IXIA K400 QSFP-DD Load Modules
This chapter provides details about K400 QSFP-DD family of load modules and their specifications and features.
K400 QSFP-DD is a 1-port 400GE load module capable of 200GE, 100GE and 50GE fan-outs. This load module has a 50 Gbps PAM-4 electrical interface and validates performance, scalability and interoperability. It provides FEC error injection, PCS/Tx/Rx testing, and layer1 BERT testing with full line-rate layer 2-3 Tx, Rx, and capture capabilities. This load module accelerates development of IEEE 802.3bs-compliant 400GE networking systems.
These load modules are available in the following different models:
- Full feature and scale QSFP-DD-400GE
-
Reduced feature and scale QSFP-DD-R400GE
The following options are available for these models:
- FIELD UPGRADE option that upgrades the reduced performance QSFP-DD-R400GE
- Fan-out speed modes
All the models enable full line-rate traffic generation transmit, receive, and capture functionality from 64B to 16,000B frame lengths. This facilitates stress testing, hardware/ASIC bring-up, optics and cable qualification, interoperability, and functional test and Layer 2/3 routing protocol emulation as required.
Key Features
The key features of QSPF-DD load module are as follows:
- Supports line-rate 400/200/100/50Gbps packet generation, capture, and analysis of received traffic to detect and debug data transmission errors.
- Supports line-rate per-port and per-flow statistics.
- Provides the following high latency measurement resolution for different speed modes:
400G: 0.625ns
200G: 1.25ns
100G: 2.5ns
50G: 2.5ns
- Provides RS-544 (KP4) Forward Error Correction (FEC) support.
- Provides native 56Gb/s SERDES with PAM4 encoding support that is IEEE P802.3bs and IEEE P802.3cd compliant.
- Supports FEC error injection with a comprehensive set of FEC corrected and uncorrected statistics, including Bit Error Rate statistics for pre- and post-FEC operations.
- Injects packet errors: CRCs, runts, giants, checksum errors, and out of sequence.
- Supports standard instrumentation including timestamp, sequence number and flow identification, and data integrity.
- Supports layer 1 BERT: 8 independent lanes of 56Gb/s PRBS pattern generation, error checking, and statistics.
- Supports PCS lanes Transmit on all speed modes, error injection testing and receive measurement:
- Per-lane controls and status, FEC and error monitoring, error insertion, lane mapping and skew insertion
- Supports mid-to-high-range L2/3 networking protocol emulation to validate performance and scalability of L2/3 routing/switching and data center test cases using Ixia’s IxNetwork application.
- Provides an excellent test platform for full line-rate 400/200/100/50Gb/s to evaluate the new ASIC designs for all the speed modes, FPGAs, and hardware switch fabrics that use the new 8x56Gb/s electrical interface with PAM4 encoding.
- Supports benchmarking of networking devices and equipment using industry-standard RFC benchmark tests at line-rate 400/200/100/50GE.
- Provides application support including: IxExplorer, IxNetwork, and related Tcl and automation APIs.
Load Modules
The K400 QSFP-DD family consists of the following models on a single slot card:
- QSFP-DD-400GE
- QSFP-DD-400GE+200G+100G+50G (fan-out speed modes)
- QSFP-DD-R400GE
- QSFP-DD-R400GE+200G+100G+50G (fan-out speed modes)
- UPG-QSFP-DD-R400GE
- UPG-QSFP-DD-R400GE+200G+100G+50G (fan-out speed modes)
The load modules are described as follows:
QSFP-DD-400GE
QSFP-DD-400GE is a 1-port full-featured load module. It has 1-slot with the QSFP-DD physical interface and supports enterprise and data center switch and router testing. It provides L2-3 support and is compatible with the XGS12-HSL rack mount chassis (940-0016) and 2-slot high performance chassis XGS2-HSL chassis (940-0014).
The QSFP-DD-400GE load module is shown in the following figure:
Figure: K400 Module-QSFP-DD-400GE
QSFP-DD-R400GE
QSFP-DD-R400GE is a 1-port 400 Gigabit Ethernet reduced load module that scales down the L2-3 feature set and L2-3 networking protocol scaling, while increasing affordability. It has 1-slot with the QSFP-DD physical interface and supports hardware, ASIC, cable/optics qualification, and interoperability testing. It provides L2-3 support and reduced protocol emulation scale and is compatible with the XGS12-HSL rack mount chassis (940-0016) and 2-slot high performance chassis XGS2-HSL chassis (940-0014).
The QSFP-DD-R400GE load module is shown in the following figure:
Figure: K400 Module-QSFP-DD-R400GE
Fan-out options for QSFP-DD
The Fan-out options for QSFP-DD are available in two forms:
- Factory Installed
-
Field Upgrade
1x200GE/2x100GE/4x50GE factory installed
The 200GE/100GE/50GE Fan-Out FACTORY INSTALLED option for the QSFP-DD load module enables 1x200GE/2x100GE/4x50GE capability on the single port of the module. This is supported on QSFP-DD-400GE (944-1152) and the QSFP-DD-R400GE (944-1153) 1-port load modules.
Note: The factory installed option is required for new purchases to enable 200GE, 100GE and 50GE speeds on the QSFP-DD-400GE or QSFP-DD-R400GE load modules.
1x200GE/2x100GE/4x50GE field upgrade
The 200GE/100GE/50GE Fan-Out FIELD UPGRADE option for the QSFP-DD load module enables 1x200GE/2x100GE/4x50GE capability on the single port of the module. This is supported on QSFP-DD-400GE (944-1152) and the QSFP-DD-R400GE (944-1153) 1-port load modules.
Note: The field upgrade option is required on field upgrade purchases to enable 200GE, 100GE and 50GE speeds on the QSFP-DD-400GE or QSFP-DD-R400GE load modules. Please provide the serial number of the desired load module at the time of placement of order, to install the option .
Link Behavior of the 50GE Fan-Out mode
When a QSFP-DD or QSFP56 transceiver is connected to the load module, the 4x50GE speed mode is not fully independent.
The first two ports of 50GE in the GUI are sourced by the clock recovered from the first 50GE port. Therefore, if the DUT connected to the first port is disabled, no clock can be recovered and both of the local 50GE ports shows link down. This indicates that the second 50GE port has a dependency on the first port.
The same logic holds for the third and fourth port of the 50GE fan-out mode.
Part Numbers
Part Numbers for QSFP-DD Load Module and Supported Adapters are provided in the following table.
Model Number |
Part Number |
Description |
---|---|---|
QSFP-DD-400GE |
944-1152 |
|
944-1153 |
|
|
UPG-QSFP-DD-R400GE |
905-1032 |
FIELD UPGRADE option that upgrades the reduced performance QSFP-DD-R400GE 1-port, 1-slot, L2-3 load module to have the following:
|
QSFP-DD-400GE+200G+100G+50G |
905-1023 |
|
905-1024 |
|
Specifications
The load module specifications are contained in the following table.
Application Support
The Ixia application support QSFP-DD load modules is provided in the following table:
Application | Support |
---|---|
IxNetwork |
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 routing, switching, MPLS, IP multicast, broadband, authentication, Carrier Ethernet, and data center Ethernet protocols. |
IxExplorer |
Layer 1-3 wire-speed traffic generation, capture, and analysis with Forward Error Correction and error injection with statistics, PCS Lanes Tx/Rx with statistics, and Layer 1 BERT test and reporting capability. |
Tcl API |
Allows custom user script development for layer 1-3 testing. |
Transceiver Support
The transceiver supported by QSFP-DD load modules is provided in the following table:
Model |
Description |
---|---|
QSFP-DD-1M-CBL |
QSFP-DD-to-QSFP-DD 400GE 400GBASE-R passive copper, Direct Attach Cable (DAC), point-to-point cable, 1-meter length. This cable is compatible with the following load modules:
|
QSFP-DD-2M-CBL |
QSFP-DD-to-QSFP-DD 400GE 400GBASE-R passive copper, Direct Attach Cable (DAC), point-to-point cable, 2-meter length. This cable is compatible with the following load modules:
|
QSFP-DD-5M-CBL |
QSFP-DD-to-QSFP-DD 400GE 400GBASE-R passive copper, Direct Attach Cable (DAC), point-to-point cable, 5-meter length. This cable is compatible with the following load modules:
|
Mechanical Specifications
Front Panel
The front panel of QSFP-DD load modules is shown in the following figure:
Figure: Front panel of QSFP-DD
LED Panel
The LED panel specifications for QSFP-DD are provided in the following table.
MODE LED |
TX STATUS |
RX STATUS |
FEC |
---|---|---|---|
Solid Red - Card fault |
Solid Red - Link down |
Blinking Red - RX active with errors |
Blinking Red - Uncorrectable FEC errors |
Solid Purple - 400GE speed mode |
Solid Green - Link up |
Blinking Green - RX active with no errors received |
Blinking Green - Corrrectable FEC errors |
Solid Cyan - 200GE speed mode |
Blinking Green - TX is active on at least one fan-out port |
Off - Port is inactive |
Solid Green - No errors |
Solid White - 50GE speed mode |
Solid Yellow - At least one link (but not all) is up (2x100GE, 4x50GE) |
|
Off - FEC not enabled |
Off - 100GE speed mode |