Spirent ML-7711 Ethernet Fiber SmartMetrics SmartCard

The SmartMetrics SmartCard ML-7711 Ethernet Fiber SmartCard is designed for deep packet testing in an environment where it is critical to validate the performances and interoperability of Layer 2 and Layer 3 devices. As part of the SmartBits family, the ML-7711 is an Ethernet SmartCard compatible with Spirent's SMB-200 and SMB-2000 chassis systems. The SmartCard also has a 100Base-FX fiber interface for Fast Ethernet; thus, it supports full and half-duplex operation over multi-mode fibre using the MTRJ connector. SmartBits ML-7711 works with one non-changing data rate of 100 Mbps, which is managed manually and by auto-negotiation, while it is also reliable in the advanced network test configuration.

The SmartBits® ML-7711 supports high-density configurations: up to four ports in the SMB-200 chassis and up to 20 ports in the SMB-2000 chassis. In large-scale network simulation testing, SmartBits® ML-7711 allows control of up to 640 ports from a single workstation across several chassis-fitting test applications involving complex network configurations. It provides the transmit capabilities necessary to generate full line-rate frames in one of several transmission modes: continuous, single burst, and multi-burst. These modes of transmission allow the SmartBits® ML-7711 to test network devices under a diversity of load conditions that emulate real situations in which performance is to be put under stress. Specific control over frame attributes like frame length, interpacket gaps, and data patterns is included in the frame-based transmission within SmartBits ML-7711 to introduce controlled network anomalies such as CRC and alignment errors going to be used for the validation of device resilience.

SmartBits ML-7711 supports necessary network protocols like ARP, DHCP, ICMP, IGMP, IP, RARP, TCP, UDP, and VLAN. The wide protocol range makes SmartBits® ML-7711 flexible to be used across wide testing scenarios; it is invaluable in pinpointed troubleshooting specific responses from a protocol or when analyzing the behavior of a device within a mixed-protocol network. Advanced sequence tracking and latency monitoring capabilities of the card detail the network throughput, frame loss, and latency over time. Where the former refers to the number of frames, including transmission and receiving, per stream, and the latter refers to latency tests that chronicle the network timing intervals, the SmartBits ML-7711 will be able to return very accurate performance measurements for in-depth analysis.