Effective Energy Efficiency Measurements – IP Networks
IxGreen
Rising energy prices have made data center energy costs a noticeable OPEX item, and therefore a target for future optimization. Numerous commercial companies and government agencies are currently planning to set energy footprint goals for their computing and telecom equipment.
Because ever more bandwidth is being consumed on fixed and wireless networks, enterprises and operators have been forced to upgrade their transport networks and data centers. Whereas the bandwidth "arms race" previously focused solely on speed, the next generation will also need to consider energy efficiency. Since faster connections are less energy efficient than slower connections, it's very likely that that the measure of watts per Gbps may become a more important measure than Gbps alone.
To correctly characterize and benchmark the energy efficiency of networking devices, test and measurement analysis equipment must be designed to accommodate different equipment classes. Results must be reliable, repeatable and accurate. Proper energy efficiency characterization requires that energy consumption be measured while network devices are under varying loads. The analysis systems must support powerful routing/bridging (layer 2-3) and stateful layer 4-7 protocol emulations that are flexible, highly scalable, and easy to use.
As a leader in performance analysis solutions, Ixia's energy efficiency benchmarking solution, IxGreen, meets these requirements by utilizing its industry-leading layer 2-7 performance test tools. IxGreen is the first commercial solution that implements the ECR specification for the measurement of energy efficiency of network devices and systems. IxGreen is specifically designed for energy efficiency testing of a variety of network equipment classes, including switches, routers, WAN/broadband aggregation devices, and security appliances.
IxGreen – the industry's first fully integrated "green" test and measurement solution allows the measurement of a device's energy consumption at various load conditions utilizing real-world application traffic profiles. IxGreen offers fully integrated energy consumption measurements, comprehensive reports with time-correlated power and external load data graphs, plus advanced computations and detailed analysis of the conducted test. Real-time performance-per-power graphs and statistics are also available.
IxGreen was designed based on the following principles:
- Provide accurate, repeatable and automated power efficiency verification
- Time correlated, high precision power and load measurements
- Real-world application traffic generation based on equipment classes
- Utilize standardized, universal metrics and methodologies
- Performance-per-power measured based on equipment classes and apps
Key Features
- ECR Specification Compliance
- All ECR defined device classes supported
- All ECR metrics and methodologies supported
- Fully integrated energy consumption measurements
- Data from the power meter is collected and time-correlated to offered load
- Energy consumption metrics, including current, voltage, and power
- Both DC and AC meters supported to provide full coverage of all ECR defined equipment classes
- Real-world application support
- Layer 2-7 control and data plane traffic generation and analysis
- Energy efficiency and relative performance of content-aware devices characterized by generating real world application traffic
- Energy efficiency and relative routers and switches performance characterized
- Fully customizable, based on equipment category
- Real-time result analysis and logging
- Real-time measurements and display to validate test results using multiple statistics
- Real-time statistics presented in grid format with instant numeric counts, or in a graphical charts that track changes over time
- Detailed test results logged in comma-separated value (CSV) files for long-term trend analysis
- Detailed, automated reports
- Charts, graphs, summary tables, advanced computations
- Device classes supported:
- ECR Class 1- Routers
- Core Router
- Edge Router
- Multipurpose Router
- ECR Class 2 – WAN/Broadband Aggregation Device
- BRAS device
- BSR/Common Edge Device
- ECR Class 3 – Ethernet L2/L3 Switches
- Carrier Ethernet Platforms
- Generic Ethernet Platforms
- ECR Class 5 - Security appliances (DPI, Firewalls, VPN Gateways etc)
- ECR Class 6 - Application Gateways (Layer 5-7 accelerators, load balancers, etc)
- ECR Class 1- Routers
Real-time Result Analysis and Logging
IxGreen automatically takes real-time measurements to validate test results using multiple statistics, including detailed energy consumption with respect to effective throughput, protocol state transition and counters, and per-port traffic measurement. Real-time statistics can be presented in grid format with instant numeric counts, or in graphical form that tracks changes over time. Detailed test results can also be logged in CSV files for long-term trend analysis.
IxGreen provides real-time performance-per-power statistics
IxGreen Test Reports
At the end of each IxGreen test, a detailed PDF report is generated that include a cover, table of contents, test information, layer 2-3 results, layer 4-7 results, and charts showing the performance-per-power plot for all measurement load intervals.
IxGreen reports contain the following high-level information:- ECR and ECRW measurements
- Summarized test results
- Detailed test setup data
-
Detailed charts and graphs
- Energy Consumption Rating 100% max utilization
- Energy Consumption Rating Weighted, 100%, 50%, 0% utilization
- Overall energy cumulative index (for all application profiles and device classes)
- Average power usage at max throughput (for all application profiles and device classes)
- Performance-per-power graphs with performance-per-power measurements at n load iteration points (e.g., 100%, 50%, ...0%)
Industry-Standard Prepackaged Tests
IxGreen offers a prebuilt suite of industry-standard tests for automated device performance stress testing. Testing is based on equipment class and function and with reference to energy consumed.
Utilizing the capabilities of Ixia test hardware, such as wire-speed traffic generation, filtering, capturing, and statistics collection, IxGreen provides a rich suite of tests based on industry standard RFCs, such as RFC2544, RFC3511, RFC2889, and RFC3918, as well as customer requirements.
Test results are collected and presented in several manners, including real-time graphs of test execution progress, formatted reports for detailed post-test analysis, color-coded pass/fail indications, and detailed test execution logs.
Note: For a complete list of available test suites refer to the IxAutomate™ web site.
Integrated Energy Measurements
IxGreen provides seamless integration of energy measurement devices, correlating the energy statistics against application load. The following power data is collected and made available via real-time statistics views and reports:
- Current
- Voltage (AC/DC)
- Power
Real-World Application Test Solutions
In order to support energy efficiency testing of all device classes identified here, it is important to test each device with application traffic characteristics of its particular equipment class. IxGreen supports the following applications and technologies:
- Multiplay
- IPTV
- Voice
- Security
- Application performance
- Routing and switching protocols
- Broadband
- Carrier Ethernet
- IPTV over IMS
The following tables further categorize these into layer 2-3 and layer 4-7 technologies and provide a detailed list of supported applications and protocols.
Layer 2-3 technologies
The following layer 2-3 protocols for router and switch testing are supported:
| Routing/VPN |
|
|---|---|
| Multicast |
|
| Switching |
|
| Carrier Ethernet |
|
| Authentication |
|
| Miscellaneous |
|
Note: For a complete list and detailed description of all supported L2-3 technologies and protocols, please refer to the IxNetwork™ web site.
Layer 4-7 Technologies
| Data |
|
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peer-to-peer |
BitTorrent eDonkey |
||||||||||||
| VoIP |
SIP MGCP |
||||||||||||
| Video |
Multicast TV and video on demand IGMPv2, IGMPv3 RTSP/RTP |
Note: For a complete list and detailed description of all supported L4-7 technologies and protocols, please refer to the IxLoad™ web site.
Supported Interface Modules
Note: For a complete and updated list of all supported Ixia interface modules, please refer to the IxLoad and IxNetwork web sites and data sheets.
Product Ordering Information
P/N: 915-1900-01 Rev B – October 2008930-20xx
IxGreen layer 2-3 solution. IxNetwork Base Software required.925-33xx
IxGreen layer 4-7 solution. IxLoad Base Software required.928-01xx
IxGreen Prepackaged Tests and Automation Framework. IxAutomate Base Software required.
This material is for informational purposes only and subject to change without notice. It describes Ixia's present plans to develop and make available to its customers certain products, features and capabilities. Ixia is only obligated to provide those deliverables specifically included in a written agreement between Ixia and the customer.
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