The FTB-85100G Packet Blazer also supports OTU4/OTU3 bit-error-rate testing (BERT) and ODUmuxing capabilities for 100G/40G transponder and muxponder qualification in network equipment manufacturer (NEM) labs as well as for optical transport network (OTN) turn-up in the field. Its FPGA-based architecture ensures rapid and seamless incorporation of updates as the standard is ratified and refined, protecting your testing investment without sacrificing timely support of features and functions.
All existing and newly developed testing capabilities are available via an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) and through software keys for field upgrades. No additional hardware or shipping to manufacturer is required.
Optical Transport Network (OTN) Testing
OTN (ITU-T G.709) is the transport technology of choice for 100G/40G Ethernet traffic over the core network because of its operation, administration, maintenance and provisioning (OAM&P) capability for troubleshooting and maintenance as well as its forward error correction (FEC) mechanism for performance enhancement.
The FTB-85100G Packet Blazer supports numerous OTN testing capabilities, enabling breakthrough level qualification of 100G and 40G transponders and muxponders in NEM labs. These capabilities include OTU4 (112 Gbit/s) and OTU3 (43 Gbit/s) full line-rate testing with OTN framing and FEC testing as per ITU-T G.709, over-clocked OTU3 including OTU3e1 (44.57 Gbit/s) and OTU3e2 (44.58 Gbit/s), 100G/40G Ethernet mapping over OTU4/OTU3, single and multistage ODU multiplexing as well as OTN service disruption time (SDT) measurements.
EXFO’s FTB-85100G Packet Blazer supports ODU0 and ODU multiplexing into ODU4/ODU3, among many other multiplexing schemes, in order to address the growing demand for Ethernet service turn-up and to prove that new 100G/40G circuits are capable of handling all future services.
100G/40G Ethernet Mapping over OTU4/OTU3
EXFO’s FTB-85100G Packet Blazer offers the 100G/40G Ethernet mapping capability over OTU4/OTU3 through the EoOTN software option. This is a key testing capability that allows NEMs to qualify their 100G/40G transponder development, such as mapping and demapping capabilities as well as client signal timing transparency. It also provides the 40 GigE specific transcoding capability that must to be qualified to ensure that the 40 GigE frame is properly transcoded from 64B/66B to 1024B/1027B and properly mapped into the OTU3 (43G) standard frame.
Moreover, the FTB-85100G’s EoOTN capability is key for service providers who need to commission their OTNs. Thanks to the FTB-85100G Packet Blazer, they can now map 100G/40G EoOTN with different traffic characteristics, run end-to-end BER tests across an OTN and measure the ratio of error bits to the number of bits sent. In this testing configuration, the FTB-85100G Packet Blazer module provides complete analysis of the OTN transport layers, including OTU/ODU/OPU and GMP statistics to ensure proper recovery of the client signal at the receive end. EXFO’s EoOTN testing capability also validates the 100G/40G Ethernet traffic transmission with 100% throughput and ensures that latency does not impact service providers’ service-level agreements (SLAs) with their customers, making Ethernet performance validation essential.
Ethernet Performance Validation
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has put together a test methodology to address the issues of performance verification at the layer 2 and 3 levels. RFC 2544, Benchmarking Methodology for Network-Interconnect Devices, specifies the requirements and procedures to test throughput (performance availability), back-to-back frames (link burstability), frame loss (service integrity) and latency (transmission delay).
The FTB-85100G Packet Blazer can perform the RFC 2544 test suite for 100G and 40G Ethernet interfaces at all frame sizes and at full-line rate, allowing service providers to certify that the circuit is efficient and error-free at 100% utilization. It supports automated RFC 2544 testing, which helps ensure repeatable results. In addition, the RFC 2544 testing capability of the FTB-85100G comes with five Smart Loopback modes. So, whether you are looking to pinpoint loopback traffic from a UDP or TCP layer, or all the way down to a completely promiscuous mode (Transparent Loopback mode), it has the flexibility to adjust to all loopback situations.
The unique Smart Loopback capability of the FTB-85100G gives service providers access to perform end-to-end testing where the remote unit will return traffic to the local unit by swapping packet overhead up to layer 4 of the OSI stack. The Packet Blazer’s full automation makes the field technician’s job easier by generating accurate, efficient measurements as well as full testing reports that can be given to customers for future reference related to their specific SLAs.
Signal Conditioning
EXFO’s FTB-85100G Packet Blazer module offers a signal-conditioning tool to characterize the electrical CAUI/XLAUI and physical lanes as well as to troubleshoot electrical-level issues on standard optical interfaces used within 100G/40G systems. This capability provides direct access to amplitude and pre/post-emphasis control of the 10G electrical CAUI/XLAUI lane transmitters, as well as equalization correction at the receivers. The signal-conditioning interface provides access to the electrical parameters, enabling users to better compensate for signal integrity issues or modify specific electrical parameters to observe the effects of stressing the pluggable optical device. By having the ability to modify signal parameters with a wide dynamic range of amplitude, pre-emphasis and equalization controls, CFP manufacturers can evaluate and optimize the performance of their modules.