In conjunction with IT Brand Pulse and Brocade (News 
- Alert), Ixia, a provider of converged IP network test solutions, demonstrated DCB conformance and performance tests. These tests highlighted a series of benchmarks and provide an available measurement system for vendors to gauge equipment and network conformance to emerging standards.
IT Brand Pulse (ITBP) worked with Ixia (News - Alert) to develop a suite of three converged network tests: Converged traffic latency with Priority-based Flow Control (PFC); End-to-end connectivity with storage I/O performance; and Bandwidth optimization with Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS).
According to a press release, Ixia's data center test solution is uniquely capable of performing all three tests in a single integrated system. Ixia tested the Brocade 8000 Switch using a combination of high-density Ethernet and native Fiber Channel load modules, DCB and FCoE protocols, real storage target/initiator emulation, and wire-rate traffic generation.
These three tests are mandatory for any converged network switch carrying both LAN and SAN traffic. The tests verified the switch's ability to conform to current DCB standards for PFC, ETS, storage I/O performance, and handle increased traffic loads under heavy stress.
It also verifies and prioritizes high-priority storage traffic over LAN data traffic under congestion. Before replacing existing data center infrastructure to converge LAN and SAN traffic on single network architecture, data center operators need assurance that new infrastructure equipment can maintain requisite levels of performance, scalability and reliability.
Ixia's Fiber Channel and NGY 10GE load modules provide the industry's most flexible, cost-effective, and energy-efficient solution for fully testing high-density converged network switches at scale, the company said.
In other company news, TMCnet reported that Ixia has teamed with Nick Lippis of the Lippis Report to sponsor a series of open industry data center network performance and power consumption tests.
Mandira Srivastava is a TMCnet contributor. She works as a full-time writer, ghostwriter and blogger, and has more than two years of experience in print and Web media. She has also worked on company brochures, website content and product descriptions, as well as proofreading and editing content. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Janice McDuffee 
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