

Ixia's XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet test modules provide complete Layer 2-7 network and application testing functionality in a single test system for Automotive Ethernet switch and ECU testing. Ixia test system supports Automotive Ethernet specific interface for 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet speeds for testing Automotive Ethernet network components in next-generation vehicles and smart cars.

The XMVAE load modules include support for BroadR-Reach transceivers for testing BroadR-Reach enabled Automotive Ethernet switch and ECU functionality. Each test port on the module has the following:

The XMVAE architecture provides unprecedented performance and flexibility for testing the following:

The XMVAE load module supports the following:

Ixia's XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules comprise an 8 and a 16 port full-performance configuration, providing scalability and affordability for a diverse range of test requirements. With 12 slots per XGS12-SD high performance chassis, up to 96/192 Ethernet ECU ports can be simulated in a single test system to create high density automotive network test environments. In an XM2 chassis system, up to 32 ECU ports can be simulated for low scale requirements.

Key Features

The key features of XMVAE load modules are as follows:

Flexible Packet Generation
Real-time Latency

Packets representing different traffic profiles can be associated with packet group identifiers (PGIDs). The receiving port measures the minimum, maximum, and average latency in real time for each packet belonging to different groups. Measurable latencies include:

Transmit Scheduler

There are two modes of transmission available - Packet Stream and Advanced Stream Scheduler.

In Packet Stream Scheduler mode, the transmit engine allows configuration of up to 256 unique sequential stream groupings on each port. Multiple streams can be defined in sequence, each containing multiple packet flows defined by unique characteristics. After transmission of all packets in the first stream, control is passed to the next defined stream in the sequence. After reaching the last stream in the sequence, transmission may either cease, or control may be passed on to any other stream in the sequence. Therefore, multiple streams are cycled through, representing different traffic profiles to simulate real network traffic. In Advanced Stream Scheduler mode, the transmission of stream groupings is interleaved per port. For example, assume a port is configured with three streams. If Stream 1 is defined with IP packets at 20% of line rate, Stream 2 is defined with TCP packets at 50% of line rate, and Stream 3 is defined with MPLS packets at 30% of line rate, data on the port will be transmitted at an aggregate utilization of 100% with interleaved IP, TCP, and MPLS packets.

Extensive Statistics
Data Capture

Each port of the load module is equipped with 64 MB of capture memory, capable of storing tens of thousands of packets in real time. The capture buffer can be configured to store packets based on user-defined trigger and filter conditions. Decodes for VLAN, IPv4, IPv6, ARP, ICMP, DHCP, IGMP, UDP, TCP and various other protocols are provided.

Data Integrity

As packets traverse through networks, IP header contents may change resulting in the recalculation of packet CRC values. To validate device performance, the data integrity function of XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules allows packet payload contents to be verified with a unique CRC that is independent of the packet CRC. This ensures that the payload is not disturbed as the device changes header fields.

Sequence and Duplicate Packet Checking

Sequence numbers can be inserted at a user-defined offset in the payload of each transmitted packet. Upon receipt of the packets by the device under test (DUT), out-of-sequence errors or duplicated packets are reported in real time at wire-speed rates. The user can define a sequence error threshold to distinguish between small versus big errors, and the receive port can measure the amount of small, big, reversed, and total errors. Alternatively, the user can use the duplicate packet detection mode to observe that multiple packets with the same sequence number are received and analyzed.

L2-3 Protocol Emulation

Ixia's XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules support performance and functionality testing using routing/bridging protocol emulation via the IxNetwork and IxAutomate applications. Protocols supported include: VLAN, STP/RSTP, MSTP, PVST+/RPVST+, MSRP, link aggregation (LACP), ESMC, PTP, PPPoX, DHCPv4 client/server, DHCPv6 client/server, 802.1x, WebAuth. IxNetwork offers the customization and flexibility to test hundreds of switches and ECUs. IxNetwork can customize millions of traffic flows to stress data plane performance. Powerful GUI wizards and grid controls allow users to create sophisticated traffic flows with ease. Its enhanced real-time analysis and statistics are capable of reporting comprehensive protocol status and detailed per-flow traffic performance metrics.

AVB Testing

Ixia’s XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules support functional and performance testing of MSRP and gPTP protocols. You can send both 1722 encapsulated and VLAN encapsulated traffic at line rate for the AVB reserved streams. Clock hierarchy can be established using gPTP BMCA algorithm and synchronization of various clocks can be measured using the in-built Stratum-3 clock that has 20 ns of timestamp resolution. This load module’s capability to measure the latency, latency variation, loss and sequence errors allows extensive performance evaluation of various algorithms such as strict priority queuing, Weighted Round-Robin, Weighted Fair Queuing and Credit Based Shaper implementations.

ECU Testing

Ixia’s XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet load modules can connect to the BroadR-Reach interface in ECUs using PHY media converters. The load module can be used to load the Automotive Ethernet network with traffic and test ECU functionality. IxNetwork’s powerful Traffic Template can be used to generate custom ECU protocols and load the desired traffic that can be sent at any rate up to the wire-speed. Various bench marking tests like RFC 2544 can be run to fully qualify the embedded switches in the ECUs.

Application Layer Performance Testing

Ixia's XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules support performance testing of content-aware devices and networks via the IxLoad application. IxLoad creates real-world traffic scenarios at the TCP/UDP (Layer 4) and application (Layer 7) layers, emulating clients and servers for web (HTTP, SSL), P2P, FTP, email (SMTP, POP3, IMAP), streaming (RTP, RTSP), video (MPEG2, MPEG4, IGMP and RSTP), voice (SIP, H.323, H.248, SCCP and MGCP), and infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, LDAP, AAA, and Telnet. Security platforms can be tested with integrated L2/L3 authentication mechanisms such as 802.1x and NAC, as well generated malicious traffic to test for security. Each 1GbE XMVAE port can be independently configured to run different protocols and client/server scenarios.

Tcl API

Ixia's XMVAE Gigabit Ethernet modules are supported by a comprehensive Tcl application programming interface (API). This API allows users to develop custom scripts and integrate the modules into automated test environments.

Load Modules

The XMVAE family consists of the following models:

Each of these load modules are described as follows:

LSM1000XMVAE8

LSM1000XMVAE8 Gigabit Ethernet is an 8-Port Dual-PHY (RJ45 and SFP) 10/100/1000 Mbps load module. It provides complete L2-7 support and is compatible with the XGS12-SD rack mount chassis (940-0011) and XM2 desktop chassis (941-0023).

It requires the following:

The LSM1000XMVAE8 load module is shown in the following figure:

Figure: LSM1000XMVAE8

LSM1000XMVAE16

LSM1000XMVAE16 Gigabit Ethernet is a 16-Port Dual-PHY (RJ45 and SFP) 10/100/1000 Mbps load module. It provides complete L2-7 support and is compatible with the XGS12-SD rack mount chassis (940-0011) and XM2 desktop chassis (941-0023).

It requires the following:

The LSM1000XMVAE16 load module is shown in the following figure:

Figure: LSM1000XMVAE16

Part Numbers

Part Numbers for XMVAE Load Module and Supported Adapters are provided in the following table.

Part Numbers for XMVAE Modules
Model Number Part Number Description

LSM1000XMVAE8

944-1130

  • 8-Port Dual-PHY (RJ45 and SFP) 10/100/1000 Mbps

  • Full featured L2-L7 with BroadR-Reach enabled (requires separate BroadR-Reach transceivers)

  • Fiber Ports require SFP transceivers, options include SFP-LX, SFP-SX, and SFP-CU

LSM1000XMVAE16

944-1131

  • 16-Port Dual-PHY (RJ45 and SFP) 10/100/1000 Mbps

  • Fiber Ports require SFP transceivers, options include SFP-LX, SFP-SX, and SFP-CU

  • Full featured L2-L7 with BroadR-Reach enabled (requires separate BroadR-Reach transceivers)

Specifications

The load module specifications are provided in the following table:

XMVAE Load Module Specifications
Feature Details

Load module

LSM1000XMVAE8

LSM1000XMVAE16

Connector type

SFP, can connect to BroadR-Reach transceivers or BroadR-Reach media converters, or 1GE copper or fiber transceivers.

Maximum ports per chassis

32 ports - XM2 Desktop

192 ports in XGS12-SD Rack mount

Connection speed

Auto-negotiable 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet over copper and Gigabit Fiber and100Base-FX Ethernet over Fiber

Port CPU/memory per port

800MHz /1GB

Number of ports per model

16/8

Layer 2-3 switching/routing protocol testing

Yes

Layer 4–7 application traffic testing

Yes

AUTOSAR IP/Ethernet bus compatibility tests

Yes

AUTOSAR IP/Ethernet stack functionality tests

Yes

IEEE Audio/Video Bridging tests for AVB bridge and end points

Yes

802.1AS/gPTP timing and sync tests

Yes

Capture buffer per port

64 MB

Number of transmit flows per port (sequential values)

Billions

Number of transmit flows per port (arbitrary values)

98 K

Number of track-able receive flows per port

512 K

Number of stream definitions per port

4096

Transmit engine

Wire-speed packet generation with timestamps, sequence numbers, data integrity signature, and packet group signatures.

Receive engine

Wire-speed packet filtering, capturing, real-time latency for each packet group, data integrity, and sequence checking.

Statistics and rates (counter size: 64-Bit)

Link State, Line Speed, Frames Sent, Valid Frames Received, Bytes Sent/Received, Fragments, Undersize, Oversize, CRC Errors, VLAN Tagged Frames, 8 QoS counters, Data Integrity Frames, Data Integrity Errors, Sequence Checking Frames, Sequence Checking Errors, ARP, and Ping requests and replies.

Error generation

CRC (Good/Bad/None), Undersize, Oversize.

Packet flow statistics

Real-time statistics to track up to 128K packet flows with throughput and latency measurements.

Latency measurements

20ns resolution

IPv4, IPv6, UDP, TCP

Hardware checksum generation

Frame length controls

Fixed, random, weighted random, or increment by user-defined step, random, weighted random.

Application Support

The Ixia application support for XMVAE load modules is provided in the following table:

XMVAE Application Support
Application Support

IxExplorer

A full-featured layer 2-3 wire-speed Ethernet traffic generation and analysis test application with full support for stateless protocol functional and scalability testing. IxExplorer is included with the purchase of all Ixia chassis.

IxNetwork

IxNetwork provides wire-rate traffic generation with service modeling that builds realistic, dynamically-controllable data-plane traffic. IxNetwork offers the industry's best test solution for functional and performance testing by using comprehensive emulation for switching, routing, ARP, ICMP, DHCP, IPv4, IPv6, multicast, timing and AVB protocols.

IxLoad

Provides a scalable solution for testing converged multiplay services and application delivery platforms. IxLoad emulates data, voice, and video subscribers and associated protocols for performance testing as well as the ability to generate malicious traffic to test for security.

IxANVL

Provides industry standard AUTOSAR IP/Ethernet bus compatibility, standards compliance, interoperability, ECU configuration and functionality tests for Automotive Ethernet switches and ECUs.

Mechanical Specifications

LED Panel

Each LSM1000XMVAE8 and LSM1000XMVAE16 port incorporates a set of 2 LEDs, as described in the following table.

Port LEDs for LSM1000XMVAE8 and LSM1000XMVAE16
LED Label Copper Fiber

Link/Tx (Upper LED)

Color is used to indicate the link speed:

  • 1000Mbps–Green
  • 100Mbps–Orange
  • 10Mbps–Yellow

Flashing indicates transmit activity.

Off if link is down.

Green indicates link has been established and flashes during transmit activity.

Rx/Error (Lower LED)

Three conditions apply:

  • Full duplex or master (in 1000 Mbps case): Green with extended pulses off to indicate receive activity.
  • Half duplex or subordinate (in 1000 Mbps case): Off with extended pulses to indicate receive activity.
  • Error: Overrides the other two modes and pulses red.
  • No link: Off.

Green indicates link has been established and flashes during receive activity.

Continuous red indicates a receive error.