TECHNICAL FIELD

The subject matter described herein relates to network testing. More specifically, the subject matter relates to methods, systems, and computer readable media for impairment testing using an impairment device.

BACKGROUND

Data center environments typically provide high reliability and security and typically include networked resources (e.g., virtual or physical servers connected via network switches) sharable by multiple clients of the data center operator. Large data centers are industrial scale operations using as much electricity as a small town. Various data centers may utilize virtualization. For example, a data center may implement multiple virtual machines (VMs) that communicate via a virtual switch (vSwitch), e.g., virtual servers, using a physical CPU-based server or node in the data center. In this example, each VM may execute an operating system and other software, where each VM may appear as a physical server to end users.

It will be appreciated that an emulated or virtualized switch of the type described in this disclosure is distinctly different from the entity referred to commonly in the industry as a virtual switch. More particularly, a virtual switch is a software application that runs on top of central processing unit (CPU), which allows communication between virtual machines, where the virtual machines are administered by a virtual machine hypervisor. A vSwitch does not subdivide and allocate resources of an underlying physical switch ASIC chip into multiple emulated switches, but instead creates a software representation of a completely virtual switch (i.e., there is no mapping to underlying physical switch ASIC hardware).

When testing data center equipment, it is important to make sure that testing mimics real world scenarios and conditions. For example, when testing a data center server or related applications, it may be necessary to mimic or emulate resources in the data center. For example, when testing a data center server or related applications, it may be necessary to mimic or emulate a switching fabric or other resources in the data center and to emulate or approximate various equipment or system related states, e.g., by using various test system configurations or settings and/or effecting various impairments.

Accordingly, a need exists for methods, systems, and computer readable media for impairment testing using an impairment device.

SUMMARY

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for impairment testing using an impairment device are disclosed. According to one method, the method occurs during a test session for testing a system under test (SUT) and at a network test system comprising physical application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) switching resources, wherein the network test system emulates a data center switching fabric comprising virtualized data center switching fabric elements: transmitting, to an inline impairment device, a test packet via an egress portion of an external physical port interface associated with the network test system, wherein the inline impairment device is connected via the external physical port interface associated with the network test system; receiving, from the inline impairment device, an impaired packet via an ingress portion of the external physical port interface associated with the network test system, wherein the impaired packet is generated when the impairment device applies at least one impairment to the test packet; and transmitting, using one or more of the virtualized data center switching fabric elements, the impaired packet to the SUT.

According to one system, the system includes physical ASIC switching resources and a network test system comprising the physical ASIC switching resources, wherein the network test system emulates a data center switching fabric comprising virtualized data center switching fabric elements. The network test system is configured for: during a test session for testing a SUT: transmitting, to an inline impairment device, a test packet via an egress portion of an external physical port interface associated with the network test system, wherein the inline impairment device is connected via the external physical port interface associated with the network test system; receiving, from the inline impairment device, an impaired packet via an ingress portion of the external physical port interface associated with the network test system, wherein the impaired packet is generated when the impairment device applies at least one impairment to the test packet; and transmitting, using one or more of the virtualized data center switching fabric elements, the impaired packet to the SUT.

The subject matter described herein may be implemented in software in combination with hardware and/or firmware. For example, the subject matter described herein may be implemented in software executed by a processor. In one example implementation, the subject matter described herein may be implemented using a non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein computer executable instructions that when executed by the processor of a computer control the computer to perform steps. Example computer readable media suitable for implementing the subject matter described herein include non-transitory devices, such as disk memory devices, chip memory devices, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays, and application specific integrated circuits. In addition, a computer readable medium that implements the subject matter described herein may be located on a single device or computer platform or may be distributed across multiple devices or computer platforms.

As used herein, the term ‘node’ refers to a physical computer platform including one or more processors, network interfaces, and memory.

As used herein, each of the terms ‘function’, ‘engine’, and ‘module’ refers to hardware, which may also include software and/or firmware, for implementing the feature(s) being described.

