Industry's Largest 10 Gigabit Ethernet Test Con...

SUNNYVALE, California, October 23 /PRNewswire/ --

    - Spirent TestCenter(TM) Selected to Benchmark Cisco Nexus 7000 Data 
Center Switch



    Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global provider of performance
analysis and service management solutions, successfully completed the
industry's largest-ever public 10 Gigabit Ethernet test. Supplying its
Spirent TestCenter(TM) platform, the test demonstrates the company's
leadership in validating next-generation Ethernet devices that power the
Internet's continued expansion. Communications industry leaders such as
Cisco, who are advancing this network evolution, are depending on
multi-functional, comprehensive solutions from Spirent to help ensure that
the multi-play networks and multi-technology platforms of tomorrow deliver
the Quality of Experience (QoE) which service providers are demanding today.



(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080909/CLTU016LOGO )

    In a test involving a 256 port 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch, Spirent
TestCenter authenticated the performance of the Cisco Nexus 7000 Data Center
Switch in several areas including high availability and resiliency as well as
performance of IPv4 unicast and multicast traffic. This test was commissioned
by Network World magazine and conducted by industry leading independent test
lab, Network Test. Unlike other test products, Spirent provides detailed
functional analysis that goes beyond performance testing to quickly identify,
isolate and resolve network and system issues early in the development and
testing cycle.



    "The rapid growth of data centers and 10 Gigabit Ethernet make
performance validation a strategic imperative for equipment vendors like
Cisco," said David Newman, president, Network Test, a Network World Test
Alliance partner. "Using Spirent TestCenter to assess Cisco's latest data
center switch was a logical choice since the test system provided the
necessary scalability, density and flexibility at 10 Gigabit Ethernet rates.
What's more, Spirent TestCenter allowed us to validate both control-plane and
data-plane scalability."



    In addition to measuring throughput and latency of unicast and multicast
traffic in these tests, Spirent TestCenter also measured high availability
and resiliency. These tests examined how the Cisco Nexus switch recovered
from an OSPF process restart, how it handled the loss of one or more fabric
cards, and how it handled in-service software upgrades and downgrades.
Simulating 10 Gigabit Ethernet traffic to 256 ports at line rate speeds,
Spirent TestCenter validated the ability of the Cisco Nexus switch to meet
the high availability requirements of even the largest data centers.



    "In one of the largest public tests of its kind, Spirent continues to
demonstrate why it is the preferred network performance analysis system for
some of the largest telecom equipment manufacturers and service providers,"
said Tim Jefferson, general manager, Converged Core Solutions at Spirent
Communications. "Our highly scalable solutions continue to make a difference
in helping engineers assess a network's functionality and performance through
a single application."



    Spirent TestCenter, a Layer 2-7 network performance testing platform, is
specifically designed for multi-play networks and multi-device technologies.
It supports the evolving protocols required for today's network devices,
including IPv4/IPv6 routing, multicast, MPLS, Spanning Tree, VLAN, VLAN
stacking and DHCP. It also effectively tests Ethernet switches that are
capable of up to 1 Gigabit Ethernet connections to the desktop and 10 Gigabit
Ethernet connections to the core. Spirent TestCenter supports the testing of
network architectures that include network elements such as Fibre Channel
over Ethernet (FCoE), high density Ethernet aggregation switches, application
acceleration and security devices. For upper layer testing, Spirent
TestCenter supports stateful TCP traffic, enabling users to correlate
application-layer and lower-layer events on servers and switches.



For more information please visit www.spirent.com/go/STC

About Spirent Communications plc

    Spirent Communications (www.spirentcom.com) is a global provider of
integrated performance analysis and service assurance systems that enable the
development and deployment of next-generation networking technology such as
Internet telephony, broadband services, 3G wireless, global navigation
satellite systems, and network security equipment. Spirent Communications'
solutions are used by more than 1,700 customers in 30 countries, including
the world's largest equipment manufacturers, service providers, enterprises
and governments. Based in Sunnyvale, CA, Spirent Communications has 1,300
employees worldwide.



    Spirent Communications plc Ordinary shares are traded on the London Stock
Exchange (ticker: SPT). The Company operates a Level 1 American Depositary
Receipt ("ADR") programme with each ADR representing four Spirent
Communications plc Ordinary shares. The ADRs trade in the US over-the-counter
("OTC") market under the symbol SPMYY and the CUSIP number is 84856M209.
Spirent Communications' sales to the United States government are made
through Spirent Federal Systems Inc. www.spirentfederal.com



    Spirent, Spirent Communications and the Spirent logo are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Spirent Communications plc. All other trademarks or
registered trademarks mentioned herein are held by their respective
companies. All rights reserved.



    This document may contain forward-looking statements which are made in
good faith and are based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as
assumptions about future events. You can sometimes, but not always, identify
these statements by the use of a date in the future or such words as "will",
"anticipate", "estimate", "expect", "project", "intend", "plan", "should",
"may", "assume" and other similar words. By their nature, forward-looking
statements are inherently predictive and speculative and involve risk and
uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that
will occur in the future. You should not place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of future performance
and are subject to factors that could cause our actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied by these statements. The Company
undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained
in this document, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.



    CONTACT: Sailaja Tennati of Spirent Communications, [phone],
[phone], [e-mail]


    
    Web site: http://www.spirentcom.com
              http://www.spirent.com/go/STC
              http://www.spirentfederal.com