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Xena Knowledge Base
Basic Port Properties
Main Properties
Identification
| Property | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Name | The unique short-form name for the port |
| Description | A user-definable string label for the port |
| Loaded From | Name on last port configuration file loaded on this port |
| Interface Type | The Xena port interface type |
| Reserved By | If the port has been reserved by a user, this field will show the username of the reserver. |
TX Control
| Property | Explanation |
| Sync Status | The current sync state for the port. The port can either be IN SYNC (sync detected) or NO SYNC (no sync detected). |
| Traffic Status | The current traffic status for the port (OFF: traffic is off, ON: traffic is on) |
| Traffic Control | This button enables you to either start or stop traffic on the port. Or restart traffic with dynamic changes seamlessly*. |
| Dynamic Traffic Change* | If this option is checked, the port will allow dynamic changes to the traffic while the traffic is running on the port. As soon as the Restart button is pressed, traffic is changed dynamically seamlessly. |
| Include in Global Control | If this option is checked and the port is part of the current testbed the port traffic state will be controlled by the Start/Stop buttons in the Global Statistics panel. |
| Enable TX Output | Determines if the port should enable its transmitter, or keep the outgoing link down |
| TX Time Limit | The maximum amount of time the port should transmit when enabled. If set to zero the port will transmit until stopped manually. |
| TX Time Elapsed | The amount of time the port has currently been transmitting |
| Stop After** | Stop port transmission after the specified number of packets are sent |
*Feature is only supported by legacy 40G/100G ports.
**Feature requires software release 76 or higher.
Port Impairments
This section describes impairments which will affect the entire port. I.e it will affect all streams defined for the selected port. It is implemented on the Z400q Thor, Thor-100G-5S-4P and Z100q Loki and requires software version val-85 or higher
Link Flap
The Xena port can be configured to emulate that the physical link is down or unstable. This feature is called ‘Link Flap’.
‘Link Flap’ under “Port Impairments” is ‘Logical Link Flap’. This is implemented by scrambling the Tx PCS encoding to prevent the peer port from getting a link. I.e. it is not implemented by turning off / on the physical transmitter.
‘Logical Link Flap’ works for both electrical cables (DAC cables) and optical cables.
Logical ‘Link Flap’ supports a repetitious pattern, where the link is taken down for a period (“Duration”) and then brought up again. This is repeated after a configurable time (“Repeat Period”). The flapping is repeated a configurable number of times or continuously (“Repetitions”).
Please observe that ‘Link Flap’ is configured at a port level and will affect all streams configured for the selected port.
PMA error injection
“PMA error” allows the user to insert bit errors onto the link.
Please observe that “PMA error” injection is configured at a port level and will affect all streams configured for the selected port.
| Property | Explanation |
| Function | Enables Link Flap or PMA error injection. |
| Duration | Link Flap: Time in ms the link is taken down. Range: 10 ms to 1000 ms; step size 1 ms. |
| Repeat Period | Link Flap: Time between link down. Range:10 ms to 50000 ms; step size 10 ms. “Repeat Period” must be larger than “Duration”. |
| Repetitions | Link Flap: Number of Link Flaps. Range: 0, 1 to 64K; step size 1. 0 = continuous until stopped. |
| BER coeff | PMA Error injection: Bit Error Rate coefficient. Range 0.01 to 9.99; step size 0.01. |
| BER exp | PMA Error injection: Bit Error Rate exponent. Range -17 to -3; step size 1 |
| Control | Pressing “Start” will start the configured Link Flap/PMA Error injection, pressing “Stop” will stop any ongoing Link Flap/PMA Error injection. |
TX Profile
| Property | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Port TX Mode | This property determines the scheduling mode for outgoing traffic from the port, i.e. how multiple logical streams are merged onto one physical port. Refer to the Script API description here for further information. |
| Rate Fraction (*) | The port-level rate of the traffic transmitted for a port in sequential TX mode, expressed as a percentage of the effective rate for the port. |
| Packet Rate (*) | The port-level rate of the traffic transmitted for a port in sequential TX mode, expressed in packet per second. |
| Bit Rate (*) | The port-level rate of the traffic transmitted for a port in sequential TX mode, expressed in bits per second. |
| Inter Packet Gap (*) | The calculated mean inter-packet gap with the current TX profile settings. |
| Burst Period (**) | Time in micro seconds from start of sending a group of bursts till start of sending next group of bursts. |
(*) This property is only available when the Port TX Mode is set to Sequential.
(**) This property is only available when the Port TX Mode is set to Burst. This property requires software release 76 or higher.
Misc. Settings
| Property | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Flash Port LEDs | If checked, this property will make the test port LED for a particular port flash on and off with a 1-second interval. This is helpful when you need to identify a specific port within a chassis. |
Layer-1 Control
| Property | Explanation |
| Port Speed Selection | Controls the port speed selection. This property is only available for ports that support a configurable port speed. |
| Min. Average Inter-Frame Gap | The minimum average total interframe gap (including preamble and SFD) |
| Speed Reduction | Allows you to specify a speed reduction value for the port. The speed reduction is specified as a PPM value between 0 and 100 in steps of 10.The speed-reduction is applied to the transmit-side of a port, resulting in an effective traffic rate that is slightly lower than the rate of the physical interface. Speed reduction is effectuated by inserting short idle periods in the generated traffic pattern to consume part of the port’s physical bandwidth. The port’s clock-speed is not altered. |
| Current Port Speed | The currently detected port speed |
| Effective Port Speed | The effective speed of the port taking any configured speed reduction into account. |
| Auto-Negotiation Enable | Controls whether the port will support auto-negotiation |
| BroadR-Reach Mode | Controls whether a BroadR-Reach transceiver will be in Master or Slave mode. This property is only shown when a BroadR-Reach transceiver is installed in the port or the port itself supports Automotive Ethernet. |
| Stagger Factor | This property delays the start of traffic generation on one port relative to the activation of global start. The delay is programmed in steps of 64 µsec. The Stagger Factor will work between ports on test modules installed in the same chassis. NB: This requires that “Sync.Start in Global Stats.” under the Options tap has been checked. |
| TCVR Temperature | The currently detected transceiver temperature if supported by the transceiver. |
| Optical RX Power | The currently detected received optional power. This property value is only available for optical ports if supported by the transceiver. |
Layer-2 Control
| Property | Explanation |
| MAC Address | The port MAC address |
| MAC Auto-Training | The interval in seconds with which the port should broadcast a MAC learning frame. Set to 0 to disable. |
| React to PAUSE Frames | Control whether the port should react to received PAUSE frames |
| React to PFC Frames | Control whether the port should react to received PFC (Priority Flow Control) frames. Use check boxes to select which priority levels the port reacts to. This property is not supported by all modules. |
| Gap Monitor Start | Specifies the time period that will trigger the gap monitor start. Refer to the Script API section here for more details. |
| Gap Monitor Stop | Specifies the number of packets to receive to stop the gap monitor. |
Payload
| Property | Explanation | ||||||||||||
| Payload Checksum Offset | The offset where to place the payload checksum in the payload section | ||||||||||||
| Random Seed | Used when generating traffic that requires random variation in packet length, payload, or modified fields | ||||||||||||
| Max Stream Header Length | The maximum length of the defined stream headers. If you increase this you will at the same time reduce number of streams supported by the port. For a port that by default supports 256 streams
| ||||||||||||
| MIX Weights | Specify the weights for the MIX size packet distribution if supported by the port. | ||||||||||||
| TPLD Size | Specify the size of the TPLD for the port streams if supported by the port. Details on the TPLD content for the various size options can be found here. | ||||||||||||
| Payload Mode | Specify the payload mode used for the port streams if supported by the port (currently only supported by selected 40/100G ports). The following options are available: · Normal: The packet payload type is determined by the Payload Type property on the streams. This is the default behaviour. · Extended Payload: Enable support for the extended payload feature for streams on this port (not supported by all modules). · Custom Data Field: Enable support for the custom data field feature for streams on this port (not supported by all modules). Refer to this application note for details. |
Loopback and Latency
| Property | Explanation |
| Loopback Mode | The port loopback mode. Refer to the Script API section here for more details. |
| Latency Mode | The port latency calculation mode. Refer to the Script API section here for more details. |
| Latency Offset | The calibrated latency offset value. |
IPV4/IPV6 Properties
IPV4 Properties
| Property | Explanation |
| IPv4 Address | The IPv4 network address for the port. The address is used as the default source address field in the IP header of generated stream traffic, and the address is also used for support of the ARP and PING protocols. |
| IPv4 Subnet Mask | The IPv4 subnetwork mask for the port. |
| IPv4 Gateway | The default IPv4 gateway address for the port. |
| Reply to ARP Requests | Control whether the port will reply to incoming ARP requests |
| Reply to PINGv4 Requests | Control whether the port will reply to incoming PING requests |
| ARP/PINGv4 Address Wildcard | Specifies a mask that makes the port reply to ARP/PING for the masked addresses |
| DHCPv4 Client | This button will launch the DHCP Wizard for the port. See this link for details. |
IPv4 Multicast Properties
| Property | Explanation |
|---|---|
| MC Addresses | Specifies a list of multicast addresses to send IGMPv2IGMPv3 requests to. |
| Send Join Request | When this button is clicked a single IGMPv2 Join request is sent to the specified multicast address. |
| VLAN | Check this box to add a VLAN tag header to sent IGMPv2IGMPv3 requests |
| Tag | Value of VLAN tag |
| Priority | Priority bits in VLAN tag header |
| DEI | Drop Eligible Indicator in VLAN tag header |
| Send Requests | For Protocol Version IGMPv2 a single request is sent when the related button is clicked:
For Protocol Version IGMPv3 a single request is sent when the related button is clicked:
|
| Repeat Multicast Join | Control whether the Join command should periodically be re-transmitted |
| Multicast Join Period | The Join retransmit period in seconds |
| Protocol Version | Set Multicast Protocol version to IGMPv2 or IGMPv3 |
IPv6 Properties
| Property | Explanation |
|---|---|
| IPv6 Address | The IPv6 network address for the port. The address is used as the default source address field in the IP header of generated stream traffic, and the address is also used for support of the NDP and PING protocols. |
| IPv6 Prefix | The IPv6 subnetwork prefix for the port, |
| IPv6 Gateway | The default IPv6 gateway address for the port. |
| Reply to NDP Requests | Control whether the port will reply to incoming NDP requests |
| Reply to PINGv6 Requests | Control whether the port will reply to incoming PING requests |
| NDP/PINGv6 Address Wildcard | Specifies a prefix that makes the port reply to NDP/PING for the masked addresses |
ARP/NDP Address Tables
Each Xena test port contains two address tables, one for IPv4 (ARP) and one for IPv6 (NDP). Each address table can contain a number of entries. Each entry defines a set of criteria for handling incoming ARP/NDP requests.
Each table can be accessed by the Edit ARP Table and Edit NDP Table buttons in this section. Pressing each button will launch a dialog as shown below:
New entries can be added by pressing the “Click here to add new item” bar. Existing entries can be edited by selecting the various fields or deleted by pressing the button with the red stop sign to the right.
Changes to the table are not sent to the test chassis until the OK button is pressed.
As an alternative you can press the Auto-Assign Tables Generate button. If you do that the content of the ARP and NDP address tables are automatically generated based on the defined streams for the port. All existing entries in the tables will be removed.
General Handling of Incoming Requests
Any incoming ARP or NDP request is handled in the following prioritized order:
- If the address table for the IP version used by the request contains 1 or more entries the table is searched for a match for the Target IP Address in the request. If a match is found a reply is formatted according to the matched entry definition and sent. If no matches are found in the table the request is ignored.
- If the address table for the IP version used by the request is empty the request is handled by the legacy method, i.e. matched to the defined port IP address optionally masked by the wildcard value.
Address Table Matching
Incoming ARP/NDP requests are matched to the address table by comparing the Target IP Address in the request with the IP Address value for each entry in the table, masked by the Prefix value. If a match is found the search is stopped and the matched entry used for the reply.
If two or more entries would match the Target IP Address then only the first matching entry is used.
The Prefix value can be used to have each entry match multiple IP addresses. Example: An IPv4 entry with IP Address = 10.0.0.1 and Prefix = 28 will match any address in the range 10.0.0.0 – 10.0.0.15. The default value for the Prefix is a full host mask, which means that only the specified IP address will match.
Formatting the Reply
If a match is found the ARP/NDP reply will be formatted according to the following rules:
- If the MAC Address field in the match entry is all-zeros (which is the default value) the SMAC address in the reply is set to the port MAC address. Otherwise the defined MAC Address value is used.
- If the Patch MAC option is checked the least significant bytes in the SMAC address is patched with the least significant bytes in the Target IP Address. Which bytes are patched is controlled by the Prefix value. This feature is relevant when using a Prefix value to reply to a range of IP addresses to ensure that each “emulated” port is returning a unique MAC address.
Port Resource Commands
This section describes the resource-specific commands available for ports in the main Edit menu.
| Command | Explanation | Must Reserve? |
| Refresh Port | Reload the configuration for the port and all child resources (streams, modifiers, etc) from the test chassis. | No |
| Reset Port | Reset the port configuration to default settings. Note that this removes all dynamic resources such as streams, modifiers, etc! | Yes |
| Clear Stats | Clear all TX and RX statistics counters on the port. | Yes |
| Start Traffic | Start traffic on the port. The port must contain at least one enabled stream. | Yes |
| Stop Traffic | Stop traffic on port. | Yes |
| Replay File | Load a PCAP file and replay it on the port. Learn more here. | Yes |