December 21, 2004 Bedford, MA -- VoIP test systems supplier Empirix has introduced an enhanced version of its Hammer NXT VoIP and TDM performance testing system. The newest Hammer NXT provides what the company claims is unmatched load scalability and dramatic cost reduction for high-density load testing and performance verification of VoIP and PSTN network elements and networks.
Using multiple Hammer NXT systems, network equipment manufacturers and service provider labs can create load-testing environments that scale to more than 50,000 endpoints (signaling and media). The NXT now incorporates Empirix' patent-pending IP.DSP technology, which provides high-density testing capacity and media analysis while reducing test system per port costs by up to a factor of ten, say company representatives.
"Load testing is critical for network equipment manufacturers and service providers seeking to bring services to market faster and is especially important today as the VoIP market moves from the emerging stage to the deployment stage," contends Jessy Cavazos, industry analyst and sector leader of Frost & Sullivan's Communications Test & Measurement Group. "With these enhancements to the Hammer NXT, Empirix has boosted the system's cost-effectiveness, performance, and flexibility, significantly increasing its value proposition to customers," she adds. "Empirix is a leader in the world VoIP test equipment market. This announcement is key to the company's R&D test equipment portfolio and demonstrates its commitment to the lab, even as the company leverages its market strength into VoIP monitoring."
The Hammer NXT offers up to 24,000 simultaneous signaling/media endpoints per system for high-density performance testing. Carrier-class test scenarios can be cost-effectively scaled with simultaneous testing and monitoring of every channel, as well as real-time path confirmation and media detection at wire speeds, to verify maximum call rates, routing, and content under a variety of real-world network scenarios.
According to the company, the new, fully programmable state machine-based signaling emulation engine offers complete control over the behavior of all emulated endpoints, as well as unmatched IP protocol scripting flexibility, including the ability to quickly extend or customize protocols to user specifications. Complex call flows can be easily modeled without expert protocol knowledge, and users have expanded control over IP signaling message content and sequences for testing VoIP services and applications.
The object-oriented environment, accessed via an intuitive graphical interface, ensures that all protocol changes are automatically replicated throughout the test environment. Test routines can be easily modeled, stored, and reused. The system architecture allows a unique protocol to be run on each individual endpoint, providing enhanced flexibility for building test networks under various scenarios.
The new NXT shares a common signaling engine and architecture with the Hammer FX-IP functional test system. Customized protocol and signaling configurations can be ported between the two platforms. With the use of the Hammer Mega-Controller, engineers can create a single, integrated test environment that speeds feature and load testing for VoIP network equipment, such as media gateways, soft switches, media servers, and session border controllers.
The system can detect and analyze the content of each media stream generated (up to 24,000) at full Ethernet line rates, including detection of tones, DTMF, voice prompts, silences, and energy, allowing users to stress and verify media functionality under high-density conditions. A wide range of codecs are supported, as well as unique IP and MAC address emulation.