PacketExpert APIs For Test Automation And Remote Access

GL Communications Inc. a global leader in telecom test and measurement solutions, announced recently its Test Automation and Remote Testing through “API Support for PacketExpert Platforms”. This capability has wide ranging applications for Ethernet/IP Testing over 1 Gbps, and 10 Gbps networks.

Speaking to the press, Mr. Vijay Kulkarni CEO of the GL Communications Inc said, “PacketExpert finds use in testing a wide range of networks – from testing individual links/switches, testing local Ethernet/IP networks (LAN), end-to-end testing of Wide Area Networks (WAN), testing Core/MPLS networks, validate Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and much more. It’s available in different form factors – from Rack based High density 12-port/24-port mTOP platform, Portable units, and Tablet-based units.”

“GL’s MAPS CLI Client/Server platform supports various client libraries in different languages, so that users can make use of these different libraries to talk to the MAPS server, and achieve automation using their language of choice. However, these are relatively low-level libraries, which gives users a very fine grain control, but also requires users to put in a bit more effort to program with it.”

He further added, “For PacketExpert platform, a set of relatively High-Level APIs have been developed on top of the MAPS Client library, which greatly reduces the time to develop sample applications and achieve automation. These APIs are developed in the respective languages and are easy to use and intuitive. Eg: C# APIs are provided by means of API classes for each application. Similarly, Python APIs are provided through API scripts that implement API classes for different applications. Also supplied are sample applications, that users can go through to come up to speed on how to use the APIs. Using these high-level APIs and sample applications, users can start developing automated testing in a very short period.”

The PacketExpert provides access to all functionalities listed below remotely using Command Line Interface (CLI) and APIs through various clients such as C#, Python, and TCL.

• Wirespeed BERT
• Smart Loopback
• RFC2544 Tests (Throughput, Latency, Back-to-Back, Frame Loss)
• Packet Capture and Replay
• Packet Broker (Tap-Filter-Aggregate-Modify-Output)
• WAN Link Emulation
• Multi-stream Traffic Generation and Analysis
• ExpertTCP (RFC6349)
• ExpertSAM (ITU-T Y.1564)

PacketExpert can be configured as server-side application using the GL’s MAPS CLI Client/Server architecture. The advantage of such communication enables user to control PacketExpert by sending commands and receiving responses in a compiled/scripting language such as C#, Python, and TCL that is already familiar with many users.

• Control of Bert, Loopback, RFC 2544, Record Playback, IPLinkSim, PacketBroker, and ExpertSAM testing
• Capability of remote operation, automation and multi-site connectivity
• MAC, VLAN, MPLS, IP and UDP layers testing

Multiple PacketExpert devices can be controlled remotely from single client application.