Seven steps to network lab automation--Part I

All metaphors aside, the need for a readily accessible and easily configurable environment for testing the performance, interoperability and other operational characteristics of today's networking products, services, and technologies, has never been greater. As IP networks become ever more pervasive, networking equipment is more sophisticated and complex and must be tested for operation in more heterogeneous environments. Testing is time sensitive, and labs are affected by a host of factors--collaborative work with off-site colleagues, partners or customers, changes in network topologies to support growth, and emerging voice, storage, and video data services--that impact performance.

Technology advancements, new higher speed interfaces, and the corresponding increase in test equipment complexity and cost has put pressure on testing departments and test lab managers to do more with less. This has spawned an increased interest in test automation through the use of test scripts.

Lab automation
While many test labs have evolved to embrace some form of test script automation where appropriate, labs of all kinds are now eyeing the next logical step in this evolution: lab automation at the physical layer.

At its very basic element, this involves deploying physical-layer switches that serve as interconnects in conjunction with what might be called a "lab operating system" (lab OS), a software-based solution that manages dynamically configurable test topologies. In this new generation of test environment, test gear, devices, and systems under test are left permanently connected to physical-layer switches, typically OEO (Optical-Electrical-Optical) matrix switches, OOO (all-optical) switches, or other copper or fiber cross-connect devices. In this scenario, the lab OS software provides a front-end graphical user interface (GUI) and/or application programming interface (API) for scheduling and controlling the connections between devices. Ideally, it integrates seamlessly with the lab's existing scripts and test tools, and provides features for managing user access and tracking the usage of the lab resources it's interconnecting.

This lab infrastructure provides many benefits, including remote access for off-premises developers and partners, the ability to run multiple tests in parallel, and the elimination of manual reconfigurations, resulting in dramatically shortened test cycles. And when used in conjunction with test automation, dynamic physical configurations have dramatically increased the speed in which tests can be run.

In seven steps, this article offers a how-to approach to moving to the new generation of test lab using physical-layer automation.

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