Xena2544 Reference Manual

Introduction

This is the Reference Manual for the Xena2544 test application. It is part of a series of pages – the parent manual page for the Xena2544 test application can be found here. For a few Getting Started examples on how to use the Xena2544 please refer to this page.

Overview

The main Xena2544 application screen is shown in the image below.

The application is using a tabbed panel layout in order to divide the functionality into separate functional areas. The following sections will provide a brief explanation of the main areas of the GUI.

Menubar and Toolbar

The menubar at the top provides access to general functionality:

Menu item	Explanation
File	Contains options to load and save test configurations. Also contains a “Most Recently Used” list of the last 4 test configurations you have opened.
Edit	Contains options to specify and edit the Xena tester chassis used by the test configuration.
View	Enables you to show or hide the various panels in the application.
Test Control	Contains options to start, stop or cancel the execution of a test configuration.
Options	Contains various application-level options for the Xena2544 application. These options are thus not associated with individual test configurations but are valid for the application as a whole.
Help	Provides links online manuals (such as this manual)

The toolbar provides easy shortcuts to the most frequently used menu functions.

Application Panels

The application panels are contained in the tabbed panel which takes up the center part of the GUI.

Panel	Explanation
Start Page	This panel contains a short Quick Start guide. Once you feel that this information is no longer needed you can close the panel using the small ‘x’ at the right of the panel bar.
Test Configuration	This panel contains all test configuration options. It is sub-divided into tree sub-panels.
Selected Ports	This panel allows you to include Xena testports in your test and to configure the behavior of these ports.
Protocol Segment Profiles	This panel allow you to configure the various protocol segment profiles in the configuration. You can modify existing profiles, add new profiles, and also remove profiles you do not need.
Reporting Options	This panel contains configuration options related to reporting of test results.

The function of the various panels are explained in more detail in the following sections.

Status Line

The status line at the bottom provides information about the current test progress. It contains the following fields:

Field	Explanation
Progress Bar:	Shows the progress of the current test. The number of “steps” in the progress bar is the total number of trials in the test, which is equal to the number of iterations multiplied with the number of frame sizes defined. For tests using a predefined rate sweep vector (latency, loss and back-to-back) the number of rates are also factored in.
Information:	A text field showing the current activity of the test.
Test State:	A state field showing whether the test is running or not.
Test Time:	Shows the total elapsed test time, including delays between test trials.
Duration:	Show the duration progress for the current test trial. When traffic is not enabled the text is grayed out.
User:	The username for the current chassis session.

Physical Ports Panel

This panel displays all available ports on the currently connected Xena chassis. It is possible to connect to multiple Xena chassis at the same time.

It also allows you to perform the following actions:

• View the current sync (link) and traffic state of the ports.
• View the current ownership of the ports.
• Request or relinquish ownership of ports.
• Determine which ports are used in the test configuration.

Port States

The column to the right of the port names contain two state bullet icons.

The first bullet indicate the port sync (link) state. A green bullet means that the port is in sync and a red bullet means that the port has lost sync.

The second bullet indicate the traffic state. A yellow bullet means that traffic is being sent from the port. A gray bullet means that no traffic is active.

Using Ports in Your Test

Right-clicking on a port allow you to either add or remove the port from the test configuration. If you use either or to select multiple ports it is possible to add or remove multiple ports at the same time. Right-clicking on a module allow you to add/remove all ports on that module.

Instead of right-clicking on ports you can also select and drag the ports to the Selected Ports panel.

Port Ownership

The right-most column display the username of the current port owner. Ports that are free (i.e,. not owned by anyone) are displayed with a normal font. Ports that are owned by you are displayed with a bold font. Port owned by other users are displayed using a gray font.

You can reserve or relinquish ownership of a port by right-clicking on it and selecting the appropriate action. It is also possible to right-click on a module to perform the same operations on all ports on the module.

Note that the Xena2544 will automatically reserve ownership of used ports when a test is started.

Test Configuration Panel

This panel contains all properties related to the execution of the tests.

Topology and Frame Content

Test Topology

These properties define the topology and direction of the test traffic:

• Pairs: Each testport is placed in either the East or the West block. Then the ports are paired together two and two. Traffic is only flowing between paired ports. The Direction option determines which ports will be transmitting.
• Blocks: Each testport is placed in either the East or the West block. Every port in the transmitting block sends traffic to every port in the other block. The Direction option determines if only one block or both will be transmitting.
• Mesh: All testports send traffic to all other testports. The Direction option is ignored as Mesh traffic is always bidirectional.

Frame Sizes

This section allow you to specify the frame sizes to be used by the various tests. The available frame size options are divided into two groups, the “Fixed Sizes Per Trial” and the “Varying Sizes Per Trial”.

As the name indicates the “Fixed Sizes Per Trial” group uses a single frame size per trial. It is possible to specify multiple frame sizes which will cause the test to be repeated for each frame size.

The “Varying Sizes Per Trial” group will use many frame sizes for each trial. This is controlled by the hardware. Note that when calculating bitrates the average frame size will be used.

Frame Test Payload

The normal Xena test payload (TPLD) section takes up 20 bytes and is used for various purposes, such as latency measurements, loss and misordering monitoring, payload integrity, etc. Due to this test payload it may be impossible to make room for protocol headers such as IPv4+UDP for smaller framesizes (e.g. ~64 byte).

By enabling the Use Micro-TPLD if needed option you permit Xena2544 to use the smaller “micro”-TPLD if needed by the current framesize. The consequence of this will be that realtime monitoring of packet loss is no longer possible.

Note that Xena2544 will only use the micro-TPLD for a testrun if the current framesize requires it. If you for instance use the default IEEE packet size distribution you may encounter that the micro-TPLD is only used for 64 byte packets but not for the other packet sizes.

The Payload Type property defines the type of test payload in the frames generated by the testports. If the payload type is set to “Pattern” you can specify the pattern in the Pattern field.

Test Execution Control

Flow Creation

These properties determines how the test flows between ports are created.

Stream-Based Flows

The default Stream-based setting will use one Xena stream for each flow from one port to another. This enables fine-grained per-port statistics and also allow you to specify field modifiers for various protocol fields. But as the number of streams that can be created on each test port is limited (see below) this will limit the total number of testports in your configuration.

The TID Alloc.Scope property determines how Xena2544 allocates test payload identifier (TID) values.

• Configuration Scope: Allocates a unique TID value for each stream created. This option ensures that only packets intended for a given port is taken into account. The downside is that for large configurations you may quickly run out of TID values due to hardware constraints.
• Rx Port Scope: Allocate TIDs so that all streams received on any given port have a unique TID. TID values are reused between ports. This allow for larger configurations but the test is no longer able to detect if packets are mis-delivered by the DUT.
• Source Port ID: Allocate TIDs so that all streams from a given port is set equal to the port index in the configuration. This is a slight variation of the previous method.

Modifier-Based Flows

If you encounter the above mentioned limitations in a layer-2 test you can select the Modifier-based option instead. In this mode the Xena2544 will use a single stream for all flows from one port instead of one stream for every flow between two ports.

This will cause the Xena2544 to create the traffic flows using so-called modifiers instead of using streams (refer to the XenaManager documentation for details about this). This option will however force the Xena2544 to override the native port MAC addresses. The user can specify the 3 upper bytes of the MAC address using the MAC Base Address option but the lower part of the address will be assigned sequentially.

The modifier-based option is not available for layer-3 tests as we cannot emulate multiple MAC addresses the Xena2544 needs to

Port Scheduling

If enabled the Speed Reduction Sweep property will assign a small speed reduction value to each port on a test module, so that each port on the module will get a different value. This property is available for Blocks and Mesh topologies.

If the Use Port Sync. Start option is checked the Start button will activate a synchronized port start mechanism for the ports – if the chassis firmware version supports this feature.

The Port Stagger Steps property delays start of traffic generation on one port relative to pressing Start button. The delay is programmed in steps of 64 microseconds. The Port Stagger function will work between ports on test modules installed in the same chassis. First port will not be delayed. Second port will be delayed with the Port Stagger Steps. Third port will be delayed with the Port Stagger Steps * 2. Fourth port will be delayed with the Port Stagger Steps * 3 etc. Maximum Port Stagger Steps value for a port is 31250. Therefore the programmed Port Stagger Steps must not exceed 31250/(number of ports). NB: This requires that “Use Port Sync Start” has been checked.

The Resulting Delta is Port Stagger Steps * 64 microseconds

MAC Learning Options

The MAC Learning Mode property can be used to instruct the testers to emit initial MAC learning packets in order for any network switches to learn the MAC addresses of the ports and avoid excessive flooding of packets. You can specify if you want MAC learning to be performed either at the start of every trial (the default), once when the test starts or not at all. You can also specify how many time each learning packet will be repeated every time with the Learning Frame Count option.

If the Toggle Sync State property is checked the sync state for all selected ports will be toggled off and on at the start of each test trial. This may ensure that the DUTs MAC-tables are cleared at the start of each test. The Sync State Off Period is the number of seconds to keep the port sync state off.

ARP/NDP Learning

This set of options control how the Xena tester advertises the IP addresses configured for its ports. The tester will use ARP for IPv4 and NDP for IPv6. If the Enable Refresh checkbox is checked the tester will periodically emit ARP requests (for IPv4) or Neighbor Advertisement requests (for IPv6). The period can be set using the Refresh Period field. This will prevent the ARP/NDP caches in the attached router from timing out during long test period thus causing a packet loss.

If the test uses multiple ports and/or you have used modifiers to emulate multiple IP address on one port the number of periodic refresh requests may be large. The tester will retransmit all refresh requests within the specified period, but it will not send them all in one batch. The tester will distribute the necessary requests evenly over the specified period.

When the GW MAC as DMAC checkbox is checked valkyrie2544 will use the ARP-resolved gateway MAC address as DMAC address for test packets. This is only relevant for IP traffic where the test ports belong to different IP subnets and the traffic needs to go through an IP router.

Flow-Based Learning

This section contains a few properties that are mainly useful when working with flow-based switches.

The Use Flow-Based Learning Preamble property will make the Xena2544 emit a brief traffic preamble before starting the actual test. This can be used to ensure that the flow-based switch has learned all necessary addresses. The Learning Frame Count controls how many frames are sent in the preamble. The Delay After Preamble determines the size of the period between the preamble and the start of the actual test traffic.

Reset and Error Handling

If Stop on LOS is enabled, Xena2544 will abort the test if a port loses the sync state during test.

When a Xena2544 test is started, the selected ports will be reset to ensure a known starting point for the test. The Delay After Reset parameter defines how long time Xena2544 will wait after the reset before it continues with the test.

Test Types Configuration

This subpanel defines which RFC 2544 tests would want to perform and also allow you to configure how you want them executed.

To inspect and optionally change the test properties for each test, select the test in the treeview. The test properties will now be shown in the panel to the right.

The checkbox to the left of the test name in the treeview determines whether the test is executed or not.

Common Properties

All four test types share these properties.

Property	Explanation
Duration:	The duration of each test trial in seconds.
Iterations:	The number of times to repeat each test trial with the same set of test parameters.

Throughput Test Properties

Property	Explanation
Initial Rate:	The starting rate in percent used by the iteration.
Minimum Rate:	The minimum rate in percent. If the iteration reaches this value the test will be FAILed.
Maximum Rate:	The maximum rate in percent. If the iteration reaches this value the test will PASS.
Resolution Rate:	Defines the minimum difference between two rate iterations. If the difference between the next and the last rate iteration is less than this value the test is stopped and the last successful rate is reported.
Use Pass Threshold:	Selecting this property will allow you to specify a pass threshold value. If the test result is below this threshold the tested will be FAILed.
Pass Threshold:	The pass threshold explained above.
Acceptable Loss:	Allow you to specify an acceptable loss in percent of the port rate. Normally this would be zero but for certain network types (such as satellite links) a certain amount of frame loss is acceptable.
Rate Result Scope:	Determines the scope of the rate result. The Common Result setting will iterate towards a single throughput rate result for all ports, which will be the lowest common rate found. This is the default setting. If the Per Source-Port Result setting is selected the Xena2544 will attempt to iterate a separate rate value for each source port. This will obviously produce a (potentially different) result for each source port.
Enable Fast Search:	The default iteration algorithm used is a standard binary search, where the next attempted rate is found as the mean value of the sum of last passed and the last failed rate. If the fast search property is enabled the algorithm will take the measured loss rate into account when iterating down.This may in many cases result in a substantial reduction in the number of trials needed to reach the throughput rate result.

Latency & Jitter Test Properties

Property	Explanation
Start Rate:	The starting rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
End Rate:	The ending rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
Step Rate:	The increments in rate percent for each step in the rate sweep.
Latency Mode:	The latency mode used when measuring the latency.
Relative to Throughput:	If checked the starting and ending rates will be calculated relative to the result from a preceding throughput test for the same frame size. If the throughput test has not been performed in the same test or the throughput test has been performed with rate result scope set to Per Source-Port Result this setting is ignored.

Frame Loss Rate Test Properties

Property	Explanation
Start Rate:	The starting rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
End Rate:	The ending rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
Step Rate:	The increments in rate percent for each step in the rate sweep.
Use Pass/Fail Threshold:	Selecting this property will allow you to specify an Acceptable Loss value. If the test result is above this value the tested will be FAILed.
Acceptable Loss:	Allow you to specify an acceptable loss in percent of the port rate or as a frame count. Normally this would be zero but for certain network types (such as satellite links) a certain amount of frame loss is acceptable.
Gap Monitor Enable1:	Selecting this property adds Gap Monitoring to the Frame Loss Rate Test. With this convergence time can be measured. The result will appear in the final report.
Gap Monitor Start1:	Specifies the time period with no packets received that will trigger the gap monitor start.
Gap Monitor Stop1:	Specifies the number of packets to receive to stop the gap monitor.

¹Requires Software Release 77

Back-to-Back Test Properties

Property	Explanation
Start Rate:	The starting rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
End Rate:	The ending rate in percent of the port rate used by the rate sweep.
Step Rate:	The increments in rate percent for each step in the rate sweep.
Burst Resolution:	Defines the minimum difference between two burst size iterations. If the difference between the next and the last burst size iteration is less than this value the test is stopped and the last successful burst size is reported.

Selected Ports Panel

This panel allows you to control which ports are used in the test and also to configure the port properties. The most common port properties are available in the top port grid whereas other port properties are available in the tabbed view at the bottom.

Port Grid

The grid view at the top of the panel shows the ports that have been selected for use in the test.

Adding or Removing Ports

You can add ports to the test configuration as described in the Physical Ports Panel section above.

To remove one or more ports form the test configuration select the ports and press the Remove Port(s) button in the toolbar below the grid. Alternative you can right-click on the selected ports and select the Remove Port(s) popup menu item.

Port Grid Columns

The grid view contains the following columns:

Column	Explanation
Port Name	The name (ID and type) of the port.
Port Speed	The physical port speed to use in the test. Normally this should be left at the default AUTO value, but certain DUTs require that the port speed is fixed to a specific rate.
IP Address	The IP address that you want to use for the port. (*)
Prefix	The decimal network prefix for the address. (*)
Gateway Address	The gateway address for the assigned IP address. This field may be left empty if the ports are located on the same IP subnet. (*)
Protocol Segment Profile	The protocol segment profile to use for this port. Profiles can be created, edited and deleted in the separate Protocol Segment Profiles panel.

(*) These columns are only enabled if the selected protocol segment profile defines an IPv4 or IPv6 segment.

Port Properties Panel

Below the grid view you will find a tabbed panel containing less-frequently-used port properties.

Main Port Properties

Physical Port Properties

Property	Explanation
Inter-Frame Gap:	Specifies the minimum gap between frames generated for a port, expressed as a number of bytes.
Speed Reduction:	Specifies an optional speed reduction on the transmit side of the port, expressed as a ppm value.
Enable PAUSE Mode:	Controls whether the port responds to incoming PAUSE frames.
Enable Auto-Negotiation:	Controls whether auto-negotiation for the port is enabled or not.
Latency Offset:	An optional offset in nanoseconds for the port which is used for latency measurements. You can measure an appropriate value for this by looping two testports together and performing a latency test. The resulting average latency of this test should be zero. If this is not the case you can adjust the Latency Offset value until you reach a zero value. Then you can use the calibrated value in other tests.

Port Rate Cap

Property	Explanation
Rate Cap Type:	Allow you to specify a rate cap type for the port. If enabled the port rate will be capped with the value specified. No changes are performed to the port physical rate (use the Port Speed property described above for that). Instead the capped rate is used when calculating the port rates, frames to transmit, etc. It is possible to specify custom rate cap profiles which may show up in this control. See below for instructions.
Rate Cap Value:	The port cap value and unit to use if the Rate Cap Type property is set to Custom Rate Cap.

Peer Negotiation

Property	Explanation
Enable Auto Negotiation:	If checked the port will respond to incoming auto-negotiation frames.
MDI/MDIX Mode:	Enables control over the port MDI/MDIX mode.

Address Properties

Public Address

Property	Explanation
Public IP Address:	If a port is located behind a NAT firewall/router it may be necessary to provide the public IP address offered by the NAT firewall/router. The Xena2544 will then perform an ARP request for the public IP address before starting the test, in order to avoid packet loss due to an initial ARP phase. The real (internal) IP address of the port must still be configured in the main port grid as this may be used to send Gratuitous ARP packets from the port to the router before starting the test.
Public IP Prefix:	The network prefix value for the public IP address.

Remote Loop Address

Property	Explanation
Remote Loop IP Address:	When a port with layer-3 protocol segments (IPv4/IPv6) has been configured as a looped port you must specify the IP address of the remote port so that the Xena tester can perform an ARP request for the MAC address.
Remote Loop MAC Address:	When a port with pure layer-2 protocol segments (Ethernet + optional VLAN) has been configured as a looped port you must specify the MAC address of the remote loop port to avoid excessive flooding.

Changing Settings on Multiple Ports

It is possible to change properties on multiple ports at the same time by selecting multiple ports in the grid view and then changing settings in either the grid view or the detailed settings panel below the grid.

You can select multiple ports using standard Windows Explorer-shortcuts like or . You can also use the Select All Ports or Deselect All Buttons buttons the toolbar below the grid to control the port selection state.

The only setting that does not allow this is the IP address field, as this must always be a unique value.

Custom Rate Cap Profiles

You can define your own custom rate cap profiles for use with the port configuration panel. This allow you to define convenient shortcuts for commonly used rates, such as SONET or SDH payload containers.

Profile Location

The custom profiles must be contained in a text file called “ratecapprofiles.json”, which must be located in the Profiles directory. To browse the select the Explore Xena Data Directory in the Xena2544 File menu.

On initial startup the Xena2544 will write a file called “ratecapprofiles.json.template” to the Profiles directory. You should make a copy of this file, rename the copy to “ratecapprofiles.json” and use this copy as the basis for your custom profiles. You can edit the file in any text editor, such as the standard Windows Notepad.

Adding Profiles

Each rate cap profile must look like the following fragment:

{
   "DisplayLabel": "STS1-2v",
   "PortRateCapValue": 96768000,
   "InterFrameGap": 8
},

Field	Explanation
DisplayLabel:	A text label that describes your profile. This label must be unique and will be used in the Xena2544 dropdown box that allows you to select between the rate cap profiles.
PortRateCapValue:	The rate cap value for the profile in bit/s.
InterFrameGap:	The interframe gap value used to calculate the corresponding Ethernet layer 1 rate.

All rate cap profiles must be encapsulated in a set of square parentheses [ …. ].

Multi-Stream Configuration

Overview

The default behaviour of Xena2544 is to create a single stream between any two port pairs. Sometimes it is however required to exercise the values of certain address fields in the protocol headers in order to emulate many more clients than the physical port count allows. The multi-stream function can be used to achieve this.

When enabled the multi-stream function will use a number of streams to implement the flow between any two port pairs. The source and destination addresses in the streams will be varied based on certain configuration parameters.

User Interface 

The multi-stream function is enabled and configured in the Multi-Stream Configuration tab, as shown below.

The top Configuration section contains the configurable parameters.

Below the configuration setting is a table which shows a preview of the resulting streams with the current configuration parameter values. Each row in the table represents a “stream endpoint connection” which denotes the logical connection between two testport pairs. The connection can be unidirectional in which case it will consist of a single stream, created on the source port. Or it can be bidirectional, in which case it will consist of two streams, i.e. one stream created on each port.

The columns in the table show the actual values used for each stream endpoint connection. For an IP configuration the Address columns will show the resulting IP addresses. If the configuration uses pure layer-2 segment profiles (no IP segment) the Address columns will show the resulting MAC addresses.

The total number of streams that will be generated is shown at the top of the table.

Configuration Parameters

The actual configuration parameters are described below.

Parameter	Explanation
Enable Multi-Streams:	Checking this option will enable the multi-stream function for the current Xena2544 configuration.
Stream Count Per Port-Pair:	This value sets the stream count per port pair.
Address Offset:	The offset from zero (0) used when auto-generating the incrementing addresses. This can be used to avoid using the default gateway for an IP subnet (which usually is xxx.xxx.xxx.1).
Address Increment:	The incrementing value used when auto-generating the addresses.
MAC Address Prefix:	The MAC address prefix used when auto-generating the MAC addresses. This can be used to avoid collision with the factory-assigned Xena testport MAC addresses.

Protocol Segment Profiles Panel

This panel allows you to configure the protocol segment profiles used by the test ports. You can either use a single common profile for all ports or use a separate profile for each port. In this way you can define an asymmetric traffic setup.

Available Profiles List 

The listview at the top show all defined profiles.

Managing Profiles

You can create and delete profiles to match the need of the current test scenario. To create a new profile press the Add Profile button. To delete a profile select it in the listview and press the Remove Profile button.

You can however not delete a profile that is currently being used by a testport. You can see the number of testports currently using a profile in the Use Count column in the listview at the top. To delete a profile that is in use you will first have to reassign all ports currently using that profile to another profile.

Default Profiles

When you create a new Xena2544 configuration it will be populated with a number of default profiles. You can however freely modify and even delete one or more of the default profiles.

If for some reason you want to restore the default profiles you can press the Restore Default Profiles button. This will unconditionally remove all current profiles (also those that are in use) and restore the default set. All test ports will be associated with the first default “Ethernet-only” profile.

Profile Editor

You can edit each profile by selecting it in the top listview and using the treeview control below.

Add and Remove Segment Headers

To add a new segment header press the Add button in the Segments section to the right. You will then be presented with a dialog listing all built-in segment types from which you can select one or more types to be included. If you want to use a segment not currently supported by the Xena2544 you can add a raw segment and specify the length in bytes. You can then afterward edit the values in the resulting segment using the hex editor at the bottom.

You can remove one or more segments by selecting them and pressing the Remove button in the Segments section. You can change the order in which the segment headers appear by using the Move Up/Down buttons.

The Xena2889 will automatically adjust the value of any standard “next-protocol” field (such as the EtherType field) in the segment headers when other segments are added, removed or moved.

Editing Field Values

The segment editor provides a treeview similar to the one found in the Wireshark protocol analyzer. You can thus expand each segment branch to view and optionally modify the various field values. Each field title is preceded with a small icon indicating the type of field value (decimal, hexadecimal, binary or IPv4/IPv6 address).

Certain fields, such as the EtherType, are associated with a set of commonly used named values. These can be selected in the Named Values column. You are however free to enter any value you want in the Raw Value column.

You can also edit the hex value of the segment headers directly using the hex editor at the bottom if you are so inclined.

MAC and IP Addesses

The address fields in the Ethernet and IP section headers will usually be overridden by the Xena2544 when the teststreams are created:

• The Source MAC (SMAC) address field in the first Ethernet segment will be set to the MAC address of the source port.
• The Destination MAC (DMAC) address field in the first Ethernet segment will be set to the MAC address of the destination port. If an IP segment has been defined and a gateway IP address is defined for a source port, the Xena2544 will however attempt to resolve the MAC address of the gateway using ARP or NDP and will then use this MAC address as the DMAC.
• The IP Source/Destination Address fields in the IP segment header will be set to the values configured on the ports, as explained in the Selected Ports panel section above.
  This replacement will however only be performed if you leave the fields at their default (all-zeros) value. If you specify anything else this value will be used instead.

  Modifiers

  It is possible to attach a modifier definition to one or more fields. A modifier will exercise the field with various values during the test and can be used to emulate a certain dynamic behavior. Modifiers are often used to exercise either the VLAN PCP or the IP DHCP fields. Alternatively one could apply modifiers to address fields like the DMAC field or the source or destination IP address fields.

  Adding a Modifier

  To add a modifier to a field simply select the field and press the Add Modifier button in the command panel to the right or right-click and select the Add Modifier popup menu option. A Create New Modifier dialog will now be shown. The content of the dialog will depend on the type of field. Most fields will use the Basic Modifier dialog shown below to the left. If the selected field is an IP address the IP Modifier dialog shown below to the right will be used instead.

  

  Fill in the various field values and press the OK button to add the modifier to the field. Once a modifier has been added to a field this will be indicated by a small blue ‘M’ icon as shown in the screenshot above.

  Editing a Modifier

  To edit an existing modifier either select the field and press the Edit Modifier button in the command panel to the right, or right-click and select the Edit Modifier popup menu option. You will see the same dialog as was used to create the modifier.

  Removing a Modifier

  If you want to remove a modifier from a field simply select the field and press the Remove Modifier button in the command panel to the right, or right-click and select the Remove Modifier popup menu option.

  Limitations

  There is a limitation on the maximum number of modifiers that can be defined for each test stream. The limitation is specific for the test module type to which the port belongs. Refer to the Xena Test Module Comparison Page for further details.

  Value Ranges

  A Value Range is intended to exercise one or more fields in a Xena2544 protocol segment profiles with varying values. It is kind of similar to the hardware modifier explained above, with the following differences:

  • A Modifier is handled by hardware and varies a field value between packets on the same stream.
  • A Value Range is handled by software and varies a field value between different streams. All packets on the same stream have the same value.

  A Value Range is defined on a field in a protocol segment profile, just like a modifier. It will then be used for all streams created on a port which is assigned this profile.

  Value ranges can be used for both normal single-stream and advanced multi-stream scenarios. For normal scenarios it is most applicable for mesh configurations where multiple streams will be created on each port.

  There is no limit to the number of values ranges added to a configuration. It is also possible to add both a modifier and a value range to a field. Whether that would yield usable results is unclear but it might be useful for larger fields.

  PCAP Imports

  You can import the protocol segment structure from a PCAP file captured using Wireshark or any other capture application capable of generating a standard PCAP file. If the file contains multiple packets Xena2544 will display a list allowing you to select the desired packet.

  Xena2544 will attempt to decode the packet and display the known protocol headers and their fields. Any unknown fields will be displayed as a raw segment. As there are limitations in the max.size of a custom segment the import may not be possible in some cases. The import dialog will inform you about this if the situation arises.

  
  
  

  Reporting Options Panel

  The Reporting Options panel contains a number of options that affect the way reports are generated for the test.

  Report Identification

  This section contains a number of options that can help identify the test context.

  • Customer Name: The name of the customer for which the test is performed.
  • Customer Service/Access Id: These two options allow you to provide details about the network circuits you are testing.
  • Comments: Allows you to provide any multi-line comments for the test configuration.

  Report Generation Options

  This section contains options that affect the way reports are generated.

  Report Naming

  • Report Filename Prefix: Specifies the prefix for the report filename.
  • Append Timestamp to Filename: If checked a timestamp on the form is appended to the filename prefix.

  Report Content

  • Packets/Frames Terminology: This property allows you to determine whether the units of data are referred to as “packets” or “frames”.
  • Include Detailed Port Information in Report: If checked the report will also contain detailed results for each port. If unchecked only the totals will be reported.
  • Include Charts in Report: If checked the report will include bar charts showing the test results. This is only applicable for PDF type reports.
  • Throughput Unit for Charts: Use this to select whether to use frames/second ot bits/second as the unit for throughput charts.

  Report Formats

  This section allows you to select which types of reports will be generated. You can enable several types. The generated report files will be given a file extension that matches the selected type, i.e. “.pdf“ for PDF files and so forth.

  XML Report Specification

  You can find the specification for the XML Report here.

  In the Report formats section you can also activate the “Also Log Intermediate Results” option. It will log intermediate results for each test type to separate CSV logfiles (one for each enabled test type) located in the “ResultLog” subdirectory in the main Xena2544-2G Reports directory.

  
  
  

  Result Data Panel

  The Result Data panel will display both polled progress data and result data for the tests being executed in a grid view. Each result will be shown in a single line in the grid.

  The polled progress data is updated periodically while the current test trial is executing and will be shown with an italics font. After the test trial has completed the result data for that trial will be calculated and shown with a normal font.

  The Result State column will show the state of the current trial run. While the test trial is in progress the state will always be “(pending)”. A trial result may be final in which case the column will show either PASS or FAIL, depending on the test outcome. If the test needs to perform another iteration the state will again be “(pending)”.

  

  The columns used will depend on the test being performed. Most tests will provide a set of “totals” values and a set of per-port values but as stated this depends on the test.

  Most cell values will be displayed using the normal font color. Values that indicate an error, such as a non-zero loss value, will be displayed with a red font color.

  
  
  

  Configuration Errors Panel

  This panel will show any configuration errors detected by the program when you attempt to execute a configuration. If any such errors are found the panel will be shown and the execution attempt will be aborted. You will have to correct any reported errors before the program will allow you to execute the configuration.

  

  Each error will be shown in a separate line in the panel. If you double-click on an error message you will be taken to the relevant configuration panel that will allow you to correct the error.

  This panel is by default found in the lower auto-hiding panel group. By “auto-hiding” we mean that the panel is initially hidden but will popup either if the panel tab is clicked or if the application decides that it is necessary to direct the attention of the user to the panel. You can make the panel visible always by clicking the little “pin” icon in the top-right of the panel header.

  
  
  

  Command Line Invocation

  The Xena2544 supports a number of command line options which can be used to automate the execution of a predefined configuration file.

  Invocation Details

  Xena2544 is part of a new series of Xena test tools series that does not require a separate executable file to perform the command line functionality. The same executable (xena2544-2g_.exe) is used for both the GUI and the command line functions.

  Command Line Options

  The valid command line options are as follows:

  Command option	Argument	Explanation
  -c, –config	Path to configuration file	Load a test configuration file with the specified path.
  -e, –execute		Execute the specified test configuration file (requires -c ). If this option is used the program will not show the GUI but will run in command line mode.
  -u, –user	Username	Set the username used when logging on to Xena testers (default: xenarun).
  -r, –reportpath	Path to reports	Set the path where reports are saved.
  -o, –company	Company name	Set the company name used in reports.
  -l, –logo	Path to logo	Set the path to the report logo file.
  -f, –clogfile	Logfile path	Path to logfile receiving console output
  -h, –help		Display this help screen.

  Sample Execution

  Below is shown the typical output of a CLI session:

  > Xena2544-2G.cmd -c c:UserstestuserDocumentsXenaXena2544-2Gcharttest.x2544 -e
  INFO: Loading test configuration charttest.x2544
  INFO: Activating chassis: demo.xenanetworks.com
  INFO: Logon to demo.xenanetworks.com:22606 successful
  INFO: All chassis connected and read
  INFO: Starting subtest 'Throughput Test'
  INFO: Reserving ports
  INFO: Resetting used ports
  INFO: Configuring ports
  INFO: Initializing L3 address learning refresh
  INFO: Toggling port sync state
  INFO: InitTrial: 64 byte packets, 100,00% traffic rate, iteration 1
  INFO: Setting up streams
  INFO: Sending MAC learning packets
  INFO: Traffic on source port(s) started

  
  
  

  Limitations

  The following limitations apply to the Xena2544 test results.

  Limitation	Explanation
  Latency Measurements	Supported if the following conditions are fulfilled: Packet length can contain Xena test payload
  Jitter Measurements	Supported if the following conditions are fulfilled: Xena server version >= 3.00 Test uses native MAC address for ports. Packet length can contain Xena test payload Number of ports in mesh <= 32.
  One-second latency and jitter update	Supported if the following conditions are fulfilled: Latency or jitter measurements support as described above. Xena server version >= 3.26