Network Performance Testing

Shenick and Fanfare partner to build Integrated IP Communications Test Solution

Shenick announced today that they are partnering with Fanfare to add full plug in support to the Shenick diversifEye™ product.  According to the press release, this will allow users of Fanfare's iTest product to control and manipulate per-flow testing from the Shenick product. A lot of the press release is focused on Service Providers and wireless markets, which is an area that Shenick focuses on more than many of the other players.  Direct from the press release: "NGN and LTE services and applications bring with them increased quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) demands. Per-flow test and measurement is the only mechanism to guarantee performance at these granular levels enabling providers to pinpoint application and individual user issues accurately" I think it's great that this support has been added on both ends so that users of iTest can take advantage of existing or new Shenick equipment.  I hope there will be more details about how deep the integration goes in the coming weeks. One interesting thing is the fact that both Fanfare and Shenick are part of the TesLA Alliance - I wonder how much the proposed TesLA standards have influenced this solution, and if we'll see more of this in the coming months since the standards are getting closer to being approved...

Shenick announces diversifEye software Release 5.2

Shenick announced their new diversifEye software version 5.2 yesterday, which includes a number of updates and new features.   Most notably, the ability to test session initiation protocol (SIP) controlled video on demand (VoD).   I would imagine there are a lot of carriers and providers that would benefit greatly from this feature, and I'm not aware of anyone else having this functionality yet. Other additional updates include (from their press release):

• Enhanced capture replay capabilities with support for UDP/IP replay such as Skype™ and PCAP substitution.
• Upgraded post-test analysis reporting tools.
• HTTP ‘POST’ (File Support) and ‘Header’ Updates.
• Increased productivity and test flexibility with;
  • Test support for an enhanced range of VoD servers,
  • Subscriber emulation activity cycles, emulating individual users enabling/disabling broadband access during a test cycle,
  • Full HD 1080i over UDP/IP/RTP video flow support for broadcast applications.
• Increased visibility with TCP connection timing statistics.
• Additional OS platform support.
• In addition to testing IPTV, VoD, VoIP, DPI, security devices, IPv4 and/or IPv6, newer diversifEye applications include:
  • DOCSIS & EURODOCSIS 3.0
  • WiMAX & LTE
  • DLP