Fibre Channel
Fibre Channel 2/4/8G Load Modules
The architectural breakthrough of Ixia’s family of high speed fibre channel test load modules delivers an industry-leading, high-density, affordable 2/4/8G fibre channel test solution. Based on the award-winning, field proven NGY family load module architecture, Ixia’s fibre channel load module is designed for high-density fibre channel testing, and converged data center infrastructure testing end-to-end simultaneously with fibre channel over Ethernet (FCoE). The fibre channel load module comes with four or eight ports and each port can be configured to run at 2, 4, or 8 G speeds.
Ixia's fibre channel solution provides the highest port density in the industry, and offers a greener testing alternative when used with the Ixia XM12 high performance chassis – it requires one-quarter of the laboratory space, consumes one-half the power, and generates lower heat compared to other test solutions.

Eight-port Fibre Channel Module with 2/4/8G SFP+ Interfaces
The FCMGXM4S or FCMGXM8S are part of the NGY family of load modules, which leverage Ixia’s converged data center test applications to offer the highest port scalability, virtual scalability, protocol coverage, and the most affordable test solution available for data communications testing. No other vendor’s data communications test solution offers a wider range of price options, interfaces, and capabilities.
The fibre channel load modules have a 4- or 8-port option, and deliver complete FC-2 and FCP data plane capabilities and performance. The series of modules provides the industry’s highest density fibre channel test solution.
The NGY load module family supports a comprehensive portfolio of converged data center testing solutions including fibre channel over Ethernet, lossless Ethernet, and 2/4/8G fibre channel. Using the same NGY architecture for both FCoE and FC, consistency in protocol emulation, traffic generation, and statistics analysis is guaranteed across the two technologies.
Key Features
- Industry's highest density 2/4/8G FC test solution
- Highest density of ports per 3U chassis and 10U chassis
- Significantly reduced rack space
- Reduced power consumption, and cooling requirements
- Less power consumption than the nearest competitor - less lab cooling required
- Highest density of ports per 3U chassis and 10U chassis
- Tracks and analyzes up to 1 million flows per port for
- Real-time latency
- Inter-arrival time
- Packet loss
- Sophisticated testing starting from FC-1
- Class 3 support
- Buffer-to-buffer credit
- Fibre channel link service (FC-LS) support
- Fibre channel generic services (FC-GS) support
- In-depth testing capabilities for R_RDY
- Control over SOF, EOF, CRC, Disparity error
- Complete control over all FC traffic packet content, including all frame_headers, extended_headers, and optional headers
- Killer packet payload such as CRPAT and CJPAT
- C-2 protocol emulation and statistics: FLOGI, NPIV, PLOGI, LOGO, Name Server, and more
- NPIV support
- Designed for converged data center testing
- Unified platform for end-to-end FCoE and FC testing
- Unified GUI for both FCoE and FC configuration
- Consistent protocol emulation, traffic generation, statistics analysis and workflow between FCoE and FC interfaces
Specifications
| Feature | Full Performance |
|---|---|
| Load Modules | FCMGXM8S/FCMGXM4S |
| Number of ports per module | 8 / 4 |
| Number of chassis slots per module | 1 |
| Maximum ports per chassis1 | |
| - XM12 High Performance | 88 / 482 |
| - XM2 Desktop | 16 / 83 |
| Supported transceivers | SFP+ Tri-rate 2/4/8G duplex LC connector 850nm multimode 1310 single mode |
| Per-port CPU speed and memory | 800 MHz, 1 GB / 1 GHz, 1 GB |
| Per-port capture buffer | 512 MB |
| Interface speeds | 2/4/8G FC |
| FC-1 Primitives | Yes |
| FC-2 Protocols | Yes |
| Number of transmit flows per port (sequential values) | Billions |
| Number of transmit flows per port (arbitrary values) | 1 million |
| Number of trackable receive flows per port | 1 million |
| Number of stream definitions per port | 256 |
| In packet stream (sequential) or advanced stream (interleaved) mode, each stream definition can generate millions of unique traffic flows. | |
| Table UDF | 1 million entries |
| Comprehensive packet editing function for emulating large numbers of sophisticated flows. Entries of up to 256 bytes, using lists of values can be specified and placed at designated offsets within a stream. Each list consists of an offset, a size and a list of values in a table format. | |
| Packet flow statistics | Track 1 million flows |
| Transmit engine | Wire-speed packet generation with timestamps, sequence numbers, data integrity signature, and packet group signatures. |
| Receive engine | Wire-speed packet filtering, capturing, real-time latency and inter-arrival time for each packet group, data integrity, and sequence checking |
| User defined field features | Fixed, increment or decrement by user-defined step, value lists, range lists, cascade, random, and chained |
| Filters | 2x128-bit user-definable pattern and offset, frame length range, CRC error, data integrity error, sequence checking error (small, big, reverse) |
| Data field per stream | Fixed, increment (byte/word), decrement (byte/word), random, repeating, user-specified, CJPAT, CRPAT |
| Error generation | CRC (good/bad), oversize frame, parity error, R_RDY |
| Latency measurements | 20 ns resolution in packet timestamp |
| Statistics |
|
| Operating temp. range | 41°F to 95°F (5°C to 35°C), ambient air4 |
Application Support
- IxNetwork: FC-1/FC-2 wire-speed traffic generation and analysis, including FLOGI, NPIV, PLOGI, SCR, NS Registration, etc.
- Tcl/Perl API: Custom user script development for FC-1/FC-2 testing
Ordering Information
950-0001 FCMGXM4S-01
FCMGXM4S-01, 4-Port Fibre Channel Load Module, with 2Gbps, 4Gbps and 8Gbps support, SFP+ interface; REQUIRES one or more SFP+ transceiver options.950-0002 FCMGXM8S-01
FCMGXM8S-01, 8-Port Fibre Channel Load Module, with 2Gbps, 4Gbps and 8Gbps support, SFP+ interface; REQUIRES one or more SFP+ transceiver options.
FC Transceiver options:
The fibre channel load modules have the following SFP+ transceiver options:
- 948-0020 Fibre Channel SFP+ Short Reach, pluggable, multimode, 850nm optical transceiver with duplex LC connector. Supports 2Gbps, 4Gbps and 8Gbps rates. For use with FCMGXM4S-01 (950-0001) 4-port and FCMGXM8S-01 (950-0002) 8-port load modules.
- 948-0021 Fibre Channel SFP+ Long Reach, pluggable, single mode, 1310nm optical transceiver with duplex LC connector. Supports 2Gbps, 4Gbps and 8Gbps rates. For use with FCMGXM4S-01 (950-0001) 4-port and FCMGXM8S-01 (950-0002) 8-port load modules.
Quick Reference Sheets
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Fibre Channel Load Module
(350.72 KB
) 
1XM12 High Performance chassis (941-0009) is required for 88 ports to be installed in a single chassis. A field replaceable power supply upgrade kit (943-0005) is available for the XM12 chassis (941-0002) to convert it to the high-performance version. Up to 11 8-port load modules are supported in an XM12 High Performance chassis, and up to 8 8-port load modules are supported in a standard XM12 chassis. The XM2 chassis (941-0003) supports up to sixteen ports.
288 ports per XM12 chassis with the 8-port load modules and 48 ports per XM12 chassis with the 4-port load modules
316 ports per XM2 chassis with the 8-port load modules and 8 ports per XM2 chassis with the 4-port load modules
4When a Fibre Channel load module is installed in an XM12 chassis, the maximum operating temperature of the chassis is 35°C (ambient air).
P/N: 915-0714-01 Rev. D - February 2013
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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