Agilent launches 10 Gig Ethernet analyzer

CHICAGO – Agilent Technologies has combined its Network Analyzer software with a new hardware interface card to address the needs of increasingly prevalent 10 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Ethernet networks. Promising 100% packet capture and analysis, the test and measurement vendor is targeting communication service providers and network equipment manufacturers with its real-time testing and troubleshooting platform.

According to product manager of the network systems division Paul Capozzoli, the new and improved Network Analyzer can diagnose even the most difficult network problems remotely on any network, running any protocol from anywhere and at any time. The Network Analyzer supports 16 different physical interfaces, more than any other vendor in the industry, he said.

“Some companies that have brought a 10 Gigabyte analyzer to market simply use network interface cards and software to analyze the network,” Capozzoli said of the competition. “What Agilent has done differently is we designed both the software and hardware from the bottom up, all internal to Agilent Technologies. Instead of using a generic network interface card to access the datacomm network, we designed a card specifically for protocol test.”

Agilent, formerly a part of Hewlett-Packard, was the first company to bring protocol analyzers back in 1982, Capozzoli said, and the company has been continuously evolving its platform as new networks come online. Now with the onslaught of consumer data use taxing network bandwidth, a growing number of large service providers are in different stages of migrating to 10 Gbps Ethernet – introducing no shortage of new complexities. If a network isn’t configured to handle the traffic flow, the number of customers affected by problems, potentially including a slow network response, poor voice quality and dropped calls, will rise exponentially, requiring customer support and impacting revenues. This is why 100% packet capture and analysis is so critical, Capozzoli said.

“With all the convergence of voice, data and even video across these networks, there is just an explosive demand for bandwidth,” Capozzoli said. “Think about how much traffic goes in and out of your house over the Internet now versus a couple years ago – it keeps going up and up. Service providers are investing heavily in the network access edge transport and core networks, which means they are buying network equipment and if there is a problem on a 10 Gig, the number of customers affected is greater than if you are on a 100 megabyte Ethernet interface. When you get a trouble or escalation, it is paramount to resolve that as quickly as possible.”

Agilent’s Network Analyzer brings together extensive packet analysis and remote testing of a variety of data and voice measurements, including packet jitter, loss and latency. The software uses the same user interface as previous versions, meaning that no new training is needed for Agilent customers, which include AT&T and Verizon. Capozzoli said that Agilent is targeting its existing customers first to reduce the start-up time and eliminate costs in bringing them up to speed on their 10 Gbps deployments.