Absolute Analysis - News & Events

Protocol Test Solutions Provider Absolute Analysis Proves FCoE Capabilities at FCIA Plugfest

2009-01-02T08:00:00Z

Absolute Analysis, First to Market with FCoE Support over Extended Range SFP+ Interface with 10GBase-LRM Test Solutions, Demonstrates Technology at Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Plugfest

See our FCoE news on:

Absolute Analysis, First to Market with FCoE Support over Extended Range SFP+ Interface with 10GBase-LRM Test Solutions, Demonstrates Technology at Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Plugfest

For Immediate Release

NEWBURY PARK, CA--September 22, 2008 - Absolute Analysis, the developer's choice for protocol test tools, announced its participation in a Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) Plugfest. The event, hosted by the Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA), included the use of Absolute Analysis' leading Investigator^TM 10Gbps Ethernet protocol analyzer with long range Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) and 10GBase-LRM standard support in a live FCoE test environment.

Plugfest Promotes FCoE Standards

"The Plugfest is the first ever industry interoperability test of FCoE technology and we are proud and excited to demonstrate our industry leading capabilities," said Dennis Murphy, President of Absolute Analysis.

"FCoE simplifies the management of the data center environment and further extends the choices available to users of Fibre Channel. Absolute Analysis is demonstrating Investigator^TM test and measurement solutions that support Data Center Ethernet standards at speeds up to 10Gbps in conjunction with time correlated Fibre Channel solutions at speeds up to 4Gbps," added Murphy.

Investigator^�?� provides line rate capture, analysis, generation, measurement, impairment simulation, and error injection capabilities for its supported protocols, including Ethernet, Fibre Channel, FICON, Serial Attached SCSI, Serial ATA and other protocol suites. These functions are used to implement test solutions for development, quality assurance, production, and field support applications.

The FCoE Plugfest is being held from September 15-18 at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL).

Fibre Channel over Ethernet

Fibre Channel is the solution for IT professionals who need reliable, cost-effective information storage and delivery at blazing speeds. With development starting in 1988, ANSI standard approval in 1994, and massive deployment beginning in 1998, Fibre Channel is still growing strong. Fibre Channel is the mature, safe solution for high-speed communications and is the foundation for over 90% of all SAN (Storage Area Network) installations throughout the world.

Fibre Channel is a fast, reliable data transport system that scales to meet the requirements of any enterprise. Today, installations range from small post-production systems on Fibre Channel loop to very large systems linking thousands of users, servers, and storage systems into a switched, Fibre Channel network.

Fibre Channel over Ethernet provides the power of the Fibre Channel protocol combined with the benefits of ubiquitous Ethernet networks.

About FCIA

The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) is a mutual benefit non-profit international organization of manufacturers, system integrators, developers, vendors, industry professionals and end users. The FCIA is committed to delivering a broad base of Fibre Channel infrastructure technology to support a wide array of applications within the mass storage and IT-based arenas. FCIA working groups and committees focus on specific aspects of the technology, targeting both vertical and horizontal markets including data storage, video, networking and storage area networking (SAN) management. http://www.fibrechannel.org/

About Absolute Analysis

The most experienced and knowledgeable development engineers in military & aerospace, embedded systems, data communications, telecommunications, and storage networking choose Absolute Analysis high speed serial test and analysis solutions for their power, flexibility, granularity, ease-of-use, and customizable database. Headquartered in Southern California, Absolute Analysis sells and supports its products in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

For more information on Absolute Analysis innovative solutions for the development and test of protocol and communications networks visit www.absoluteanalysis.com or telephone +1 805 376 6048.

Media Contact
Cheryl Renton
Director of Marketing Communications
+1 805 376 6048 ext 109
cheryl.renton@absoluteanalysis.com

Sales Contact
Peter Brownell
Director of Sales
+1 805 376 6048 ext 114

www.absoluteanalysis.com
Absolute Analysis Investigator^�?� is a trademark of Absolute Analysis. Absolute Analysis takes no responsibility for any forward-looking statements made in this release.

10Gbps Ethernet Coverage

2009-01-02T08:00:00Z

"10 Gbits/s Ethernet protocol analyzer supports 10GBase LRM standard" eeProductCenter

"Absolute Analysis' 10-GbE tester supports 10GBase-LRM" Lightwave

"Absolute Analysis leads with industry-first 10Gbps protocol analyzer employing SFP+ technology" Embedded Computing Design

"Absolute Analysis launches an industry-first 10Gbps Ethernet protocol analyser" Data Centre Solutions

"Ethernet protocol analyser targets new standards" ElectronicsTalk

Release of Absolute Analysis 10Gbps Ethernet Protocol Analyzer! Click here for Press Release

Investigator�?� BERT now available!

2009-01-02T08:00:00Z

Generate multi-speed, multi-application, and custom test patterns
Support up to 32 ports of testing
Verify and validate lowest level connectivity down to 10^-12

Investigator^�?� Bit Error Rate Tester (BERT) supports multiple speeds, from 1Gbps to 4Gbps, and generates test patterns for Fibre Channel, Ethernet, sFPDP, and many other physical layers.

Investigator^�?� BERT can support up to 32 channels of testing within a single enclosure and is ideal for manufacturing and development laboratory applications.

Users can select from test patterns provided by Absolute Analysis or can create custom test patterns. Investigator^�?� BERT can detect error rates down to 10^-12. BERT Viewer shows you not only where the error happened, but also when it happened, down to nanoseconds. It also has the capability to generate different forms of IEEE pattern and jitters, such as:

CRPAT
CJTPAT
CSPAT
Incrementing

Currently, we offer the following applications and speeds:

Application & Speeds

Fibre Channel	1.0625Gbps, 2.25Gbps, 4.25Gbps
Ethernet	1.25Gbps
sFPDP	1.0625Gbps, 2.125Gbps, 2.5Gbps, 3.125Gbps

Working With Other Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� Products

Investigator^�?� BERT can work alone to capture the bit error on your storage network or devices and test the quality of the physical layer connectivity. It can also work in conjunction with Investigator^�?� Protocol Analyzers to perform the complete tests, from physical layer to upper level protocols.

Investigator^�?� BERT can work with Investigator^�?� Traffic Generators and Protocol Analyzers to give you the freedom for complete testing, from physical layer connectivity to upper layer protocols, and from static protocol analysis to dynamic protocol analysis.

By working with our Protocol Editor and Utility Tools, you can generate custom test patterns for a custom application, and use the feature-rich Drag & Drop, trigger and filtering capabilities, as well as API for test automation.

Absolute Analysis Investigator^�?� BERT Platforms and Configurations

A complete Investigator^�?� BERT with both hardware and software will have the same system platforms and configurations as our Protocol Analyzers. The Bit Error Rate Tester software can be purchased independently.

Interview with Nigel Brownlow

2009-01-02T08:00:00Z

an eg3.com interview with Nigel Brownlow, Director of Technology and Product Development, Absolute Analysis
18 June 2008: The Importance of Protocol Test
NIGEL BROWNLOW DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
TEL. 925 699 1512
EMAIL. nigel.brownlow@absoluteanalysis.com
COMPANY. ABSOLUTE ANALYSIS, INC.

Q. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself and Absolute Analysis.

A. Absolute Analysis has been providing communications protocol test solutions to the industry for over 17 years. We provide a suite of tools covering protocol analysis, traffic generation, bit error rate testing, error injection, impairment testing, and performance statistics across multiple protocols. Development engineers choose our solutions for their power, flexibility, granularity, ease-of-use, and customizable database. The company is based in Southern California and has a worldwide sales force covering North America, Asia, and Europe.

I joined Absolute Analysis in 2006 and my role is to pilot new technologies and support our current product offerings. I have worked with communications protocols for over 3o years, starting with proprietary interfaces which were based on RS422 technology and ran at 300kbps, right through present day technologies like Ethernet, Fibre Channel, Serial FPDP, and Serial RapidIO that run up to 10Gbps and beyond.

About the Interviewee. Nigel Brownlow is director of technology and product development at Absolute Analysis. He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and
Electronics from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and an MBA from the Open University. Nigel has been responsible for the successful implementation of a number of international collaborative projects under the European Union ESPRIT program and has participated in several international standards activities.

Q. Most of the readership of this Boards Guide will be focused either on purchasing a standard board or perhaps on designing their own board. That said; they might be involved in transitions to new protocols like 10GE or PCI Express. Explain to us where your products and services might come in handy here:

A. Whether you are designing your own board or purchasing an off the shelf unit, the ability to examine the communications interface is essential. In custom designs it is necessary to test the physical layer interfaces using tools such as a BERT.

Once this is achieved and firmware is integrated, the board�??s response to different stimulus (both good and bad) needs to be examined using traffic generation and protocol analysis equipment. As the board evolves through the life cycle, tests are required to check performance under load conditions and system performance under error conditions.

Even when using off the shelf components there is still a need to examine the communications link to ensure there are no performance bottlenecks and the system will survive under error conditions.

Q. Are there particular vertical industries, such as storage or mil/aero where you find most of your customers? What verticals seem to have the most need for your products?

A. Absolute Analysis test solutions are used in a wide variety of industries such as the ones you describe. Telecommunications and the computer industry are two more examples. However, high speed communications links are found just about everywhere from fighter aircraft to automobiles and we provide the tools to capture, generate, alter, and statistically present this data to the bit level from 10Mbps to 10Gbps. Our products and services are also very customizable. Many companies that purchase our solutions are looking for custom protocol needs or non-standard speeds.

Q. Protocol test along with I/O often takes a back seat to selecting a boards provider based on form factors like AdvancedTCA. Is this always logical to you? Or can you make the case that a wider audience of engineers should be involved in protocol testing at an earlier stage?

A. Yes, it is logical to select a form factor to suit the environment where the solution is going to be implemented. This does not mean that you can ignore the test requirement. Failure to do so can result in the communications link being embedded on the PCB with no test points. We have come across this situation with several customers and solutions to this type of problem can be complex and quite expensive.

Q. In mid-May you announced a 10Gbps Ethernet protocol analyzer that employs a SFP+ (Small Form-Factor Pluggable) interface and supports the new 10GBase-LRM (Long Reach Multimode) standard. That�??s a mouthful! Can you break this down for us? What sorts of engineers or OEM managers will find this announcement exciting? What sorts of problems does it solve?

A. SFP+ is the technology of the future. Although other solutions have provided a stop-gap, SFP+ has a lower cost point and provides a smaller form factor than current technology. It also provides compatibility with existing 10Gbps implementations and backward compatibility with existing SFP technology. LRM overcomes the current distance limitations of today�??s 10Gbps technology.

Developers and engineers working in embedded systems, storage networking, data communications, telecom, and military and aerospace should all find our new 10Gbps solutions very interesting. To be able to conduct complete analysis at 10Gbps speeds with absolutely no data loss, even as far away as 220 meters, will certainly allow companies in these markets to expand their engineering capabilities.

Providing 100% line rate traffic capture with concurrent traffic generation and statistics gathering means no data loss, and developers can actually view, manipulate, shape and even corrupt traffic at 10Gbps speeds.

Q. 10GE is getting a lot of press these days as an industry transition. Where do you see this happening among your customers? What applications and needs are driving the earliest adopters of 10GE?

A. The proliferation of data is of course driving 10Gbps. In the storage market the need to access information quickly and efficiently is pushing bandwidth limits. Technologies such as iSCSI will also become much more interesting with 10Gbps support. Triple Play technology (voice, video and data) going across a single cable is creating much higher data requirements than seen previously. When these signals meet in the core of the
network the necessary bandwidth must be available to respect the timing requirements of this type of traffic.

The move to Carrier Grade Ethernet technology in the telecoms industry is yet another example of a 10Gbps requirement, and there are also specialized applications such as simulation, animation, etc. where speed is king.

Q. In your press release you mention Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) as attracting the attention of project managers and creating a need for protocol test among designers. Are there any pitfalls or issues that you can alert our audience to in this regard?

A. FCoE provides the ability to carry both Fibre Channel and Ethernet traffic across a single network eliminating the need for multiple interfaces in certain parts of the network. Fibre Channel has timing and delivery constraints that must be respected and therefore
constraints need to be placed on Ethernet to ensure that these requirements are met. Additionally, the solution requires a specific flavor of Ethernet called DCE (Data Center Ethernet) to work properly. Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that FCoE is really just another protocol.

Q. How important is it to analyze 100% of the traffic bit level --wire speed?

A. It is very important to capture all of the data or there will be dropped frames. This makes it impossible to correctly diagnose a problem, as you are unsure if a response did not happen or whether the test tool missed the frame. Many commercial tools and free tools such as Wireshark are unable to capture 100% of the data when link speeds exceed even modest loads. We capture 100% of the data.

Q. I see you can export traces gathered from your analyzer to Wireshark. Why not just use Wireshark?

A. Wireshark simply cannot capture 100% of the data at higher speeds. Wireshark runs across standard network interface cards so data gathering is limited to the throughput of that type of card when used with their software. Even though the Wireshark viewer supports over 900 different protocol decodes, throughput is very low even at 100Mbps speeds, and it certainly cannot keep-up with 10Gbps traffic. Customers can use our tools to capture 100% of the data for whatever protocol, and then export this trace data to a Wireshark format for import and analysis.

�??Whether you are designing your own board or purchasing an off the shelf unit, the ability to examine the communications interface is essential.�?? �??Nigel Brownlow, Absolute Analysis, Inc.

Q. Thank you for this interview.

Absolute Analysis Custom Protocol Analyzer

2009-01-08T20:39:47Z

The Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� Protocol Editor allows you to build a Custom Protocol Analyzer.

{xtypo_quote}The Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� Protocol Editor allows you to build a Custom Protocol Analyzer.{/xtypo_quote}

Protocol Editor

Protocol Editor is a powerful application that allows you to customize your environment:

Customize Standard Protocols by adding vendor-unique data/commands

Create a New Protocol

Mapping Protocols

Protocol Editor allows the user to map specific binary data patterns to unique commands and data that can be used by the analyzer and trace viewer.

Working With Other Absolute Analysis Investigator^�?� Products

Investigator^�?� Custom Protocol Analyzer can work alone or in conjunction with other Investigator^�?�products, depending on the protocols being tested, to form a unified test environment under the flexible, scalable, and upgradeable Investigator^�?� architecture.

Traffic Generator

Investigator^�?� Custom Protocol Analyzer works with our Ethernet Traffic Generator, Fibre Channel Traffic Generator, and sFPDP Traffic Generator to give you the freedom to perform both static-state and dynamic-state protocol analysis for a complete validation and verification of your network communications. Traffic Generator creates frame-building traffic generation with error injection and sends user-defined Ethernet frames at any speed, up to full line rate, with the ability to insert errors into the packet stream.

Bit Error Rate Tester

Together with an Investigator^�?� BERT, you will gain complete test capability, from physical link connectivity to upper level protocols.

Protocol Editor

By using Investigator^�?� Protocol Editor, user data within the frame can be decoded in the Trace Viewer and used as the basis for trigger and filter scenarios. Both Idle From and Idle Primitive support are provided. Idle frame filters remove unwanted frames from the capture buffer, extending buffer capture times. The Protocol Editor permits users to add additional filter, trigger and decode information to support additional protocols and services.

Utility Tools

The Investigator^�?� Custom Protocol Analyzer, together with our other Utility Tools, enable you to capture, Display and Transmit facilities support implementations with and without optional CRC fields. API makes test automation easy.

"Serial FPDP Bus Analysis" by Nigel Brownlow, Protocol Guru

2009-01-08T20:50:08Z

Read in COTS Journal about the latest in Serial FPDP bus analysis from Absolute Analysis' Nigel Brownlow

Absolute Analysis - News & Events

Protocol Test Solutions Provider Absolute Analysis Proves FCoE Capabilities at FCIA Plugfest

10Gbps Ethernet Coverage

Investigator�?� BERT now available!

Working With Other Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� Products

Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� BERT Platforms and Configurations

Interview with Nigel Brownlow

Q. First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself and Absolute Analysis.

Q. Are there particular vertical industries, such as storage or mil/aero where you find most of your customers? What verticals seem to have the most need for your products?

Q. Protocol test along with I/O often takes a back seat to selecting a boards provider based on form factors like AdvancedTCA. Is this always logical to you? Or can you make the case that a wider audience of engineers should be involved in protocol testing at an earlier stage?

Q. 10GE is getting a lot of press these days as an industry transition. Where do you see this happening among your customers? What applications and needs are driving the earliest adopters of 10GE?

Q. In your press release you mention Fiber Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) as attracting the attention of project managers and creating a need for protocol test among designers. Are there any pitfalls or issues that you can alert our audience to in this regard?

Q. How important is it to analyze 100% of the traffic bit level --wire speed?

Q. I see you can export traces gathered from your analyzer to Wireshark. Why not just use Wireshark?

Absolute Analysis Custom Protocol Analyzer

Working With Other Absolute Analysis Investigator�?� Products

Traffic Generator

Bit Error Rate Tester

Protocol Editor

Utility Tools

"Serial FPDP Bus Analysis" by Nigel Brownlow, Protocol Guru

Absolute Analysis Investigator^�?� BERT Platforms and Configurations

Working With Other Absolute Analysis Investigator^�?� Products