Ixia Delivers Most Powerful Network Traffic Test System in the Industry; Optixia Platform Is the Most Scaleable and Flexible Layer 2-3 Traffic Test Tool Available Today

Business Wire, May 2, 2006

CALABASAS, Calif. -- Ixia (Nasdaq:XXIA), a leading, global provider of IP performance test systems, announced today the most powerful network traffic testing capabilities in the industry on its Optixia(R) platform. Optixia is Ixia's flagship test platform and consists of a family of chassis and network interface modules. An optimized hardware engine enables Optixia systems to flexibly create and transmit any type of Layer 2-3 traffic patterns at up to line rate over a network, and correspondingly receive and analyze the traffic. For stateless traffic testing, Optixia systems are 2 times more scalable than that of the closest competitor for Gigabit Ethernet and more than 30 times for 10 Gigabit Ethernet. In addition, comprehensive stateful traffic and application testing support on the same platform make Optixia a complete system for thoroughly testing the performance and functionality of today's most complex network devices, systems, and applications from Layers 2-7.

One of the biggest challenges in creating network traffic to stress a system realistically is to produce custom flows (sometimes referred to as streams) that emulate specific but arbitrary traffic patterns that occur in real-world networks. Each flow may correspond to a different end user (e.g., IP address), tunnel (e.g., MPLS label), traffic type (e.g., QoS level), etc. These flows must be individually tracked for metrics such as throughput, packet loss, latency, jitter, sequencing, etc. to execute a test and determine device/system defects and limitations. To meet such requirements, testing systems must be able to create and analyze this unique traffic on-the-fly at up to the line rate of the network. Optixia test systems support such flexible traffic creation and analysis over networks up to 10 gigabits per second.

High scalability testing is increasingly crucial for both equipment manufacturers and service providers, in particular, with the proliferation of broadband access worldwide. Up to millions of subscribers, along with subscriber traffic, must be simulated to verify the scalability of the access networks before deployment. To support high scalability testing, up to billions of flows can be created and transmitted on Ixia test ports using contiguous addressing, for example, sequential IP addresses. When specific, non-contiguous addresses are required for the most realistic testing, Optixia supports:

--Over 140,000 transmit flows per Gigabit Ethernet and OC-3/12 ATM port

--Over 2 million transmit flows per 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OC-48/192 POS port

More important than the number of different flows that can be transmitted is the number that can be individually tracked and analyzed upon being received. Optixia systems can track:

--Over 131,000 receive flows per Gigabit Ethernet and OC-3/12 ATM/POS port

--Over 2 million receive flows per 10 Gigabit Ethernet and OC-48/192 POS port

This level of scalability is unmatched in the IP performance test industry today, resulting in reduced test resource requirements during large system-level testing.

The recent IxOS 4.10 release of Ixia's testing-optimized operating system introduces further flexibility to the ability of Optixia systems to create and analyze test traffic, including:

--Ability to chain different user-defined fields within packets, allowing greater amounts of data to be customized together

--Doubling the number of receive flows on ATM interfaces to 131,000

Looking forward in 2006, further interface density increases and ongoing functional depth enhancements will be rolled out on Optixia test systems to match the growing needs of customers for flexible, high scalability testing.

For more information, see: http://www.ixiacom.com/products/optixia

About Ixia

Ixia is a leading provider of performance test systems for IP-based infrastructure and services. Its highly scalable solutions generate, capture, characterize, and emulate network and application traffic, establishing definitive performance and conformance metrics of network devices or systems under test. Ixia's test systems are used by Network and Telephony Equipment Manufacturers, Semiconductor Manufacturers, Service Providers, Governments, and Enterprises to validate the functionality and reliability of complex IP networks, devices, and applications. Ixia's Triple Play test systems address the growing need to test voice, video, and data services and network capability under real-world conditions. Ixia's vision is to be the world's pre-eminent provider of solutions to enable testing of next generation IP Triple Play networks. Ixia's test systems utilize a wide range of industry-standard interfaces, including Ethernet, SONET, ATM, and wireless connectivity, and are distinguished by their performance, accuracy, reliability, and adaptability to the industry's constant evolution.

For more information, contact Ixia at 26601 W. Agoura Road, Calabasas, CA 91302; 818-871-1800, Fax: 818-871-1805; Email: info@ixiacom.com or visit our Web Site at http://www.ixiacom.com.