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What is Z400 Thor?
Most of us know Z400 as the Nordic god of thunder and lightning. But in the world of Ethernet testing world, Thor plays a starring role in Xena’s Ethernet Traffic Generation solutions.
Thor boasts some truly heroic features – like being able to test both NRZ and PAM4 speeds. For NRZ based Ethernet at data rates of 10G / 25G / 40G / 50G and 100G. And for PAM4 based Ethernet at data rates of 50G / 100G / 200G / 400G. It can also test Auto-Negotiation and Link Training (AN/LT).
In the Xena line we also have Z10 Odin (NRZ testing 10Mbps to 10G), Z100 Loki (NRZ testing 10G to 100G), and Z800 Freya (10G PAM4 to 800G PAM4) and in the future also 1.6 Terabits.
Speeds and technology
In addition to NRZ technology, Z400 Thor also uses PAM4 technology. Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM) increases the number of bits in serial data transmissions by using several pulse amplitude levels. Unlike the NRZ modulation technique, which uses two voltage levels to represent logic 0 and logic 1, PAM4 uses four voltage levels to represent four combinations of two bits logic – 11, 10, 01, and 00. With this a SerDes speed of 56Gbps can be achieved, keeping the Baud rate (symbol rate) at 28GBaud.
Because PAM4 allows more data to be transmitted faster, it was chosen as the underlying technology for enabling 400 Gigabit Ethernet traffic.
Thor supports Ethernet testing of NRZ data rates of 10G / 25G / 40G / 50G / 100G, as well as PAM4 56Gbps SerDes data rates of 50G / 100G / 200G / 400G.
Hardware
Z400 Thor is available in the Xena’s fixed 1U chassis, called the XenaCompact (above). Or as a separate test module for Xena’s modular 4U XenaBay (B2400) chassis.
| Z400q Thor | |
| Interfaces | 1 QSFP-DD/QSFP56/QSFP28/QSFP+ |
| Ports x Speeds | 1 x 400GBASE-DR4/LR4/FR4. (PAM4) or 1 x 400GBASE-SR8/FR8/LR8/CR8, (PAM4) or 2 x 200GBASE-CWDM4 (dual CS connector), (PAM4) or 1 x 200GBASE-DR4/SR4/FR4/LR4/CR4, (PAM4) or 4 x 100GBASE-CR2, or 4 x 100GBASE-DR, (PAM4) or 2 x 100GBASE-SR2/CR2, 2 x 100GBASE-DR (dual CS connector) (PAM4) or 1 x 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4/CWDM4, (NRZ) or 8 x 50GBASE-SR/CR, (PAM4) or 4 x 50GBASE-SR/CR, (PAM4) or 2 x 50GBASE-SR2/LR2/CR2, (NRZ) or 1 x 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4, (NRZ) or 4 x 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR, (NRZ) or 4 x 10GBASE-SR/LR/CR(NRZ) |
| XenaCompact | ✓ |
| XenaBay | ✓ Can only be installed in the B2400 chassis where it requires 3 slots (2 for Thor plus 1 for mandatory airflow guide). |
Software
All Xena solutions include user-friendly software to make it quick and easy to perform a multitude of relevant performance, QA, compliancy and functional testing: XenaManager, applications for automated RFC 2544, Y.1564, RFC 2889 and RFC 3918 testing, Xena OpenAutomation and Xena TimeSynch.
Add Impairment Emulation with E100 Chimera
Many factors can impede data traffic as it crosses different networks. Network emulators are a cost-effective tool for helping verify if equipment can handle real-world conditions. That’s why the Xena Ethernet Test Platform also includes the E100 Chimera, a network emulation test module that makes it easy to emulate multiple forms of latency, jitter and other forms of impairment to Ethernet traffic.
E100 Chimera supports full wire-speed impairment at five speeds up to 100Gbps and works seamlessly with Xena traffic generators, allowing you to both generate and impair traffic via the same XenaManager GUI – a feature unique to the Xena platform.
| Types of Impairment | ||
|---|---|---|
| Latency/Jitter | Packet Impairments | Flexible Distributions |
| Constant delay Accumulate and burst Step delay Gaussian / Gamma / Poisson Jitter Custom Jitter | Drip Mis-ordering Duplication Corruption (ETH, IP, UDP, TCP) | Manual Gaussian, Gamma, Poisson Burst drop (random / fixed) Gilbert-Elliot Bit Error Rate Custom Distributions |
| BW Shaping | Port Impairments | Misc. Features |
| Input policing Output shaping | Optical link flap Logical link flap PMA error pulse injection | syncE (Tx follow recovered clk) |
Try Z400 Thor now:
Fill in the form below and we will send you a link where you can download the latest version of Xena. We’ll include instructions on how to install and connect to Xena’s live demo system which consists of two XenaBay chassis – including a Z400 Thor test module – connected to various switches and routers.
Link to: Contact
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