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This is the User Manual for Valkyrie3918. Valkyrie3918 is a PC application that lets you perform advanced IP multicast network tests according to the IETF RFC 3918 standard using one or more of Xena Valkyrie test equipment chassis.
Download Valkyrie3918 User Manual as PDF
The Valkyrie3918 application feature the following capabilities:
Valkyrie3918 is a standard Windows .NET application supporting Windows XP (SP3) and all later Windows versions. It requires Microsoft .NET version 4.0. After installation you can find a shortcut to the application either in the Start -> Programs -> Xena Networks menu or (if you have selected this during setup) on your desktop. The application is installed as part of the Xena software release package which can be obtained here.
Refer to this page for details on support for Linux.
This section provides explanations for the terminology used by the Valkyrie3918.
Test Type Denotes one of the test types defined in RFC 3918, sections 4 to 8, such as “Mixed Class Throughput” and “Multicast Latency”.
Trial A “trial” denotes a single execution of a test with a given set of test parameters. If the test configuration specifies that the tests shall be performed at various packet sizes a number of trials will then be executed – one for each packet size specified.
Iteration Each test type can be configured to repeat the test a number of times. Each of these repetitions is called an iteration. One iteration may comprise several trials.
The main Valkyrie3918 application view is shown in the image below.
The various parts of the application view are explained below:
Panel | Explanation |
---|---|
Start Page | The default main page shown to the user. This page contains a brief guide to assist you in creating an initial test configuration. You can close this panel once you feel that it is no longer useful to you. |
Selected Ports | This panel allows you to include Xena testports in your test and to configure the behavior of these ports. You select the ports in the Physical Ports view and drag them to the Selected Ports panel to include them in the test. |
Test Configuration | This panel controls all aspects of the Test Configuration, including the selection of the actual tests to perform. |
Multicast Configuration | This panel controls all aspects of the Multicast flow configuration. |
Unicast Configuration | This panel controls all aspects of the Unicast flow configuration. The Unicast configuration is used in a number of the available tests as background traffic. |
Reporting Options | This panel control all aspects of the reporting function. |
Result Data | This panel displays the test data in a grid view. |
Configuration Errors | This panel displays any configuration errors detected in your configuration when attempting to start a test. |
RFC 3918 defines the following test types, which are separated into a number of functional groups:
This group contains the following tests which are all fully supported by the Valkyrie3918:
The group also contains these tests which are not supported by the Valkyrie3918 as present:
This group contains the following tests:
These two tests have been combined into one test in the Valkyrie3918 as both tests can be executed by the same test procedure. The tests produces a set of multicast latency measurements from a single, multicast ingress interface of a DUT/SUT through multiple, egress multicast interfaces of that same DUT/SUT. The test is similar to the Latency test in RFC 2544 but measures exclusively the latency between the single source port and the destination port(s).
This group contains the following tests:
These two tests have been combined into one test in the Valkyrie3918 as both tests can be executed by the same test procedure. The Join test determine the time duration it takes a DUT/SUT to start forwarding multicast frames from the time a successful IGMP group membership report has been issued to the DUT/SUT. The Leave test determine the time duration it takes a DUT/SUT to cease forwarding multicast frames after a corresponding IGMP Leave Group message has been successfully offered to the DUT/SUT.
This group contains the following tests which are all fully supported by the Valkyrie3918:
The test determine the maximum number of multicast groups a DUT/SUT can support while maintaining the ability to forward multicast frames to all multicast groups registered to that DUT/SUT.
This group contains the following tests which are all fully supported by the Xena3918:
These tests are similar to the Group Join Delay and Multicast Latency tests but with additional meshed unicast traffic being sent through the DUT from a set of separate ports.
This section explains how to get started using the Valkyrie3918 to execute a few simple tests. The test configuration will consist of one multicast source port and two multicast destination ports. It will not use any unicast traffic ports.
This section explains the options available in the various configuration panels.
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:
You can reserve or relinquish ownership of a port by right-clicking on it and selecting the appropriate action. Note that the Valkyrie3918 will automatically reserve ownership of used ports when a test is started.
This panel displays the ports that have been actively selected for use in the test configuration. The ports are shown in a grid view with the following columns:
Column | Explanation |
---|---|
Port Name | The name (ID and type) of the port. |
MC Port Role | The role this port plays in the overall test configuration. See below for a description of the rules for port role assignment. |
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. All ports in the configuration need an IP address. |
Prefix | The decimal network prefix for the address. |
Gateway Address | The gateway address for the assigned IP address. Usually this will be the address of the DUT port which the test port is connected to. |
The following rules apply when assigning roles to ports:
To include a port in the test configuration perform one of the following two actions:
To stop using one or more ports in a test perform one of the following two actions:
This panel contains options that control the actual execution of the tests. It also allows you to select exactly what tests to run.
This sub-panel contains general options that affect all selected tests.
Using this option you can select the packet sizes to use in the test. If you select one of the options from the Fixed Sizes Per Trial section the tests will be repeated for each packet size selected. If you select one of the options from the Varying Sizes Per Trial only one trial will be executed.
Option | Explanation |
---|---|
Latency Mode: | Determines the mode used to measure latency. |
Latency Unit: | Determine the unit which is used to report latency measurements. |
Jitter Unit: | Determine the unit which is used to report jitter measurements. |
Toggle Sync State: | If selected the port sync states will be toggled off and on between each trial. |
This sub-panel allows you to select which tests to perform and to configure the options for each test. The tests are grouped according to RFC 3918. To enable a test just make sure that the checkbox next to the test name is checked. To configure a test select the test in the treeview and set the options in the panel to the right.
Each test type is associated with a set of test options. All available test options are described below. Note that all options do not apply to every test type.
Option | Explanation |
---|---|
Duration: | The duration in seconds of the time used in each trial for the actual measurement. This does not include the test setup and teardown phases so the total duration of a test will be longer. |
Iterations: | The number of times a test is repeated using the same set of variable parameters (packet size, rate, etc.) |
Traffic-to-Join Delay: | The number of seconds to wait between starting the multicast traffic on the server and sending the Join requests from the clients. This delay ensures that we can accurately check that traffic is not received by clients before they Join the multicast groups. |
Leave-to-Stop Delay: | The number of seconds to wait between sending the Leave requests from the clients and stopping the multicast traffic on the server. This delay ensures that we can accurately check that the Leave requests from clients are actually honoured by the server before stopping the traffic. |
Multicast Group Count: | If present this option allows you to define a multicast group count sweep with a start, end and step value. |
Multicast Group Count Selection: | If present this option allow you to specify a series of multicast group counts which can be used if multiple iterations have been configured. |
Initial Rate: | If present this option denotes the initial rate in percent of the overall rate configured in the Multicast Stream panel. |
Maximum Rate: | If present this option denotes the maximum rate in percent of the overall rate configured in the Multicast Stream panel. |
Minimum Rate: | If present this option denotes the minimum rate in percent of the overall rate configured in the Multicast Stream panel. |
Step Rate: | if present this option is used to increment the rate percentage when iterating from a starting to a maximum rate. |
Resolution: | If present this option denotes a minimum difference between rates which will be used to stop the iteration. |
Unicast Traffic Ratio: | If present this option denotes the percentage of the overall rate configured in the Multicast Stream panel to be used for unicast traffic. Note that the unicast rate will be added to the configured multicast rate. So if the multicast rate has been set to e.g. 10% and the UC traffic ratio is set to 50% the total rate for the port will be 10% + (50% of 10%) = 15%. |
This panel contains configuration options that control the generation of multicast traffic.
This sub-panel defines the common multicast options. These are explained below.
Option | Explanation |
---|---|
Multicast Protocol Profile and Version | |
Protocol Profile: | The protocol segment profile to use for the multicast traffic. |
IGMP/MLD Version: | Specifies the IGMP or MLD version to use. Note that the IP version is implicitly selected in the Protocol Profile option described above. |
Multicast Address Range | |
Start Address (IPv4): | The starting address to use when allocating a multicast group address sequence. Only valid if IPv4 is selected through the protocol profile. |
Start Address (IPv6) | The starting address to use when allocating a multicast group address sequence. Only valid if IPv6 is selected through the protocol profile. |
Step Value | The step value used to increment the address when generating a multicast group address sequence. |
Protocol Registration Handling | |
Join Refresh Interval: | The interval in seconds with which the join requests will be retransmitted. This is useful for longer-running tests where the router may otherwise timeout the individual learning requests. |
Join/Leave Rate: | The maximum rate with which the IGMP Join or Leave packets are sent. This is used to spread out the request transmission to prevent the DUT from being overwhelmed and drop requests. |
Use Source Address: | If selected the multicast address will be added as a source address to the IGMPv3/MLDv2 Group Record in the Join/Leave requests. If not selected the Group Records will not contain any source addresses. See RFC 3376, section 4.2.9 for details. |
Leave to AllRouters: | If selected, Leave Group messages are sent to the all-routers multicast group (224.0.0.2). If not selected Leave Group messages are sent to the multicast group address |
Test Payload | |
Payload Type: | The type of test payload in the packets generated by the MC source port. |
Pattern: | If the payload type has been set to “Pattern” you can specify the pattern here. |
Packet Rate | |
Fraction: | This option allows you to specify the overall rate used for the multicast stream as a percentage of the physical port rate. |
Packet/sec: | This option allows you to specify the overall rate used for the multicast stream as a packets per second value. |
This sub-panel defines the protocol segments used for the multicast traffic generated by the source port. You can add, remove and rearrange segments as you please. Note the following default field assignments:
This panel contains configuration options that control the generation of unicast traffic.
This sub-panel defines the common multicast options. These are explained below.
Option | Explanation |
---|---|
Test Payload | |
Payload Type: | The type of test payload in the packets generated by the MC source port. |
Pattern: | If the payload type has been set to “Pattern” you can specify the pattern here. |
This sub-panel defines the protocol segments used for the unicast traffic generated by the relevant ports. Refer to the description for the equivalent multicast protocol segment panel above.
The Reporting tab contains a number of options that affect the way reports are generated for the test.
This section contains a number of options that can help identify the test context.
This section contains options that affect the way reports are generated.
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.
You can find the specification for the XML Report here.
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 Valkyrie2889 program 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.
The Valkyrie3918 application features a number of application-level settings which are valid for all test configurations. These can be accessed in the Options menu item as shown in the figure below.
The Valkyrie3918 supports a number of command line options which can be used to automate the execution of a predefined configuration file.
Valkyrie3918 is the first application in the Xena test tools series that does not require a separate executable file to perform the command line functionality. The same executable (xena3918_.exe) is used for both the GUI and the command line functions.
The valid command line options are as follows:
Command option | Explanation |
---|---|
-c, –config | 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 | Set the username used when logging on to Xena testers (default: xenarun). |
-r, –reportpath | Set the path where reports are saved. |
-o, –company | Set the company name used in reports. |
-l, –logo | Set the path to the report logo file. |
-h, –help | Display this help screen. |
Please refer to this page for further details about troubleshooting the Valkyrie3918.