I’ve used Ixia on high-confidence projects where we had to prove capacity of an 
as-built network. Such testing isn’t cheap, but it’s sometimes the only way to 
get the job done.

Although you can buy Ixia gear and use it in a lab environment, that kind of 
testing has limited application, because you often can’t fully replicate real 
world external circumstances.

 For a Bay-area airport deployment of several hundred access points, I 
specified and used Ixia’s Wireless testing platform to verify that we could 
stream Netflix to several thousand mobile devices simultaneously. The Ixia rigs 
were made mobile on carts, and each could simulate several hundred simultaneous 
users. We hired this entire job using Ixia’s own engineers, and it cost about 
$10K per day for their engineering labor and renting equipment, over several 
days.

We had to do this simulation in the as-built network ahead of the Thanksgiving 
holiday, the busiest traffic day at any airport, as part of the 
proof-of-capacity deliverable. There was no way to prove capacity in a lab 
environment, due to the many unpredictable variables, such as access point 
placement, Wi-Fi interferers, and back bone congestion. Another variable was 
the Internet uplink, which consisted of two 5 Gbps BGP links to two different 
providers. Even with this equipment, it was impossible to test the entire 
airport terminal in one go. We did it separate test for the gate areas, and 
baggage claim, the highest measured device demand locations based on the 
previous Wi-Fi deployment.

This was the only way to prove the network would not fail in the heat of 
battle. I have to hand it to Ixia: their people were efficient and 
professional, and knew what they were doing. There was no way that we as 
network integrators would gain enough expertise to do this testing in such 
short order.

-mel via cell

> On Aug 26, 2021, at 6:08 AM, Joe Yabuki <joeyabuki...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I just wanted to know how you do your network testing when validating a new 
> design/technology in your Network, especially to ensure that it will meet 
> your SLA requirements for example that a voice call will not be dropped in 
> case of a network element failure ?
> 
> Do you test with IXIA, multiping, launch somes VM using ping with -i option, 
> Windows ping by setting the timeout interval, or may be directly from the 
> Network device (routers...),
> 
> Many thanks,
> Joe

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