Whether you need to test the integrity of a physical connection or just want to verify the claims of a router or switch vendor, WAN traffic generators and analyzers can do the job. Once common only in carrier labs and service-provider sites, these devices are cropping up in corporate test facilities to aid in devising disaster-recovery scenarios or test a new software load before deployment. Given the growing variety of data being transmitted beyond simple IP, these devices come in handy to diagnose any problems that occur in the enterprise network. Analyzers can capture all the traffic on the network and decode it. Enterprise customers can use these devices to see where traffic is coming from or going to. Where voice-over technologies are deployed, analyzers can decode call setup routines and help troubleshoot.
We looked at four WAN traffic generators/analyzers to see which offers the best all-around features and would prove to be the most useful. Agilent Technologies, Radcom, Spirent Communications and the Adtech division of Spirent each sent us an abundance of equipment and interfaces to test. Acterna, Nettest and Network Associates declined our invitation to participate.
The four products we looked at span a broad range, not only by features but by size and price as well. All are capable of generating traffic on the network, and all but Spirent's Smartbits 2000/6000 can analyze data coming off of the network, too. We found that for the most part they have similar capabilities, and the software provided is more than adequate for most enterprise use.
Radcom's PrismLite took our Editor's Choice award because it offers excellent protocol support with a good user interface, all in a compact chassis. Both the PrismLite and the Agilent Advisor WAN J2300D provide good generation and analyzing capabilities, while Spirent's Adtech AX/4000 Broadband Test System is the obvious choice for serious broadband testing. Smartbits 2000 and Smartbits 6000 fall into a category of their own: They are designed only to generate traffic and cannot perform protocol analysis.
Our evaluation was simple. We looked for a graphical interface that is simple to understand and use, along with the capability to generate and analyze traffic at line rate over a variety of WAN interfaces, with an emphasis on ATM and frame relay. We connected the units back to back and had a unit from one vendor generate traffic while a product from another vendor analyzed it.
RSS
