EXFO Extends Test Capabilities

QUEBEC -- EXFO Electro-Optical Engineering Inc. (NASDAQ: EXFO, TSX: EXF) announced today the release of new test enhancements for its FTB-8510G Packet Blazer 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) test module.

With this new software release, the FTB-8510G Packet Blazer 10 Gigabit Ethernet test module supports stacked virtual local area networks (VLANs), also known as IEEE standard 802.1ad Q-in-Q. This software upgrade allows network service providers (NSPs) to validate transparent 10 GigE services that preserve and extend their customers VLAN groupings and associated access privileges across metropolitan and wide-area networks. EXFO’s new software suite also validates the integrity of traffic up to Layer 4 on the open systems interconnection (OSI) stack through IP header and user datagram protocol (UDP) checksum validation; they are key performance parameters to ensure that network and transport layers are delivering the level of performance required for mission-critical and time-sensitive applications.

In addition, this new software suite introduces a unique feature called Dual Test Set, which allows users to perform bidirectional RFC 2544 testing, an established Ethernet-based test methodology to measure key performance parameters. Unlike other test instruments that offer only round-trip measurements, EXFO’s Dual Test Set feature provides better insight into the service under test by displaying measurements in both directions. This allows users to better assess the true expected performance of the service and, more importantly, isolate the source of degraded performance to a specific direction.

“The FTB-8510G Packet Blazer test module within the FTB-200 Compact Platform offers the most compact 10 Gigabit Ethernet test solution on the market today,” said Etienne Gagnon, EXFO’s Vice-President of Protocol and Optical Product Management. “These new enhancements raise it to a whole new level and, combined with the FTB-8510B Packet Blazer Gigabit Ethernet test module, it provides a uniform and consistent Ethernet test solution at all standard rates extending from 10 Megabits to 10 Gigabits per second.”

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