About Spirent TestCenter

Spirent TestCenter allows network service providers and network equipment manufacturers to measure the performance of a router or switch under a variety of realistic and worst–case scenarios. True performance of a device is established by stress testing the routing software, data forwarding hardware, and overall system architecture under both static and dynamic routing conditions. The key strength of Spirent TestCenter is a deterministic and repeatable test methodology.

Spirent TestCenter is fully interactive: Control and data plane parameters can be changed dynamically, and real–time feedback can be received. All tests can be saved as configuration files for simplified test automation.
Spirent TestCenter features include:

• Setup of large BGP, OSPF, ISIS, RIP, MPLS, Spanning Tree, or multicast networks on all ports, with data plane traffic transmitted to and received from all simulated networks and devices
• Verification of IP Quality of Service and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) under a variety of adverse conditions
• Emulation and verification of functionality and performance of complex MPLS networks, including advanced VPNs and traffic engineering
• Validation of functionality and performance of IPv6 and transitional networks, as service providers and equipment manufacturers migrate to this new protocol
• Emulation of nearly every broadband access (DHCP and PPPoE) network configuration, and generation and tracking of complete per–port and per–user statistics to identify specific performance anomalies
• Validation of DHCP and PPPoE subscriber scalability, with unmatched port density
• Testing of large scale DHCP or PPPoE configurations to improve equipment selection, develop competitive SLAs, and clarify network impact
• Evaluation of key router, switch, and access–layer device performance parameters under typical or extreme traffic load conditions, by the nanosecond, minute, hour, or day
• Utilization of preconfigured RFC 2544 and 2889 tests for Layer 2/Layer 3 devices to obtain baselines of behavior on existing network devices and effects of new technologies as they are incrementally introduced
• Qualification of routers, switches, and access devices during development, quality assurance testing, and regression testing
• Performance and comparative analyses of routers, switches, and access–layer devices
• Requalification of devices after firmware upgrades

For information about system requirements, see the Release Notes.