Ixia is working with Viavi Solutions to showcase the world’s first public interoperability demonstration of a test system running bi-directional 400GbE line rate traffic with RS-544 Forward Error Correction (FEC), as currently defined in the IEEE 802.3bs draft standard.
The demo, which will be shown at next week’s ECOC 2016 conference in Düsseldorf, Germany, will show full interoperability of independently developed MAC, PCS, and RS-544 FEC IP by each company, including the critical FEC element that enables 400GbE error-free data packets to be carried over fiber links, on readily available hardware components.
The companies said this demonstration is intended to show that it is now possible to successfully bring products to market that interoperate in accordance with emerging 400GbE standards and are ready for adoption by network equipment manufacturers as well as companies that need to move forward with their 400GbE implementation.
Ixia’s full portfolio of network infrastructure test systems, including the 400GbE test system, offer the same send/receive capabilities on all speed ports, with packet lengths as small as 49B, which is smaller than the minimum Ethernet frame size. It is also capable of sending and receiving a single 400GbE line rate flow at any packet size.
Viavi’s Optical Network Tester (ONT) has been proven in lab testing of 100G components, and now has the industry’s first 400G support to include FEC and PAM4 modulation. Pioneers of the high-speed network ecosystem now have a comprehensive, integrated platform for design, development, and validation of 400G technologies including CFP8 pluggable 400G optics.
“It is a very exciting time in high speed networking technology, and we are delighted to work together with Ixia to demonstrate the first stages of a vibrant and healthy 400GbE ecosystem,” said Paul Brooks, 400G technology lead, Viavi Solutions. “We are all committed to helping our customers successfully bring 400GbE products to market with the confidence that they can interoperate and perform to expectations.”
