December 2019 Spirent Communications Spirent TestCenter Software and Hardware New Features 5.05
December 2019
Spirent Communications
Spirent TestCenter Software and Hardware New Features 5.05
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Contents
New Products and Features ............................................................................................. 3
Hardware Features ............................................................................................................ 3
Software Features ............................................................................................................. 4
Spirent Support ............................................................................................................... 17
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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New Products and Features Hardware Features
Spirent PX3-QSFP-DD 8 Port Appliance
This new appliance now supports Auto Negotiation and Link Training.
Note: in 50G mode Auto Negotiation and Link Training is 4x50G
• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-750A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-700A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-550A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-400A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-8-350A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-4-750A
• PX3-QSFP-DD-4-400A
Spirent FlexE-100 QSFP28 Test Module
This test module supports FlexE (Flex Ethernet), a key technology that is being considered in ITU-
T G.mtn to enable bandwidth scalability and network hard slicing.
Spirent FX3-QSFP28-6, 6-port QSFP28 Test Modules
These new test modules are included in this release:
• FX3-QSFP28-6-50A
• FX3-QSFP28-6-100A
• FX3-QSFP28-6-125A
• FX3-QSFP28-6-150A • FX3-QSFP28-6-175A • FX3-QSFP28-6-225A
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Software Features
Spirent TestCenter Enhanced L4-7: New Hardware Support
Spirent Enhanced L4-7 support has been added for the following modules:
▪ MX2-10G-S4
▪ MX2-10G-S8
▪ MX2-10G-S12
▪ DX2-10GQ-C16
For the latest list of supported hardware, refer to FAQ18968.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Multi-Gig: 100M/1G/2.5G/5G/10G Support on FX2/MX2 1G/10G Load Modules and NIC-47
100M, 1G, 2.5G, 5G, and 10G speeds (using a Multi-Gig/NBASE-T SFP transceiver) are now
supported on Spirent FX2/MX2 1G/10G load modules and NIC-47. Only 2.5G and 5G speeds are
licensed based (chassis-based licenses).
Part Number Description
ACC-7103A MULTIGIG (IEEE P802.3BZ) SFP+ TRANSCEIVER FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G &
NIC-47, 30M
BPK-1367 2.5G CHASSIS BASED LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47
BPK-1368 5G CHASSIS BASED LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47
KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1367-8 2.5/5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47
KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1367 2.5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47
KIT-ACC-7103A-BPK-1368 5G SFP+ TRANSCVR (4) & LICENSE FOR FX2/MX2 1G/10G & NIC-47
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Control Plane Independent S-BFD Reflector Emulation
Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 adds support for control plane independent seamless bidirectional
forwarding detection (S-BFD) reflector emulation.
Seamless Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (S-BFD), is a simplified mechanism for using BFD
with a large proportion of negotiation aspects eliminated, thus providing benefits such as quick
provisioning, as well as improved control and flexibility for network nodes initiating path monitoring.
SBFD runs in an asymmetric behavior, using initiators and reflectors.
The initiator performs a continuity test to a remote reflector by sending S-BFD packets. The
initiator maintains the BFD state and client context. The reflector listens for incoming SBFD control
packets and generates S-BFD response control packets. The reflector is stateless and only reflects
the S-BFD packets back to the initiator.
Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 supports only S-BFD reflector device emulation. You can use PDU templates to create and send S-BFD packets as an initiator.
To use this feature, select the BFD protocol and create a BFD device first.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Select the “Enable S-BFD” checkbox to enable S-BFD on the emulated device.
You can then configure the source and destination MAC addresses, source and destination IPv4 or
IPv6 addresses, and IPv4 or IPv6 gateway addresses.
Launch the “BFD Control Plane Independent Session” configuration editor to add a control plane
independent BFD session, and then enable and set the value for “My Discriminator” field in the
session. The “My Discriminator” value must match the value of “Your Discriminator” in the S-BFD
session on the initiator.
You can view the statistics for transmitted, received, and dropped packets for each S-BFD session in TestCenter IQ.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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You can use PDU templates to create and send S-BFD packets as an initiator.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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ISIS Flex-Aglorithm Definition Flags Sub-TLV and Flex-Algorithm Prefix Metric Sub-TLV
Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 added support for flexible algorithm definition flags sub-TLV within
the ISIS flexible algorithm definition (FAD) sub-TLV.
To enable this feature, select an ISIS emulated device, then click the “Edit LSP/IIHs…” menu
option to launch the LSP editor.
Click an LSP, then select the “Capability TLV” tab. Click the “+Add Sub-TLV” option and the “+SR-
FAD Sub-TLV” option in the drop-down menu to add a flexible algorithm definition (FAD) sub-TLV.
You can then select the SR-FAD sub-TLV, click on the drop-down menu in the “Flex Algorithm
Sub-TLVs” column and select the checkbox for “Definition Flags.” You can then add flags in Hex
byte format separated by a comma. The default value for the definition flags is 0x80.
Spirent TestCenter release 5.05 also added support for ISIS flex-algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV
for both IPv4 and IPv6 prefixes.
To use this feature, click on an LSP, and then select the “IPv4 Routes” or “IPv6 Routes” tab. Click
on the ISIS route, click the “+Add Sub-TLV” option, and click “+Add Flex Algorithm Prefix Metric
Sub-TLV” option in the drop-down menu to add a flexible algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV.
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You can then set the values for the Algorithm and Metric fields.
You can customize the type value of Flex-Algorithm prefix metric sub-TLV in ISIS global options.
The default type value is 5.
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WPA3 and Enhanced Open for 802.11AX
The new WPA3 as the next generation of Wi-Fi security protocols and Enhanced Open securities
are now supported with 802.11ac Wave-2 gears and 802.11ax gears. The new WPA3 security
supports WPA2/WPA3 Personal and WPA3 Personal through a profile setting; WPA3 Enterprise
support over 802.11ax will be implemented in the next release. The GUI screen captures for both
WPA3 and Enhanced Open are shown below.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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802.11AX AP Emulation
Spirent TestCenter WLAN Wi-Fi 6 platforms including the Spirent C50 appliance and MX2 test
modules can now be configured to perform WLAN Access Point (AP) emulation for WLAN device
testing. An overview of the feature called Wi-Fi 6 AP emulation is summarized below:
▪ Support IEEE 802.11ax Standard
▪ Support either cabled conductive testing or a shielded RF environment such as an RF
chamber for OTA testing
▪ Emulate multiple virtual APs (SSIDs) from a single port
▪ Test WiFi devices such as smartphones, tablet, smartwatch, laptop, smart TV, etc. as
DUTs
▪ Add-on feature on the top of the Spirent TestCenter WLAN multi-client emulation platform
▪ Support on per port base configuration for either 2.4GHz or 5GHz radios
▪ Common Spirent TestCenter GUI with all protocols support over either wired (Ethernet) or
WLAN (wireless) interface
▪ Support both Spirent TestCenter traffic capability and iPerf traffic model
▪ Support both 802.3 and 802.11 packet capture in AP emulation mode
The following AP features are supported with AP emulation:
▪ Number of SSIDs (up to 16 on the same radio)
▪ Network Names (SSIDs)
▪ Various personal WPA/WPA2 and WPA3 (licensed) security and encryption support
▪ Channel number
▪ Channel bandwidth (20MHz, 40MHz, 80MHz, 80+80MHz, 160MHz)
▪ MCS Type, CTS/RTS, beacon internal, guard Time Interval
▪ Rate adaptation and rate selection
▪ TX power attenuation (up to 16dB internal TX power attenuation)
▪ Channel attenuation up to 63.5dB on per chain
▪ Support 4x4 MIMO with 3-radio profile and 8x8 MIMO with 2-radio profile
▪ Explicit Beamforming, SU-MIMO and MU-MIMO
▪ DL/UL OFDMA, DL MU-MIMO
▪ Other 802.11ax features such BSS color code and TWT
▪ DFS test mode and channel switching
▪ Different Country/Region support
Introducing the feature of Wi-Fi 6 AP emulation enables Spirent TestCenter Wi-Fi 6 test tools for
WLAN device testing on both functional and performance. This covers a wide range of device test
cases; for example:
▪ Wi-Fi 6 functional and throughput performance
▪ New Wi-Fi 6 features such as 1024GAM, OFDMA, Mu-MIMO, BSS color, TWT, etc.
▪ Both control and data plane features and performance of WiFi devices
▪ Device Personal and Enterprise security (802.1x) type
▪ Impact of WiFi noise on the same or adjunct RF channel
▪ Device stability testing
▪ Interwork with various mixes of different 802.11 mode clients
▪ Benchmark or baseline for UDP and TCP throughput in uni-directional or bi-directional
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▪ RFC-style testing with clients across APs through the RF interface
▪ Throughput versus packet size, IPv4, IPv6, DHCP performance
▪ Device roaming testing
▪ Rate versus range (RSSI, pathloss) testing
The AP emulation is a licensed feature. You can order using the part numbers listed below for
each Spirent TestCenter WLAN platform.
Part Number Description Platform
BPK-5001 WIFI AP Emulation Package for Spirent TestCenter Test Module
C50-BPK-5001 WIFI AP Emulation Package for Spirent TestCenter C50 C50
80 Emulated Clients per Radio
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 release supports 80 emulated client counts per radio, for either the 11ax C50 appliance or the 11ax MX2 test module.
1588 Timespan View: IL Buffering
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 release supports the capability of logging a user-defined number of packets to be captured for post-mortem analysis, whenever the time offset is outside a particular range, defined by maximum and minimum values.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Sequence Numbers/Drop Frames (higher rates)
When this feature was introduced with Spirent TestCenter release 5.04, it was limited to 1pps.
Release 5.05 now introduces support for this feature with higher data rates.
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Spirent TestCenter IQ Events Enhancements
Spirent TestCenter and TestCenter IQ release 5.05 introduces integrated event management. The
high-performance events framework captures the events generated in real time by the running
Spirent TestCenter application. You can view and manage these events using the rich set of tools
included in TestCenter IQ. For example, you can –
• be notified of new events via an intuitive events dashboard
• browse, sort, and filter events generated by various protocols, test modules, and chassis hardware
• view the events in time series charts, along with any other counters you choose
• see cumulative counts of different events on the events dashboard
• acknowledge events
The powerful events management feature provides an array of benefits:
• Rapid fault isolation, resulting in faster defect resolution times
• OpEx savings due to faster test completion times
• Faster development cycles due to ease of debugging
Spirent TestCenter 5.05 New Features
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Spirent Support
To obtain technical support for Spirent Communications products, please contact our Support
Services department using any of the following methods:
Americas
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://support.spirent.com
Toll Free: +1 800-SPIRENT (+1 800-774-7368) (North America)
Phone: +1 818-676-2616
Hours: Monday through Friday, 05:00 to 17:00 Pacific Time
Europe, Middle East, Africa
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://support.spirent.com
Phone: +33 (1) 6137 2270 (France)
Phone: +44 1803 546333 (UK)
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 09:00 to 18:00, 9:00 to 17:00 Friday, Paris Time
Asia Pacific
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://support.spirent.com
Phone: +86 (400) 810-9529 (toll-free mainland China only)
Phone: +86 (10) 8233 0033 (China)
Operating Hours: Monday through Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 Beijing Time
Company Address
Spirent Communications, Inc.
27349 Agoura Road
Calabasas, CA 91301
USA
The latest versions of user manuals, application notes, and software and firmware updates are
available on the Spirent Communications Customer Service Center website at
https://support.spirent.com.
Information about Spirent Communications and its products and services can be found on the main
company website at https://www.spirent.com.
© 2019 All of the company names and/or brand names and/or product names referred to in this document, in particular,
the name “Spirent” and its logo device, are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Spirent plc and its subsidiaries,
pending registration in accordance with relevant national laws. All other registered trademarks or trademarks are the
property of their respective owners.