Software Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, like OpenFlow, enable enterprises and service providers to provide a flexible application driven networking solution to their customers. As organisations and service providers in particular, use Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) running in data centers to deliver services virtually, SDN provides a quick and easy ability to program the forwarding plane of the network via a centralised control plane.

Product highlights

As enterprises and service providers deploy OpenFlow networks at a quickly increasing pace, Ixia is expanding the industry’s first off-the-shelf, standards-based OpenFlow test solution to help these customers realise the benefits inherent in these networks.

· IxNetwork now validates the controller, which must communicate with all the switches in the network and as such, is critical to ensuring reliability of the entire network.

· With IxNetwork 7.20, customers have the advanced functionality required to deliver an always-connected experience within SDN environments. Until now, network and test engineers have had limited options for scale testing a controller.

IxNetwork 7.20 allows enterprises and service providers to better validate OpenFlow networks through the following capabilities:

· Emulates thousands of OpenFlow switches in various topologies to stress test their OpenFlow controller without the need of real OpenFlow switches in a customer’s lab.

· Performs realistic functions such as establishing the OF-Channel, supporting statistic replies, LLDP based topology discovery, port status messages and generate packet-ins from these emulated switches.