Spirent Communications, the leader in testing networks, services and devices, today announced the launch of Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow, the industry’s first solution to offer protocol emulation along with the ability to benchmark flow scalability and forwarding performance of High Speed Ethernet (HSE) OpenFlow network devices. The solution delivers the required empirical data to determine if OpenFlow network devices and Software Defined Networking (SDN) applications can deliver the business benefits without degrading the user experience.

For a traditional network to evolve to SDN, OpenFlow needs to demonstrate interoperability with existing Ethernet network protocols in hybrid environments. OpenFlow devices also need to scale and perform across multi-site data centers, virtualized cloud computing and big data networks. Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow controller emulation is able to stress-test OpenFlow network devices, giving network managers an insight into the number of flows with corresponding data throughput and latency levels. It measures performance, availability, security and scalability of OpenFlow network devices and end-to-end SDN application scale by defining millions of flows and exercising them with traffic patterns and behavior. The solution uses sophisticated interoperability and benchmark testing to help enterprises and cloud providers understand the performance limitations of their networks.

“The OpenFlow paradigm separates the control plane and data plane, which present interoperability, scalability and performance challenges for traditional networking hardware,” said Jurrie van den Breekel, director of product marketing at Spirent Communications. “Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow, along with the Spirent HyperMetrics HSE test modules, deliver in-depth flow analysis, debugging and protocol emulation capabilities that help test the functionality and interoperability of OpenFlow devices with SDN applications.”

In March 2012 Spirent participated in the first OpenFlow Network Foundation (ONF) interoperability event along with Big Switch Networks, Broadcom, Brocade, HP, IBM, Intel/WindRiver, Juniper Networks, NEC and NTT Data. The objective of the event was to ensure that vendor implementations of the OpenFlow protocol work together, a critical element in the success of commercial deployments. Spirent’s role included troubleshooting connectivity with flow analysis, decoding discovery frames, traffic generation, validating data paths, and measuring failover convergence times.

Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow testing capabilities will be showcased during Interop Las Vegas 2012, May 8-10 at Spirent’s booth (number #735) and at the InteropNet OpenFlow Lab.

To learn more about testing OpenFlow, read the latest blog by networking expert Jurrie van den Breekel titled, “OpenFlow Advances Networking and Testing Requirements.”

For more information about Spirent TestCenter OpenFlow visit http://www.spirent.com/go/openflow.

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc. (LSE: SPT), a global leader in test & measurement offers an extensive portfolio of solutions to test data centers, cloud computing environments, high speed Ethernet networks and services, 3G/4G wireless networks and devices, network security, and global navigation satellite systems. For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/about-us/News_Room/About_Spirent_Communications_plc.aspx.