Agilent Technologies' N2X Multiservices Test Solution Chosen to Verify Juniper Networks IPTV and Multiplay Solutions
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N2X Provides Cost-Effective, Comprehensive Testing of IPTV Service Quality for Thousands of Subscribers
VANCOUVER, Canada, Broadband World Forum 2006, Juniper Networks Booth 3002, Sept. 11, 2006 -- Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that Juniper Networks has chosen Agilent's N2X multiservices test solution to verify the performance and scalability characteristics of its IPTV and Multiplay platform. The Agilent N2X multiservices test solution -- the industry's first solution for validating IPTV service quality for thousands of individual subscribers under real-world triple play network conditions -- allowed Juniper to validate the performance of its IPTV and Multiplay solutions in a highly scaled and dynamic network environment.
Service providers and network equipment manufacturers (NEMs) must verify that IPTV services will meet user quality expectations when converged with existing data and voice services, collectively referred to as triple play services, contending for the same network resources. Dynamic subscriber behaviors, such as IPTV channel zapping, coupled with a mix of triple play traffic, introduce new challenges to the network and can compromise video quality if not handled properly. Viewers have come to expect a predictable level of service quality with their broadcast and satellite TV services and will not tolerate service interruptions, picture degradation or long waiting periods to change channels with their new IPTV service. This negatively affects customer retention and, consequently, IPTV service adoption.
Juniper Networks Multiplay and IPTV solution supports a multitude of services such as IPTV, voice/video communication and data services, as well as home business, interactive gaming and streaming audio and video services. Agilent's N2X IPTV quality of experience (QoE) test functionality was used to verify the performance of Juniper's IPTV and Multiplay solution by characterizing service quality aspects on a per-subscriber basis. Individual N2X ports were used to simulate thousands of subscribers with unique service profiles and dynamic behaviors such as continuous channel zapping and session flapping. Based on these profiles, N2X generated a combination of service traffic from simulated video, voice and data sources, and made real-time QoE measurements on the received video traffic.
Juniper also uses N2X within its IPTV and Multiplay Center of Excellence where they work with industry partners on designing end-to-end IPTV and Multiplay solutions and identify best design practices.
"We use N2X to simulate tens of thousands of dynamic subscribers and hundreds of video, Internet and voice sources, so we can replace an entire lab full of equipment with a single N2X system," said Gary Southwell, director, IPTV Solutions Group, Juniper Networks. "We can create highly scaled traffic generation stress testing scenarios critical for assuring that multiple services can be supported simultaneously, and for demonstrating to providers that our industry-leading routing equipment can meet quality expectations on a per-service, per-subscriber basis."
"Service providers must get IPTV delivery right the first time to maximize service adoption," said Rod Unverrich, business manager of Agilent's Data Network Operation. "N2X provides the most scalable environment to allow NEMs and service providers to cost-effectively validate their network's ability to deliver quality IPTV services, and quickly uncover and resolve issues when they arise."
Benefits of the Agilent N2X N5570A functionality for IPTV quality of experience include:
o Validating IPTV infrastructure scalability limits by emulating and measuring thousands of subscribers and 500 channels of actual video clips per port;
o Quantifying IPTV degradation due to the impact of other triple play services such as time-sensitive voice and bursty data traffic;
o Creating a real-world test environment by emulating dynamic subscriber behaviors such as channel zapping, new Internet connection requests and DHCP session flapping;
o Validating IPTV service quality on a per-subscriber basis for tens of thousands of subscribers at once;
o Scaling multicast traffic, IGMP and multicast routing protocols to test whether a network solution is ready for widespread production roll-out; and
o Replay of captured video to illustrate how poor Media Delivery Index values correlate to the visible video quality, providing faster "time to insight."
U.S. Pricing and Availability
The Agilent N2X multiservice test solution is available at a starting price of $20,000. More information is available at www.agilent.com/find/n2x.
Product photos are available at www.agilent.com/find/N2X_image.
About Agilent Technologies
Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 20,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2005. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.
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