With the release of Keysight Elastic Network Generator (KENG), an agile, modular network test platform built on an open, vendor-neutral API and intended for continuous integration (CI), Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS) claims to present a breakthrough in network testing.
Businesses would need to come up with innovative strategies to guarantee smooth connectivity, interoperability, and creativity in today’s changing networking environment. Although proprietary testing solutions are often used in conventional networking settings, these closed test systems provide difficulties for network architects and engineers since they are rigid, isolated, and lack interoperability, stated Keysight. Devices and technologies from many firms would find it difficult to connect with one another due to this lack of compatibility, which might hinder innovation and make it more difficult to respond to the increasing needs of today’s widely dispersed applications.
Keysight established the vendor-neutral Open Traffic Generator (OTG) API project in response to these difficulties in order to modernize network infrastructure testing and meet the need for an open, intent-based, automation-friendly testing methodology. Cross-industry co-design of test suites for open networking initiatives including DENT, SONiC-DASH, SAI, OpenConfig, and SONiC is made possible by the OTG project.
The KENG software powers a variety of Keysight network infrastructure test software and hardware devices, supports the OTG API, and connects with other network emulation systems. This features the new white box composable UHD400T line-rate 400GE traffic generator and containerized Ixia-c software.
“Keysight Elastic Network Generator software represents a significant departure from the legacy black-box approach,” said Ram Periakaruppan, Vice President and General Manager, Network Test & Security Solutions, Keysight. “Our new solution seamlessly provides test coverage across the entire life cycle of network functions or services. Its open, disaggregated and API-first design has been field tested and proven to be ideal for modern DevOps.”
Compliance as a Code
The Keysight Elastic Network Generator software streamlines compliance testing by introducing a ‘Compliance as a Code’ methodology that guarantees smooth vendor equipment certification and interoperability.
- Provides flexibility and can operate in any containerized environment – Enables the same tests to be executed in a variety of settings, such as data centers and edge locations to support cooperative multi-vendor testing, developer laptops, software pipelines in public and private clouds, certification labs, and so on.
- Integrates field test cases into the development cycle – Enhances quality and steers clear of expensive, time-consuming design and testing problems.
- Makes it possible to write a test once and execute it elsewhere – Shortens the testing period and offers a more flexible developer and tester interface.
- Speeds up network validation – Replicating physical network topologies in a lab requires less actual network gear.
Keysight provides a community version of their Elastic Network Generator, which can simulate complicated pattern software traffic generator and border gateway protocol (BGP) sessions, to reduce the obstacles to integrating the OTG API into NetDevOps processes. Strong control and data plane validation would be ensured by the community edition, which could be a good starting point for integrating network testing into CI/CD workflows in corporate and service provider networks.
“Keysight Elastic Network Generator software brings new network validation capabilities previously available only in large hardware labs into the thriving Containerlab ecosystem,” said Roman Dodin, Product Line Manager, Nokia. “Containerlab users can now enable their software testbeds with Open Traffic Generator APIs to perform comprehensive functional testing of control plane protocols and customize traffic patterns like never before. Our collaboration with Keysight makes network testing more accessible through Containerlab and unlocks the full potential of CI/CD for network automation.”
