Ixia's virtualised IxLoad solution helps mobile operators accelerate NFV migrations

Ixia has announced that its IxLoad test solution now runs as a virtualised system to help mobile operators maximise the success of strategic NFV deployments. IxLoad emulates the behaviour of mobile subscribers and virtualised network functions (VNFs) to allow operators to speed the introduction of new services.

“Delivering both traditional and newly virtualised test capabilities, IxLoad delivers the high scale and realistic traffic loads needed to validate critical elements of virtualised wireless network performance, quality and elasticity. Through and beyond deployment, Ixia’s visibility architecture and Phantom virtualised monitoring Taps (vTaps) address new performance and security challenges created by migration,” the company said.

The benefits include: optimising virtual networks with a repeatable, large-scale validation approach; scaling to simulate millions of subscribers in order to assess Quality of Service (QoS) and policy control with the highest load-test capacity; assigning Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics for voice, video, web and data applications.

“There is very strong interest in NFV from telecom network operators that want to build more flexible networks that are easier to configure and faster to evolve,” said Gabriel Brown, senior analyst at heavy reading. “However, operators need the tools to accurately model, trouble-shoot, and test the behaviour of virtualised network functions across the life-cycle of a service or deployment. The availability and maturity of these tools is critical to the broad adoption of NFV.”