Virtual and Cloud Network Assurance

Providing realistic communication quality in virtualized network environments

There is increasing demand to optimize the capital investment and operational costs of wireless and wired networks, as well as enhance their service flexibility. Satisfying these demands requires that both the network architecture and operation be more efficient and flexible. Therefore, network architectures are rapidly shifting, from dedicated hardware with its associated costs and configuration time, to Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), where network functions are simulated in virtual environments on general-purpose servers instead of dedicated devices. Furthermore, networks are shifting from the traditional centralized model to a distributed one. As distributed network equipment and devices become increasingly interconnected, integration with cloud infrastructure is becoming essential.

Virtual and Cloud Network Testing Challenges

More than ever, network communication quality is being heavily influenced by the virtualization infrastructure and the virtual layers of cloud environments. This is because conventional networks primarily consist of physical devices, allowing communication quality to be directly assessed by installing dedicated measuring instruments on each device. However, with virtualized platforms and cloud environments, network functions operate as software on virtual layers, making it impossible to install physical measuring instruments. Furthermore, unlike the physical layer, the virtual layer shares resources such as CPU and memory and undergoes frequent dynamic configuration changes, impacting the communication quality, including communication delays and packet loss. Therefore, for systems operating in virtual environments or in the cloud, there is an urgent need to establish new software-based testing solutions that can evaluate communication quality in real time and with high accuracy, rather than relying on conventional physical measuring instruments.

Virtual and Cloud Network Testing Solutions

Anritsu offers the Virtual Network Master, a communication quality testing solution for virtual and cloud networks. This solution virtualizes the key measurement functions of hardware measuring instruments in software. Virtual Network Master is available in two models: the VNM AWS model for public cloud environments and the KVM model for private cloud environments. It enables the evaluation of network communication quality, even in virtual environments, without the need to install hardware measuring instruments.

Amazon Web Services and AWS are registered trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.

KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine and is a virtualization technology used in Linux environments.

Virtual Network MasterMX109030PC Private Network GPS NTN

Solution 1: Visualizing Network Communication Latency

By using the Virtual Network Master MX109030PC / MX109031PC, you can measure the one-way latency it takes for a packet to travel from its source to its destination.

This is achieved by synchronizing time using an NTP server and including timestamp information in each frame. By recording the delay for every frame and aggregating the maximum, minimum, and average values at one-second intervals, any fluctuations in the network delay can be visualized with high precision. Even momentary peaks in delay can be accurately captured.

This enables the visualization of network latency, helping you to identify bottlenecks and optimize network performance.

Solution 2: Network Load Testing

The Virtual Network Master MX109030PC / MX109031PC also supports network load testing to evaluate the overall throughput and stability of the entire network.

This can be used to verify new services both before and after their introduction, isolate the root cause of any issues that may occur, and help to strengthen your company's infrastructure and improve operational efficiency.