Introduction to the Xena products

 

The XenaCompact and XenaBay testers are self contained network appliances that allow you to generate and analyze Ethernet traffic at wire speeds up to 100 Gbps. The testers are simple to use, powerful, and scalable. The applications are wide-ranging, from debugging newly developed hardware in a laboratory, to analyzing real live networks with multiple points-of-presence across the globe.

 

The testers come with different kinds of modules with different number of test ports and supporting different physical Ethernet interfaces:

 

  • M1CFP100, one 100 Gbps port using pluggable CFP transceivers, also supporting 40 Gbps and 10 Gbps.
  • M2CFP40, two 40 Gbps port using pluggable CFP transceivers, also supporting 10 Gbps.
  • M6SFP+, six 10 Gbps ports using pluggable SFP+ transceivers.
  • M2XFP, two 10 Gbps ports using pluggable XFP transceivers.
  • M2SFP+, two 10 Gbps ports using pluggable SFP+ transceivers.
  • M2CX4, two 10 Gbps ports using the CX4 electrical interface.
  • M6SFP, six 1 Gbps ports using pluggable SFP transceivers, electrical or optical.

 

Each XenaCompact tester has one module, while a XenaBay tester has up to 12 modules in any combination.

 

 

Hardware

 

This figure shows a XenaCompact tester whose module contains two 10 Gbps ports on the right; there are also two normal RJ45 Ethernet ports inside the orange front plate:

 

Xena xenacompact Introduction

 

The left-most RJ45 port inside the orange plate is called the management port. It should be connected to a normal LAN supporting an IP network, and is used to configure and operate the tester.

 

The two test ports on the right use the SFP+ interface, which supports pluggable transceivers using different optical wavelengths. These ports are connected to the device-under-test or the network-under-test.

 

 

Software

 

The tester is controlled using the XenaManager application which runs on a normal Windows PC. It communicates with the tester through an IP connection to the management port. The Manager supports a straight-forward point-and-click interface to the tester, allowing you to configure test traffic and see the results.

 

This figure shows the XenaManager, with a navigation area on the left side, and two panels used for traffic generation on the right side:

 

Xena xenamanager Introduction

 

 

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Introduction