VIAVI Calnex SNE, SNE-X and SNE Ignite Network Emulators

Overview

The VIAVI network impairment and emulation range consists of the Calnex SNE Ignite, Calnex SNE and Calnex SNE-X. All three are multi-port Ethernet network emulators. They reproduce real-world network conditions such as delay, jitter, packet loss, duplication, reordering and corruption in the lab, so devices, applications and infrastructure can be tested before deployment.

The SNE Ignite is an FPGA-based precision emulator for applications that need high accuracy, such as O-RAN fronthaul testing. It applies line-rate impairments on 100GbE, 25GbE and 10GbE links. It has low intrinsic latency, low packet delay variation and an integrated one-step PTP Transparent Clock, which lets data flows be impaired independently without affecting synchronization. It also supports SyncE pass-through and an external clock input.

The Calnex SNE supports 100GbE, 50GbE, 25GbE, 10GbE and 1GbE interfaces through four interface-card slots and allows any-port-to-any-port packet flow. It offers more than 55 impairments and tools, including fragmentation, video and audio (H.264 and H.265) corruption, load generation, capture and replay, and a 5G network model built from carrier data.

The Calnex SNE-X extends the same impairment set to up to 28 ports. Wire rate runs from 1 to 100GbE, maximum intrinsic latency is 20 µs, and a high-performance backplane provides simultaneous any-port-to-any-port testing.

Control and automation

All models use a browser-based, drag-and-drop map interface for building emulated networks. The Timeline feature schedules changes to emulation settings without scripting, and a RESTful API provides full remote control. Multi-user support lets ports be reserved and assigned to individual users.

Models in this series

Model	Description
SNE Ignite	Calnex SNE Ignite High Precision Network Emulator for O-RAN Fronthaul Testing Multi-port FPGA-based precision network emulator applying line-rate impairments on 100GbE, 25GbE and 10GbE Ethernet links.	Details →
SNE	Calnex SNE Multi-Port, Multi-User Network Emulator Multi-port, multi-user Ethernet network emulator supporting 1GbE to 100GbE interfaces with 55+ impairments and delay emulation up to 30 seconds.	Details →
SNE-X	Calnex SNE-X Multi-Port High Precision Network Emulator Multi-port network emulator with up to 28 ports at 1 to 100GbE wire rate for impairment testing of 5G, data center and cloud networks.	Details →

Key Features

Line-rate network emulation on Ethernet links from 1GbE to 100GbE
SNE Ignite: FPGA-based precision emulation with nanosecond resolution
SNE Ignite: integrated one-step PTP Transparent Clock
SNE Ignite: SyncE pass-through with or without external clock synchronization
SNE Ignite: configurable as two, four, six or eight 100GbE/25GbE/10GbE ports
SNE Ignite: software upgradeable to the 100GbE interface speed option
SNE Ignite: targeted eCPRI, RoE, GTP and PTP filters
SNE: up to 8 ports 100GbE/50GbE/25GbE, up to 16 ports 10GbE/1GbE
SNE-X: up to 28 ports
Any Port to Any Port packet flow without limitations
Over 55 impairments and tools
Drop, error, delay, jitter, re-order or duplicate packets
Audio and video MPEG (H.264 & H.265) modification and corruption
Packet fragmentation and reordering
Generic packet modification of any bits or bytes
Load generators and background traffic generation
Non-volatile capture and replay
Link flapping
Markov random packet drop
Automated 5G network model
Wireshark integration
Web-based drag-and-drop user interface
Timeline feature for automation without scripting
RESTful API for remote control
Multi-user support with port reservation

Specifications

Ports and Interfaces

100GbE optical interfaces SNE Ignite	QSFP28 (LR4/SR4) – 2, 4, 6 or 8 ports (optional) At least one of the 100GbE or 25GbE options must be ordered
25GbE optical interfaces SNE Ignite	SFP28 (SR/LR) – 2, 4, 6 or 8 ports (optional) Optical adaptors convert QSFP28 to SFP28 for 25GbE
10GbE optical interfaces SNE Ignite	SFP+ (SR/LR) – 2, 4, 6 or 8 ports (optional) Optical adaptors convert QSFP28 to SFP+ for 10GbE
Forward Error Correction (FEC) SNE Ignite	100GbE NRZ: RS (528,514) KR4; 25GbE NRZ: RS (528,514) KR4 FEC can be disabled at 25GbE
Clock reference SNE Ignite	Internal or External (10 MHz)
SyncE Pass Thru SNE Ignite	Clock can be recovered on one port and passed transparently to another.
Passthrough Pause Frames SNE Ignite	As defined within IEEE 802.3x standard
Passthrough PFC Frames SNE Ignite	As defined by the 802.1Qbb standard
Interface card slots SNE	4 slots available for interface cards
Network interfaces (1G / 10G / 25G / 50G / 100G) SNE	up to 16 / up to 12 / up to 8 / up to 8 / up to 8 Data sheet key features state up to 16 ports 10GbE/1GbE; the specification table lists up to 12 at 10G
Network interfaces (1G / 10G / 25G / 50G / 100G) SNE-X	up to 28 / up to 28 / up to 16 / up to 8 / up to 8
Standard network interfaces (1G / 10G / 25G / 50G / 100G) SNE, SNE-X	GbE Copper / SFP+ / SFP28 / QSFP28 / QSFP28
Optional network interfaces (1G / 10G / 25G / 50G / 100G) SNE, SNE-X	RJ45 / SFP+ / SFP28 / QSFP28 / QSFP28
Max. packet rate per port (bi-directional) (1G / 10G / 25G / 50G / 100G) SNE	2.96 million / 29.6 million / 37.2 million / 62.5 million / 62.5 million
10GbE/1GbE STD card performance SNE	Wire Rate with 128 byte traffic on all ports (up to eight 10GbE ports); Wire Rate with 64 byte traffic on any four 10GbE ports or all 1GbE ports Mixing 4 port 10G HPC modules and 2 port 10G STD modules is not currently permitted
10GbE/1GbE HPC card performance SNE	Wire Rate with iMix traffic on all ports (up to sixteen 10GbE ports); Wire Rate with 64 byte traffic on any two 10GbE ports or all 1GbE ports Mixing 4 port 10G HPC modules and 2 port 10G STD modules is not currently permitted

Flows and Filtering

Impairment profiles (25GbE/10GbE) SNE Ignite	16 profiles allowing 8 flows of impaired packets in each direction Each profile can be configured individually
Impairment profiles (100GbE) SNE Ignite	8 profiles allowing 4 flows of impaired packets in each direction Each profile can be configured individually
Filtering SNE Ignite	MAC Source and Destination Address, Length/Type; VLAN (Priority, VLAN ID & Type), Custom VLAN; MPLS Label, Custom MPLS; IPv4 Source and Destination Address; IPv4 Version No, DiffServ/ToS, Protocol; IPv6 Source and Destination Address; UDP/TCP Source port, Destination port; Custom L3/L4/L5 Length, Offset, Mask, Value User-configurable filters including ranges and wildcards
GTP filter SNE Ignite	GTP Version (v1, v2), Type, Tunnel EndPoint ID Targeted GTP control message impairments
eCPRI filter SNE Ignite	eCPRI Revision, Concatenation Indicator, Message Type, Encapsulation
RoE filter SNE Ignite	Message Type, Flow ID, Length, Ordering Info Radio over Ethernet
PTP filter SNE Ignite	Layer 2 Ethernet, Layer 3/4 UDP IPv4
PTP Transparent Clock SNE Ignite	1-step Transparent Clock Residence time is measured and placed in the PTP event message correction field
Maximum filter SNE, SNE-X	unlimited Connect multiple filters in any way to create complex filter rules
Advanced filtering SNE, SNE-X	Generic Filter; IP Protocol — Payload Type and Value; MPLS — MPLS Label, QoS Value, TTL Value; VLAN — VLAN ID, User Priority MPEG Video and RTP A/V filters optional

Delay and Jitter

Minimum delay emulation (intrinsic delay) SNE Ignite	6.8 µs at 10GbE; 6.8 µs at 25GbE; 6.8 µs at 100GbE Jumbo Frame Mode: 14 µs at 10GbE, 8.85 µs at 25GbE, 8.85 µs at 100GbE
Maximum delay emulation (line rate) SNE Ignite	80 ms at 100GbE; 320 ms at 25GbE; 750 ms at 10GbE Delay resolution: 1 ns
Maximum extended delay emulation (line rate) SNE Ignite	320 ms at 100GbE; 1280 ms at 25GbE; 3200 ms at 10GbE With Extended Delay Option
Extended delay at reduced bandwidth SNE Ignite	up to 22 s (all rates at 1G reduced bandwidth); up to 42 s (all rates at 500M reduced bandwidth) Delay resolution: 1 ns
Jitter range SNE Ignite	1 µs to 400 ms; step size is 1 ns Constant, Gaussian, Gamma, Uniform and Step distributions, or import from an external file
Intrinsic latency SNE, SNE-X	<20µs All rates 1G to 100G
Timing precision SNE, SNE-X	10µs
1GbE delay emulation SNE, SNE-X	up to 1.25secs Extended Delay (optional): up to 10secs
10GbE delay emulation SNE, SNE-X	up to 0.5secs Extended Delay (optional): up to 4secs
25GbE delay emulation SNE, SNE-X	up to 0.5secs Extended Delay (optional): up to 4secs
50GbE delay emulation SNE, SNE-X	up to 0.339secs Extended Delay (optional): up to 2.714secs
100GbE delay emulation SNE, SNE-X	up to 0.339secs Extended Delay (optional): up to 2.714secs
Delay emulation at reduced bandwidth SNE, SNE-X	up to 30secs
Jitter SNE, SNE-X	0.1ms to 100ms or 0.1 to 100% of constant delay Fixed, variable, ramp, normal/Gaussian and sinusoidal latency
Timing constraints (start / duration) SNE, SNE-X	0.01ms to 360,000ms (in 0.01ms increments)

Impairments

Packet corruption mode SNE Ignite	burst (1 – 10,000), rate (0.00001 to 100%) Applies to dropped, errored, duplicated and re-ordered packets; continuous or On/Off/Repeat based on time or number of packets
Constant throttle SNE, SNE-X	128bits/sec to 1G User configurable buffer size up to 20Mbytes for video
Background traffic generation range SNE, SNE-X	500byte/sec to 1G Range duration 1000ms to 360,000ms (in 1ms increments)
Time based re-order SNE, SNE-X	Displace packet from 0.1ms to 500 ms
Position based re-order SNE, SNE-X	Displace packet up to 10,000 places
Ethernet fragmentation SNE, SNE-X	MTU: 68 to 9000
Bit Error Rate simulation SNE, SNE-X	x bits in y received (1 bit to IE+15)
Percentage loss SNE, SNE-X	Drop 1% to 100% (in increments of 1%)
Markov loss SNE, SNE-X	2 state random packet drop (as per ITU-T G.1050 Appendix II - Gilbert-Elliott model)
Generic packet modifier SNE, SNE-X	Modify up to 6 bit / byte sections per packet

General

Local automation SNE Ignite	Timeline Option enables local configuration automation to a 1s resolution
Remote control	RESTful API
Max. frame size SNE, SNE-X	Jumbo Mode 9219 bytes; Non-jumbo Mode 1542 bytes
Traffic capture and replay SNE, SNE-X	Volatile Storage (20G RAM); Non-volatile Storage (1TB SSD) Non-volatile storage optional; max traffic capture rate 1Gb/s
Wireshark integration SNE, SNE-X	on up to 200 protocols
Dimensions SNE, SNE-X	2u Rack

Applications

O-RAN fronthaul (O-DU to O-RU) test
O-RAN midhaul (O-CU to O-DU) test
5G Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)
5G Core and backhaul
5G services (AR/VR, V2X)
Datacenter interconnect and migration
Cloud migration planning
Cloud infrastructure and application testing
Telecom and Federal applications
Defense applications
Customer Proof of Concept (PoC)
SLA verification
IPTV and video
SD-WAN
Broadcast quality video networks (SMPTE)
AV and video conferencing
VoIP and video/voice applications
Mobile subscriber networks (VoLTE, eMBMS)
Content delivery networks
CoS/QoS level testing
WAN acceleration and network optimization
LAN/WAN enterprise networks
Satellite links
Storage networks
Carrier Wi-Fi
Cable and broadband networks
Microwave links
ITU-T Y.1731/IEEE 802.1ag operations and maintenance

Options & Accessories

Option	Description
Extended Delay Option	Extended Delay Option — Extends line-rate delay emulation
Local Timeline Option	Local Timeline Option — Local configuration automation to a 1s resolution (SNE Ignite)
100GbE	100GbE interface speed option — Software upgrade to 100GbE interface speed (SNE Ignite)
1GRJ	1GbE card — 2 or 4 ports of 1GbE Electrical (RJ45) (SNE)
10G	10GbE card — 2 or 4 ports of 10GbE/1GbE Optical (SFP+); STD 2 port and HPC 4 port variants (SNE)
25G	25GbE card — 2 ports of 25G/10G/1G Optical (SFP28), or 2 ports of 25G Optical (QSFP28) (SNE)
50G	50GbE card — 2 ports of 50/25G Optical (QSFP28) (SNE)
100G	100GbE card — 2 ports of 100/50/25G Optical (QSFP28) (SNE)
Non-volatile Storage	Non-volatile Storage (1TB SSD) — Traffic capture and replay storage (SNE, SNE-X)
RTP Analyzer	RTP Analyzer — Output detailed information on RTP streams
TCP Client	TCP Client — Simulate clients with data streams
TCP Server	TCP Server — Simulate servers with data streams
DDOS Simulation	DDOS Simulation — Simulate extremely stressful DDOS environments
AV Pack	Audio Visual (AV) Pack — RTP Filter and MPEG H.264 and H.265 Corruptor