Valkyrie Layer 2-3 Test Platform
GIGABIT ETHERNET TRAFFIC GENERATION & ANALYSIS Download Valkyrie Layer 2-3 presentationThe Quick Version
Valkyrie makes it easy to generate Layer 2-3 Ethernet traffic at all speeds up to 400Gbps, and then analyze how network devices and services perform in response.
Valkyrie is flexible, scalable and simple to integrate, plus it delivers extreme accuracy and the industry’s best test automation options.
We are also very competitive on pricing. To receive a quote, simply submit this form.
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Overview – Valkyrie L2-3 Test Platform
The Valkyrie Layer 2-3 test platform is used to configure and generate Ethernet traffic with a high level of accuracy and granularity, and then analyze how network devices and services perform in response.
Valkyrie offers a choice of two chassis that can be equipped with an extensive range of copper and optical Gigabit Ethernet test modules supporting all Ethernet speeds up to 400GE including the new 2.5GE, 5GE, 25GE and 50GE speeds.
The chassis and test modules are controlled via ValkyrieManager, a Windows GUI client provided for ad-hoc test execution, and remote management of test equipment located in multiple locations. Also included are standalone applications for automated RFC 2544, Y.1564, RFC 2889 and RFC 3918 testing.
Finally, an open TCP/IP-based text API lets users automate testing from any software environment, using Tcl, Python, Perl, VBA and Java wrappers to convert to/from the generic Xena Command Line Interface (CLI) format.
Valkyrie is used by hundreds of customers worldwide who value its range of features, ease-of-use, cost efficiency, interoperability, and scalability.
– L2-3 Hardware
– L2-3 Software
– Key Features
– Applications
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Very fast and super friendly
The Valkyrie L2-3 test platform is the industry’s easiest to deploy. Here are some examples:
- The software is native to Windows, and can be freely downloaded from the Internet. Double-click to launch, enter an IP address and a password, and you are ready to test.
- Centralized upgrades make it quick and easy to install the latest software across multiple testers for immediate access to the newest features and bug fixes.
- All devices can be administered from the same user-friendly GUI to ensure fast, efficient testing – without the big learning curve that go with our competitors’ products.
- To make remote testing even easier, Xena offers Phantom – a browser-based (HTML5) user-interface that lets engineers access their test system from any OS.
- Valkyrie test solutions are also ready for virtualization ensuring low-cost future-proof migration to cloud-based testing.
Valkyrie L2-3 Hardware
Two chassis – multiple options
Valkyrie includes a range of advanced test modules for testing all speeds from 1GE up to 400GE – and beyond. These test modules can be mounted in either of Xena’s hardware chassis – the easy-to-transport ValkyrieCompact (with one fixed slot), or the 4U ValkyrieBay which has 12 modular slots. The test modules support a variety of interfaces (SFP+, QSFP, CFP4, CXP etc.) and many are uniquely capable of handling multiple speeds via simple software settings.
- 6 x 400-GigE (QSFP-DD) LR4/SR4/CR4
- 12 x 200-GigE (QSFP56) DR4/SR4/FR4/LR4/CWDM4/CR4 (6 CR8)
- 24 x 100-GigE LR4/SR4/CDWM4 /CR4/SR2/CR2/DR (8 x SR10)
- 48 x 50-GigE LR2/SR2/CR2
- 24 x 40-GigE LR4/SR4/CR4
- 96 x 25G LR/SR/CR
- 144 x 10-GigE optical ports, 72 copper ports
- 72 x 5 GigE copper ports
- 72 x 2.5 GigE copper ports
- 72 x GigE copper/optical ports
- 1 x 400 GigE (DR4/FR8/LR8)
- 1 x 200 GigE (DR4/SR4/FR4/LR4/CR4)
- 2 x 100 GigE (LR4/SR4/CDWM4/ SR10/CR4)
- 2 x 50-GigE LR2/SR2 optical, CR2 electrical
- 1 (LR4) / 2 (SR4) / 2 (QSFP+) x 40-GigE
- 4 x 25G LR/SR optical, CR electrical
- 6 x 10-GigE copper/optical ports
- 6 x 5 GigE copper ports
- 6 x 2.5 GigE copper ports
- 6 x GigE copper/optical ports
Test all Gigabit Ethernet speeds
Valkyrie can test all Ethernet speeds up to 400GE, including both 25GE / 50GE, and 2.5GE / 5GE.
Many data centers are now transitioning to 25GE as a cost-effective upgrade for their existing 10GE links. The challenge for enterprises is to boost connection speeds of overburdened WiFi access points by using 2.5GE & 5GE while leveraging their legacy Cat5E cabling.
Both of these scenarios require test solutions that Valkyrie is capable of meeting at a highly competitive price/point.
Valkyrie Test Modules |
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P/N in ValkyrieBay | Port Speeds | Interface Form Factor | No. of Ports | Type of Interface |
1GE | ||||
Odin-1G-3S-6P | 1GE / 100M / 10M | SFP | 6 ports | 10/100/1000BASE-T |
Odin-1G-3S-2P-T | 1GE / 100M / 10M | SFP | 2 ports | 1000BASE-X / 100BASE-FX/BX |
Odin-1G-3S-6P-E | 1GE / 100M / 10M | SFP | 6 ports | 1000BASE-X / 100BASE-FX/BX |
5GE | ||||
Odin-5G-4S-6P | 5GE / 2.5GE / 1GE / 100M / 10M | RJ45+ | 6 ports | |
10GE | ||||
Odin-10G-1S-2P-T * (available on request) | 10G | SFP+ | 2 ports | 10GBASE-SR/LR/ER/DAC |
C-Odin-10G-2S-2P-Combi ** | 10G and 1G | SFP+ and SFP | 2 ports / 4 ports | 10GBASE-SR/LR/ER/DAC 10/100/1000BASE-T 1000BASE-X 100BASE-FX/BX |
Odin-10G-1S-6P | 10G | SFP+ | 6 ports | 10GBASE-SR/LR/ER/DAC |
Odin-10G-3S-6P-CU | 10G 1G 100M | RJ45 | 6 ports | 10GBASE-T 1000BASE-T 100BASE-T |
Odin-10G-5S-6P-CU | 10GE 5GE 2.5GE 1GE 100M | RJ45 | 6 ports | 10GBASE-T 1000BASE-T 100BASE-T |
Odin-10G-1S-12P (available on request) | 10G | QSFP+ | 12 ports | 10GBASE-iSR/iLR/DAC |
40GE | ||||
Odin-40G-2S-2P | 40G (or) 10G | QSFP+ | 2 ports 8 ports | 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/DAC 10GBASE-iSR/iSM4/DAC |
100GE | ||||
Loki-100G-5S-2P | 100G (or) 50G (or) 40G (or) 25G (or) 10G (or) 25G (or) 10G | QSFP28 / QSFP+ | 2 ports | 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CWDM4/CR4 50GBASE-SR2/LR2/CR2 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR 10GBASE-iSR 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR 10GBASE-SR/LR/CR |
Loki-100G-3S-1P-B 3-speed triple-media | 100G (or) 100G (or) 40G (or) 100G (or) 40G (or) 10G | CFP4 QSFP28 QSFP28/QSFP+ CXP CXP CXP | 1 port 1 port 1 port 1 port 2 ports 8 ports | 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/ 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CWDM4 40GBASE-SR4/LR4 100GBASE-SR10 40GBASE-SR4 10GBASE-iSR / iSM4 |
Loki-100G-S-1P 3-speed dual-media | 100G (or) 40G (or) 100G (or) 40G (or) 10G | QSFP28 QSFP28 / QSFP+ CXP CXP CXP | 1 port 1 port 1 port 2 ports 8 ports | 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CWDM4 40GBASE-SR4/LR4 100GBASE-SR10 40GBASE-SR4 10GBASE-iSR4/iSM4 |
Loki-100G-5S-1P 5-speed dual-media | 100G (or) 50G (or) 40G (or) 25G (or) 10G (or) 25G (or) 10G | QSFP28 QSFP28 QSFP28/QSFP+ QSFP28 QSFP28/QSFP+ SFP28 SFP28/SFP+ | 1 port 2 ports 1 ports 4 ports 4 ports 2 ports 2 ports | 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CWDM4/CR4 50GBASE-SR2/LR2/CR2 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR 10GBASE-iSR 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR 10GBASE-SR/LR/CR |
400GE | ||||
Thor-400G-7S-1P 7-speed dual-media | 400G (or) 200G (or) 200G (or) 100G (or) 100G (or) 50G (or) 50G (or) 40G (or) 25G (or) 10G (or) | QSFPDD QSFPDD/QSFP56 QSFPDD QSFPDD/QSFP56 QSFP28 QSFPDD/QSFP56 QSFP28 QSFP28/QSFP+ QSFP28 QSFP28/QSFP+ | 1 port 2 port 1 port 4 port 2 port 8 ports 4 ports 2 ports 8 ports 8 ports | 400GBASE-FR8/LR8 200GBASE-DR4/SR4/FR4/LR4/CR4/CWDM4 200GBASE-CR8 100GBASE-SR2/CR2/DR 100GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4 50GBASE-SR/FR/LR/CR 50GBASE-SR2/LR2/CR2 40GBASE-SR4/LR4/CR4 25GBASE-SR/LR/CR 10GBASE-iSR |
* includes advanced timing features for testing SyncE ** Only available in XenaCompact chassis |
Valkyrie L2-3 Software
Included with all our hardware is a valuable portfolio of software. In addition to the core ValkyrieManager application and ScriptingCLI, Xena offers standalone test suites (see below) which can be easily automated.
We also include 3 years’ free software maintenance and the option for extending licensing subsequently.
ValkyrieManager | Valkyrie1564 | ||
![]() | ValkyrieManager is a Windows-based application 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. This is the software you’ll use most of the time. | ![]() | Valkyrie1564 makes it easy to validate Ethernet service-level agreements (SLAs) in a single test per Y.1564. It supports multiple protocols per UNI (Ethernet, Customer and Service VLANs, MPLS, IPv4, IPv6, and UDP) and you can define Per-UNI or per-CoS bandwidth profiles, and specify CoS-to-DSCP mapping. |
ValkyrieScripting | Valkyrie3918 | ||
![]() | ValkyrieScripting is a command-line-interface (CLI) scripting API with hundreds of scriptable parameters to make test automation easier. Any client platform can be used (e.g. Tcl, Perl, Python, Java, Ruby and VBA). XenaScripting supports multiple concurrent scripting sessions by different users in different locations. | ![]() | Valkyrie3918 makes it easy to do advanced IP multicast network testing using various framesizes, either as in-test variations or as multiple testruns each using a fixed frame size. Unicast and multicast traffic can be configured to use the exact protocol headers needed. All fields in the protocol headers can be modified. |
Valkyrie2544 | Valkyrie2889 | ||
![]() | Valkyrie2544 fully supports the 4 test-types specified in RFC2544. There are extensive configuration options, support for single stream and multi-stream testing and you can define protocol layers supported by the test (Ethernet, Customer and Service VLANs, IP and UDP) precisely the way you want. | ![]() | Valkyrie2889 lets you accurately benchmark the performance of Layer 2 LAN switches according to RFC 2889 tests incl. all throughput and forwarding rate tests, congestion control, address caching capacity, address learning rate, broadcast frame forwarding and latency, forward pressure and maximum forwarding rate. |
Stream-oriented Traffic Generation
Users can define and generate hundreds of transmit and receive streams, each with their own unique traffic profile. Each stream can generate 100k’s of unique traffic flows using programmable packet field modifiers to increment or randomize field values such as MAC addresses, IP addresses, and VLAN identifiers. This makes it easy to scale your tests beyond the maximum performance parameters of your network or device.
The stream rate can be defined as a percentage of line rate, frames per second, bit-rate, and the injection of packets can be controlled as a single-packet shot, number of packets, time duration, or in continuous mode.
Traffic profiles can be defined as uniform or bursty, and custom packet editing is facilitated by a graphically driven field editor that lets users build any packet format, in addition to predefined packet templates for Ethernet, Ethernet II, VLAN, ARP, IPv4, IPv6, UDP, TCP, LLC, SNAP, GTP, ICMP, RTP, RTCP, STP, SCTP, MPLS, PBB, FCoE, IGMPv2/3, or fully specified by user.
Statistics Charting and Logging
Statistics Charting allows real-time charts of a number of monitored parameters. Multiple charts can be displayed in one panel. Each panel can optionally display two different parameters where each parameter is associated with its own Y-axis. Statistics Logging allows periodically polling counters for all ports in a testbed and logging them to a CSV or XML file.
Scheduling
Each testbed can contain several schedules – a collection of operations that will be executed sequentially, with looping support. Common usage of Stream Scheduler includes start-and-stop traffic, changing packet rate, changing operations orders, adding loop section, etc.
Real-time Analysis and Reporting
Packet flow statistics are tracked per stream, or per-user defined filters which can include any combination of programmable field values. Incoming packet streams are automatically identified using optionally auto inserted Test Payload fields. Analysis of traffic throughput, latency, jitter, loss, sequence, and misorder errors is performed real-time per received stream with 16/32 ns accuracy depending on the interface type (optical/electrical).
Users can capture packets at wire speed on each port for detailed analysis and hot-button export packet analysis tool WireShark, which in conjunction with event triggering and programmable filters provides a unique ability to identify and isolate performance issues.
One Way Latency Measurements
Another valuable Xena feature is Valkyrie TimeSynch which enables multiple Xena testers to synchronize their local time to each other. This can be used for One-Way Latency (OWL) measurements between two test chassis, synchronized traffic start between multiple chassis and accurate time-stamping of captured packets in exported PCAP files.
Scripting & Test Automation
To make scripting and test automation as easy as possible, Xena offers a simple, open-spec text-based Command Line interface (CLI) API called ValkyrieCLI that supports text and line-based TCP/IP communication for test automation in any tool and scripting environment. ValkyrieCLI lets you control very aspect of the chassis, module, port, stream, filter, capture, statistics etc – with any changes being automatically reflected on the GUI.
This uniquely user-friendly “scripting-from-anywhere” concept makes it simple to access the Valkyrietest platform from any proprietary or commercial scripting environment based on languages such as Tcl, Python, Perl, VBA, or Java development environments, using wrappers to convert existing script APIs to the generic Xena API hosted on Github for easy integration.
Unique Eye Diagram
Xena’s latest generation of multi-speed 100GE test modules support a unique feature for analyzing signal quality called the “eye diagram”. Accessed via ValkyrieManager these bit-error-rate (BER) eye diagrams provide a direct visual representation of signal quality after RX equalization.
The eye-diagram is formed by changing the time dimension (sampling delay) and the amplitude dimension (0/1 threshold) of the sampling point of the PHY step-by-step. For each sampling point (x,y), 1 million bits are measured, the number of bit-errors are counted and a simple division gives the BER. The result is the BER eye-diagram (see below).
The color map shows the measured bit-error rate for each point going from 1 million (maximum red) to zero (black). The color scale is logarithmic. Higher resolutions give a clearer diagram and higher values of X and Y will also give a higher precision in the vertical and horizontal bathtub curve estimations, respectively.
The eye-diagram is a unique feature for analyzing signal quality. It provides an estimate of parameters including width, height and jitter in a convenient graphical format.
Applications
Read more about the many different applications for Xena’s test solutions here.