May 4, 2006 Quebec City, Canada -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering has released the FTB-8510 Packet Blazer Ethernet test module for its FTB-200 Compact Platform and FTB-400 Universal Test System (UTS). The company says the module brings service-level agreement verification to Ethernet-based packet services.
According to the company, the FTB-8510 module tests Ethernet connectivity in its native format for 10/100/1000BaseT, 1000BaseSX, 1000BaseLX, and 1000BaseZX LAN-to-LAN services delivered via ATM, frame relay, SONET/SDH, switched Ethernet, VLANs, dark fiber, WDM, or other means. The module also features the company's patent-pending EtherBERT technology, which provides bit-error-rate testing of Gigabit Ethernet interfaces. The company says the module is mainly suitable for WDM testing to assess quality of transmission.
The company says the combination of the test module with the FTB-200 Compact Platform provides field technicians with powerful Ethernet testing capabilities in a lightweight and compact form factor. The FTB-8510 module's features includes RFC 2544 testing, multiple-stream generation and analysis, Ethernet QoS testing, and packet jitter (frame-delay variation). The company notes that packet-jitter measurement has become essential to characterize the capabilities of networks carrying delay-sensitive applications such as VoIP and IPTV.
"The addition of the Packet Blazer's Ethernet testing capabilities to the FTB-200 Compact Platform provides a cost-effective yet comprehensive tool for the rapid field deployment and troubleshooting of Ethernet-based services," comments Benoit Fleury, EXFO's VP of protocol layer product management. "This cross-platform capability, combined with the recently launched FTB-8120/30 next-generation SONET/SDH test modules, demonstrates EXFO's commitment to provide the most advanced telecom field-testing solutions. With the flexibility of integrating optical, telecom, and datacom modules within the same compact platform, users now have a versatile test system that remains simple and effective."