Abstract

Spirent Communications commissioned The Tolly Group to evaluate the scalability produced by clustering its SmartBits, a high port-density network performance analysis system. The SmartBits tests 10/100/1,000 and 10-Gigabit Ethernet, ATM, POS, Fibre Channel, Frame Relay networks and network devices. The SmartBits features test applications for xDSL, cable modem, IP QoS, VoIP, MPLS, IP Multicast, TCP/IP, IPv6, routing, SAN, VPN, Web and security.

The Tolly Group examined the impact of clustering 11 SmartBits 6000C chassis, each with 40 Gigabit Ethernet ports, to drive a very large-scale LAN infrastructure to peak levels – in this case a Nortel Terabit Cluster Solution. This test was designed to measure the performance of the Nortel Terabit Cluster Solution. As a result, the performance result is indicative of the maximum performance of the Nortel Terabit Cluster Solution and hence does not necessarily reflect the maximum scalability performance of the SmartBits. The Spirent SmartBits can be used for Layer 4-7 network testing using appropriate software such as SmartBits WebSuite and AvalancheSMB, but this report has focused on the SmartBit’s scalability and Layer 2-3 testing performance along with the SmartFlow application.