17
Chapter 2
Connection to the Network
The test unit is equipped with two identical 1 Gb/s RJ-45 ports, two 1 Gb/s SFP ports,
and two 10 Gb/s SFP+ ports. The RJ-45 ports are used for connection to Ethernet
electrical interfaces. The SFP and SFP+ ports are normally used for optical
connections. Each RJ-45 / SFP / SFP+ interface constitutes a single logical port.
These ports are labelled as Port A and Port B.xGenius includes a third port (Port C) for
TDM and clock signal generation and analysis and a PHM slot that can be used to
attach custom modules for test applications not included in the xGenius mainframe. For
more information about how to use PHMs read the xGenius TDM Testing Guide.
In a full featured unit Port A and Port B share the same generation and analysis
capabilities. However, depending on the licensing options, Port B may not include
advanced traffic generation. In units without the dual port generation capability, Port B
can loop frames / packets toward their origin if configured to do so. It also responds to
pings (ICMP echo request message) and other basic protocols like ARP.
Analysis capabilities of Port A and Port B are similar with some exceptions like the
cable test, the PoE / PoE+ analysis or most synchronization tests.
This chapter describes how to connect the tester to the network and how to configure
it to receive and send signals. The general, high level procedure to do that is:
1. Configure the Port A / Port B, including global and port specific operation modes
and generation / analysis properties.
2. Connect the test cables to the network. Use the electrical or optical ports depend-
ing on the particular network properties.
3. Traffic generation does not start until you start a test with RUN. Most of the results
are not available neither.
2.1.Setting the Operation Mode
As Ethernet interfaces, Port A and Port B are independent but they share the same
global operation mode. That means that, for example, if you configure Port A to be an
To Next Page