Ixia Joins New IP Agency, Becomes Exclusive Provider of Network Test Solutions for Interoperability Test Focused on Service Chaining

CALABASAS, CA and NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - May 24, 2016) - Ixia (NASDAQ: XXIA), a leading provider of network test, visibility and security solutions, has joined the New IP Agency (NIA), a not-for-profit independent initiative providing information, analysis and testing to support and accelerate the development of virtualized IP networks.

As a member, Ixia is the exclusive provider of network test solutions for interoperability testing that focuses on service chaining within the NIA's Phase 3 evaluation and live interoperability demo. Service chaining consists of a set of network services, such as firewalls, service monitoring probes, DPI engines, session boarder controllers or L2/3 routers that are interconnected through the network to support an application.

Ixia's network test equipment and virtual test solutions, including IxLoad™ and IxNetwork™, were integral to the NIA's Phase 1 evaluation of Network Function Virtualization infrastructure (NFVi) - Virtualized Network Functions (VNF) interoperability in late 2015. Ixia solutions were also leveraged in the NIA's Phase 2 evaluation of VNF management to gauge the market's readiness in lifelike scenarios.

Ixia is the exclusive provider of high-quality and credible interoperability testing for the third phase of the NIA's VNF interoperability evaluations. This phase focuses on use cases that test a combination of virtual Customer Premises Equipment (vCPE), a service chain and a software-defined network. A live interoperability demonstration will be available during Light Reading's Big Communications Event (BCE) to be held on May 24 and 25, at the Austin Convention Center in Texas.

Ixia solutions performed the interoperability testing during the hot-staging activities for BCE, and are an integral part of the demonstration. Testing procedures include:

• IxLoad performance testing, which measures the quality of experience of real-time, business-critical applications with converged multiplay service emulations. IxLoad VE offers application performance testing of virtualized compute and network elements.
• IxNetwork, a comprehensive network infrastructure performance testing solution that scales to handle powerful devices and large networks, from routing and switching to data center Ethernet and software defined networking. IxNetwork VE provides testing of virtual network infrastructures and devices.
• Ixia's XGS12-SD™ 12-slot modular chassis powers the industry's highest port density Ethernet test system available for massive layer 2-7 testing. This flexible platform, along with a wide variety of load modules, delivers the most comprehensive solution for performance, functional, security and conformance testing of network equipment and network applications.

Ixia leveraged its knowledge and experience as an ongoing contributor to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's (ETSI) NFV Industry Specifications Group, to support the NIA's Phase 3 evaluation. The ETSI produces globally applicable standards for information and communications technologies, and is actively engaged in key work items related to pre-deployment testing, as well as testing in a continuous integration/continuous deployment DevOps environment.