ValkyrieManager test software – Core Functions
ValkyrieManager test software is used to configure and generate streams of Ethernet traffic between Xena test equipment and devices under test (DUTs) at all speeds up 400Gbps, and analyze the results.

The user-friendly interface makes ValkyrieManager test software an effective tool for performing a wide range of core test scenarios for network equipment manufacturers (NEMs), network service providers, research organizations, enterprise, government and conformance testers.

Below: This screen shows a stream statistics chart where the latencies of two streams are displayed in real time.

The port and stream configuration grids let test engineers quickly view and work with a numerous ports and streams simultaneously.

The traffic streams can be shaped to match very specific real-world scenarios using a wide range of variables. The packet editor function supports both protocol (IP, VLAN, UDP, etc.) and byte-level packet definitions, and the packet capture function can also automatically decode the packet content at the protocol level.

ValkyrieManager also makes it easy to quickly view and analyze traffic statistics, payload errors, latency and jitter. set up specific filters for incoming traffic, and perform real-time capture of packets.

The ValkyrieManager test software offers many ways to streamline testing.

These range from being able to copy and paste stream definitions across ports quickly customizing the GUI to match the test engineers’ needs by e.g. letting them hide irrelevant controls etc so they can better focus on the task they are currently performing.

Once test-beds and test cases have been configured, they can by saved and shared with other users. ValkyrieManager can be used by multiple users in different locations to manage multiple Xena chassis simultaneously.

Wide range of applications

• Evaluate the stability of switches, routers and edge devices under static or dynamic load conditions for minutes, hours and days
• Identify and troubleshoot functional behavior (including negative testing) of new network functionality in the development lab or before deployment into the operational network
• Evaluate key performance parameters such as per-flow QoS, fail-over time or Access Control Lists (ACL); filtering performance
• Perform comparative analysis of devices or services with deterministic traffic during product development cycles or vendor comparisons
• Can be used with ValkyrieCLI for fast, effective test automation
• Can be supplemented with Veryx ATTEST (purchased separately) for effective conformance testing

Following software is included free of charge
More advanced test scenarios can be conducted using the free applications that come with ValkyrieManager:

• Valkyrie2544, Valkyrie3918, Valkyrie2889 and Valkyrie1564 are free applications developed by Xena Networks for performing RFC2544, RFC3918, RFC2889 and Y.1564 testing
• ValkyrieCLI is a powerful and easy-to-use command-line-interface (CLI) scripting API that makes test automation easier for test engineers. See script examples of Tcl, Perl, Java, Ruby, BASH and Python.

Basic Work Flow
ValkyrieManager is always praised for its simple user-friendly approach to testing. The basic work flow goes like this:

1. Launch ValkyrieManager test software
2. Connect to one or more Xena chassis via IP address
3. Reserve the ports on the test modules you want to use
4. Configure the ports (e.g. minimum IFG, MAC Address, Mac training, enable flow control, gap monitoring, payload checksum, max. stream header, loopback mode, latency offset, configure IPv4 address for ARP and PING requests)
5. Add and configure the traffic streams. This can include a unique stream ID for identifying latency, jitter and packet loss; when to start, stop and register the stream; the burst rate, error injection, frame checksums, types of packet length, and the payload type.
6. Define flows of traffic based on e.g. source and destination MAC and VLANs (ValkyrieManager can support over 4 billion flows).
7. Define filters to get statistics on specific types of packets, content or packet sizes, or to trigger the capture mechanism or focus Histogram results.
8. Create triggers for when the capture function should start/stop and what should be captured e.g. FCS or payload error frames etc. You can also save the capture buffer as a PCAP file for analysis in e.g. Wireshark.
9. Once the traffic is started view the results in the capture graph or use histograms to plot distributions of values over time.
10. View detailed summaries of all this data via the Global Statistics or analyze port, packet and service issues in the Event Log lists.