Rigorous tests conducted by The Tolly Group, the leader in network infrastructure performance benchmarking, reveal that Shenick Network Systems diversifEye delivers integrated Layer 2-7 testing in a single chassis with per-flow testing that enables users to drill down from an aggregate view through to an IP address level to gather performance data and assess individual user quality of experience (QoE).

"Our in-depth examination of the Shenick diversifEye test tool platform confirmed a deep understanding for the quality test needs of today's progressive service providers and network equipment manufacturers," said Kevin Tolly, president/CEO/founder of The Tolly Group, of Boca Raton, FL. "Shenick is meeting the needs of network operators and enterprise managers to move up the protocol stack by offering particular strengths in triple play, security attack and peer-to-peer (P2P) testing. Based upon its stellar performance, we award the diversifEye 8400 our 'Tolly Up to Spec' certification."

Broadband networks are evolving and the rich traffic landscape of supporting triple play and the ongoing requirement to thwart security attacks and control P2P related traffic focuses the need for dynamic network emulation and traffic generation test systems. The new emphasis on application-level guarantees and end-user QoE for VoIP (Voice over IP) and IPTV (internet TV) users is the catalyst for test tools such as Shenick diversifEye. At the end of the day, what is important to customers is the way that their applications and services actually behave on service provider networks.

The objective of the Tolly Group Up to Spec certification project was to test a typical access network with 'triple play' traffic (voice/data/video) scenarios mixed with Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) traffic that attempted to overwhelm the network with security attack traffic and thus deny service to valid users. Also tested was the ability of the networks to effectively control the effect of P2P traffic that can consume excessive service provider bandwidth. The test bed network consisted of an edge router, traffic management device for controlling P2P traffic, a firewall to mitigate DDoS attacks and a Layer 2 switch for handling high bandwidth traffic. The performance of the individual network elements was tested first. Thereafter, the complete test bed was tested on an end-to-end basis to assess overall network performance and end-to-end user experience.

"We commissioned the Up to Spec certification program and whitepaper with The Tolly Group because of their outstanding track record as one of the world's most respected and technically advanced network test laboratories," said Ultan Kelly, head of Systems Engineering and Support at Shenick. "We were keen to have our product independently assessed by a great team of network test experts, to verify our diversifEye product performance and functionality."

Shenick diversifEye represents a tightly integrated set of test tool functions that meld traffic generation, emulation, simulation and reporting/analysis capabilities into a single unit that pulls together functions that users previously would assemble from multiple devices. What is unique about the diversifEye test system is that it enables a per-client view of Quality of Experience [QoE]. diversifEye achieves this by emulating real-world applications and measuring the statistics that constitute quality on a per-application basis, providing a network, service and user view of network and application server performance.