Agilent Technologies Extends Lead in Router Testing Market With Industry's First Solution for IS-IS Protocol Performance and Standards Evaluation - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, April 24, 2000

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE:A) Tuesday introduced the industry's first solution for evaluating performance and standards conformance of IS-IS (intermediate system to intermediate system) protocol implementations, used by routers to exchange address information and forward IP traffic. Agilent is now the industry's only test system provider with solutions for all three key routing protocols that direct traffic on next-generation IP networks: BGP-4, OSPF and IS-IS.

Agilent's new IS-IS stress testing tools and conformance suite -- available on the Agilent QA Robot platform -- enable router developers and manufacturers to ensure that IS-IS software operates correctly, measure performance under a variety of "real-world" network conditions and perform automated standards conformance tests.

IS-IS routing protocols guide standardized, hierarchical communications between routers within Internet domains, enabling routers to share and update the address and availability information required to build a complete map of the network. Developed as part of the OSI standards model, IS-IS implementations specifically handle router-to-router information exchange. IS-IS-based communications provide next-step connection information used by routers to determine where to forward incoming packets for delivery to their final destination, as well as cost metrics, such as delay, expense and error rates, used to calculate the best route among alternatives.

Many router manufacturers provide both OSPF (open shortest path first), developed by the IP (internet protocol ) community, and OSI's IS-IS protocol software for use by customers. Network administrators generally select one of these implementations for use with BGP-4 (border gateway protocol) which handles interdomain information exchange. IS-IS standards conformance is essential to ensure that different generations or types of routers can interoperate properly.

Agilent's IS-IS solution allows users to determine whether a router can sustain performance under a wide variety of network conditions. It can be used to stress test a single router or router network, quickly and easily simulate a complex network topology, and generate a wide variety of traffic on that network, using QA Robot scripting capabilities.

Changes within a simulated network, such as withdrawal of a router or routes, can be introduced dynamically during the test, and their effect on router protocol performance measured in real time. New traffic loads can also be inserted in the course of a test. IS-IS testing can be combined with related QA Robot capabilities such as BGP-4 testing, with TCP, UDP or HTTP traffic generation, and up to 100 IS-IS adjacencies can be monitored for collection of performance statistics.

An IS-IS conformance test suite is also available. This automated library of test scripts ensures that manufacturer IS-IS software implementations comply with available ISO standards and IETF RFC's.

The QA Robot System complements Agilent's RouterTester, which provides real time, wire-speed performance analysis of packet forwarding performance, at rates up to OC-48c. Together, RouterTester and QA Robot provide a complete solution for testing both elements of a router's operational performance -- packet forwarding and routing protocol processing.

Further information on these products may be found on the Web at www.agilent.com/comms/iptest.> U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent IS-IS module and conformance test suite are now available for customer shipment. The IS-IS module is priced at $14,880 and the IS-IS conformance test suite at $11,310.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a diversified technology company, resulting from Hewlett-Packard Company's plan to strategically realign itself into two fully independent companies. With 42,000 employees serving customers in more than 120 countries, Agilent Technologies is a global leader in designing and manufacturing test, measurement and monitoring instruments, systems and solutions, and semiconductor and optical components. The company serves markets that include communications, electronics, life sciences and healthcare. The businesses comprising Agilent, a subsidiary of HP, had net revenues of more than $8.3 billion in fiscal year 1999. FMI: www.agilent.com.