Spirent Press Releases

Crossbeam and Spirent Partner to Define Real-World Security Test Methodology for Mobile Network Operators

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

First Ever Tests – Validated by EANTC – Emulated More than a Million Subscribers Using Smartphones and Tablets, Provide Guidance for Building More Secure Mobile Networks

BOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Jan. 17, 2012 – Crossbeam and Spirent Communications today announced results of the industry’s first public network security tests that emulate more than a million simultaneous mobile subscribers using their smartphones and tablets. Conducted by EANTC, an internationally recognized independent test center, the tests evaluated the effectiveness of network security devices and how they perform under extremely demanding real-world conditions. Test results showcase what is necessary to credibly validate security performance, and provide reliable guidance for mobile operators as they seek to build network security infrastructure that can handle growing user demand for 4G/LTE networks.

Spirent, the leader in networks, devices and services testing; Crossbeam, a provider of high-performance network security platforms; and EANTC collaborated to define a set of real-world test scenarios that emulated the performance impact of network security being enabled in a mobile network environment.

“With so much misleading information about security product performance and the unpredictability of threats and traffic demands, there has been no clarity around what to test for and what methodology to use,” said Chet Gapinski, vice president, product development at Crossbeam. “Any single measurement, such as network throughput, is meaningless unless tested and measured in combination with other metrics under real-world conditions. We saw an important opportunity to work with Spirent and EANTC on a set of real-world tests to move the industry forward to provide more accurate, uniform guidance.”

In order to replicate the incredible traffic loads that carriers experience at the mobile Internet gateway (Gi/SGi), the market leading Spirent Avalanche was used to emulate more than 1 million users concurrently accessing the mobile data network with their connected devices. The traffic was sent through a single Crossbeam X-Series X80-S platform running Check Point software, where it underwent a series of firewall and IPS (intrusion prevention system) inspections, as well as network address translation (NAT).

Measuring subscriber happiness

The tests were designed to not only understand how a variety of security devices affect the performance on mobile network infrastructure – but also how these results translate into subscriber satisfaction and quality of experience. Due to the intense processing required to secure mobile data traffic, the user experience can be dramatically impacted through slow page load times, extended response times and connection instability.

“There is no silver bullet for measuring security performance,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president of the Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “No one calls their provider to complain about connections per second. Instead, our goal was to create a test solution that truly emulates what happens on mobile operator networks, and provides realistic guidelines for building secure networks that can also support millions of connected devices with a high-quality user experience.”

The real-world traffic model was custom built to emulate a modern day mobile environment with more than 1 million active users. This included using a 95 percent majority of HTTP sessions representing a range of user profiles. In addition, email (SMTP and POP3) connections were emulated alongside Smart Phone OS over-the-air updates.

Using Spirent’s Avalanche layer 4-7 test solution, EANTC validated the Crossbeam X-Series at a groundbreaking 106 Gbit/s with stateful firewall, IPS and NAT enabled, with 1 million simultaneously active users, 4 million active TCP connections and 242,000 new connections per second.

In each test scenario – including firewall only, firewall and NAT, firewall and IPS, and NAT and IPS – every performance metric measured showed consistent service establishment performance at scale. Moreover, the user-experience measurements demonstrated the X-Series did not drop a single connection or request, and maintained a very low URL response time of 10 ms.

“We challenged the Crossbeam X-Series mobile security gateway with rigorous, objective and realistic performance tests,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, managing director, EANTC. “Mobile operators require dependable firewall performance and scalability figures for their fast growing 3G and LTE services. Crossbeam’s solution worked flawlessly and surpassed our expectations in the various mobile deployment scenarios we tested.”

To download a full report on the test results, visit http://www.crossbeam.com/why-crossbeam/performance

Signals Research Group Uses Spirent for Industry’s First Independent Data Performance Benchmark Test of Commercial LTE Chipsets

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Results highlights LTE’s strong data performance potential, as well as issues with today’s device implementations

Sunnyvale, Calif. – January 4, 2011 – Signals Research Group, LLC (SRG) has announced the findings of the industry’s first and only independent data performance benchmark test of commercially-available LTE chipsets. Although the SRG report highlighted the ability of some chipsets to realize the promise of LTE’s high data rates, large performance differences were found between commercially-available implementations in devices.

Using a lab-based testing approach on the Spirent 8100 solution, SRG collected and analyzed the data performance of five commercial devices from LG, Sierra Wireless, Novatel Wireless, Samsung and Fujitsu, which use chipsets from four different vendors.

“Overall the industry has made tremendous strides in the last few years, with theoretical peak data rates increasing from 3.6Mbps in 2007, when SRG and Spirent first started working together on benchmark testing, to today’s 70Mbps in a 10MHz radio channel,” said Michael Thelander, CEO, Signals Research Group. “It is also very heartening to see the presence of emerging baseband chipset suppliers who previously did not offer a 3G baseband chipset.”

While no single chipset dominated the performance benchmark test, the SRG report concluded that:

Some devices exhibit significant problems under certain conditions, lagging the top performers by a high double-digit percentage.
The demands of the much higher throughput requirements in LTE appear to be creating unforeseen performance bottlenecks not exhibited by today’s HSPA and HSPA+ chipsets.
Some chipsets misreport the quality of the radio channel, which could result in network resources being allocated to devices unable to make effective use of them, to the detriment of other network users.

This recent round of tests marked the sixth time that SRG and Spirent have collaborated on chipset performance testing. For the LTE data performance benchmark test, the Spirent 8100 solution was used to subject all the chipsets to the exact same sets of network conditions, automatically repeating each test multiple times to generate statistically significant, objective results.

The tests measured the downlink throughput and key performance indicators of each chipset at the application layer under a wide range of realistic network conditions. The test scenarios, based on the latest specifications from 3GPP Technical Reports (TRs), included various static conditions as well as industry-standard pedestrian fading and vehicular fading conditions. In total, 28 LTE test scenarios were used.
A complete analysis of the LTE chipset performance benchmark is contained in SRG’s latest report, which is published today. For more information please visit www.signalsresearch.com.

For more information on testing LTE chipset and mobile device performance, visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/LTE_devices

Frost & Sullivan Names Spirent the Global Leader in Ethernet and Cloud Infrastructure Test Equipment Markets

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent’s Focus on Innovation, Comprehensive Portfolio of Solutions and Global Reach Are Key Contributors to Market Leadership, Says Frost & Sullivan

Sunnyvale, Calif. – December 13, 2011 — Spirent Communications has been named by Frost & Sullivan as the market leader in the 1/10/40/100G Ethernet and cloud infrastructure test equipment markets, with 28.9 percent and 45.6 percent market shares respectively. According to Frost & Sullivan’s recent market reports, Spirent’s innovative approach to testing, focus on product enhancements, and capacity to utilize core competencies to leverage new market opportunities, gives the company a competitive edge over other companies in the sector.

Adoption of cloud-based applications along with the mobile Internet revolution are driving deployment of IP/Ethernet infrastructure in data centers and carrier networks, making testing and monitoring of networks and applications in both the lab and live environments critical.

“Spirent’s leadership in these two rapidly expanding test equipment markets is a testament to the strong offerings it delivers to its impressive and ever-expanding customer base,” said Olga Yashkova, program manager, Test & Measurement Practice at Frost & Sullivan. “Spirent has aligned its test equipment design capability with dynamic customer needs, to provide highly-optimized and converged test solutions with higher scalability, greater density, and increased performance to address real-life network traffic environment.”

Spirent is the preferred provider of high-scale, high-density converged solutions for Ethernet and cloud testing and has played a prominent role in some of the largest public tests. Industry leaders such as Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Chunghwa Telecom, Extreme Networks and Juniper among others continue to turn to Spirent to address high speed Ethernet and cloud computing testing. Spirent was the first company to introduce a cloud infrastructure testing solution, pioneering the unique Performance, Availability, Security and Scalability (PASS) test methodology.

“These latest findings from Frost & Sullivan clearly demonstrate that we are delivering on our strategy of addressing the needs of today’s growing markets, such as high-speed Ethernet and Cloud, providing our customers with the means to test and understand the performance of next-generation networks,” said Bill Burns, CEO, Spirent. “We’ll continue to offer the most capable solutions that allow the leading players to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment.”

On December 15 at 1:00 pm (Eastern)/10:00 am (Pacific) Spirent’s Tim Jefferson will join Frost & Sullivan analyst Prathima Bhoomkanti in a webcast to discuss the market trends and challenges in1/10/40/100G Ethernet network testing. To register visit http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/analyst-briefing-detail.pag?mode=open&sid=248191623

For more information on Cloud Infrastructure testing visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Cloud_Computing

For more information on Ethernet testing visit http://www.spirent.com/ethernet

Spirent Leads the Industry in A-GPS Over-the-Air Testing

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

SGS deployment brings the number of leading labs choosing Spirent to more than 15

Sunnyvale, Calif.– December 5, 2011 — Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, today announced that the SGS wireless testing laboratory in Seoul, Korea has become the latest among the world’s leading wireless testing laboratories to deploy Spirent’s 8100 A-GPS Over-the-Air (OTA) test solution. Spirent leads the industry by a wide margin, with installations at more than 15 of the world’s top test labs capable of providing OTA testing services. The Spirent 8100 solution is also widely used by leading labs to offer A-GPS conformance testing as part of device certification to GCF, PTCRB and CCF requirements.

“Spirent’s industry leadership in both navigation satellite emulation and over-the-air testing made them the low-risk choice,” said Nicky You, Lab Operation Manager at SGS. “However, we still asked them to prove that the 8100 system could allow us to offer our customers the most accurate OTA A-GPS testing available, and they delivered.”

Shipments of GPS-capable GSM/WCDMA handsets have continued to grow rapidly - by 97% to 295 million units in 2010, according to analyst firm Berg Insight. But to ensure that the technology delivers as promised in the real world, the performance of A-GPS in devices needs to be tested over the air in a large chamber under precisely-controlled conditions. The CTIA has made A-GPS OTA testing an integral part of its certification process for wireless devices.

“Winning at more than fifteen of the world’s top OTA labs is a great milestone for us,” said Spirent vice president Rob Van Brunt. “We’ve worked hard to apply our subject matter expertise to this important area, enabling us to offer low-risk, high-return solutions to our customers.”

Spirent’s expertise in A-GPS OTA testing is further highlighted in a white paper titled “A-GPS Over-The-Air Test Method: Business and Technology Implications.” The white paper explains the technical advantages and requirements of OTA testing methodology for A-GPS enable devices.

For more information on Spirent’s A-GPS OTA test solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Over_the_air.aspx

Spirent Federal Celebrates 10 Years of Achievement

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Advancing Communication & GPS/GNSS Testing for the Civilian Government and Military

This month, Spirent Federal Systems commemorates its 10th anniversary as a proxy company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Spirent Communications, the leading provider of network, device, and services test solutions and Global Positioning System (GPS)/Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) test equipment. Spirent Federal was created to focus on government needs and customers, providing them with the tools to evaluate their communication networks and navigation systems. As a proxy company, Spirent Federal can provide secure solutions and personnel, as well as hold a General Services Administration (GSA) contract to better serve this important sector.

Ellen Hall, president of Spirent Federal, stated, "Spirent solutions are used by key civilian and defense programs that are essential to our nation's security. We have worked very hard over the past ten years to live up to that responsibility and to make sure our customers' requirements are met and exceeded—and our achievements show this."

In addition to being the provider of choice for major government programs, Spirent has received top industry awards for product innovation and performance, and consistently been first-to-market with new test capabilities. Service support expertise and infrastructure have been continuously expanded and enhanced.

Spirent Federal network, device, and services test solutions analyze every element of the network infrastructure:

Networks: 1/10/40/100G Ethernet, data centers, cloud computing, and cyber security testing
Mobility: Mobile packet core and backhaul testing, LTE, UMTS and CDMA device and air interface testing
Applications: Ethernet services, video and IPTV, voice, and IMS testing

Spirent Federal GPS/GNSS test equipment simulates all current and planned GNSS signals:

GPS: Modernized GPS (L1C, L2C, L5, M-code), Anti-interference, GPS/inertial, and CRPA (Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna) testing
Multi-GNSS: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and QZSS testing
SBAS: WAAS, EGNOS, MSAS testing

To learn more, visit www.spirentfederal.com or contact a representative.

About Spirent Federal Systems Inc

Spirent Federal Systems (www.spirentfederal.com) offers full layer 2-7 network test and measurement solutions and GPS/GNSS navigation test equipment designed to help government, military, and educational organizations get the highest levels of communication network and navigation system fidelity, reliability, and performance.

Spirent has a purchasing contract with the General Services Administration (GSA). Spirent Federal Systems is a proxy company of Spirent Communications and is headquartered in Yorba Linda, CA.

Contacts:

Spirent Federal Systems
Anna Thorpe, 714-692-6565
anna.thorpe@spirentfederal.com

Spirent Extends Capability of GNSS Simulation Systems to Reduce Costs and Boost Testing Efficiency

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

New automation and reporting capability boosts the efficiency of GNSS testing

Paignton, United Kingdom – November 29 2011 – Spirent Communications today announced the launch of its new automation and reporting tool, TestDrive-GNSS™ for SimGEN™ and SimREPLAYplus controlled GNSS test systems. TestDrive-GNSS automates the testing process to significantly reduce overhead costs and testing times associated with characterization of GNSS devices.

TestDrive-GNSS provides a suite of test cases that enables fundamental characterization tests to be performed in an automated and controlled way. Examples of fundamental characterization tests include time-to-first-fix (TTFF), acquisition sensitivity, tracking sensitivity, re-acquisition time, and static and dynamic navigation accuracy. The tool also provides a formal test report at the end of the process.

Characterization tests can be cumbersome to execute manually, especially when iterative repetition is required as test signals and conditions are changed. For example, a TTFF test typically involves 100 or more repeat measurements which, if undertaken manually, require significant operator involvement. Similarly, consider a navigation accuracy test under a full range of Dilution of Precision (DOP) conditions where the satellite constellation geometry needs to be changed many times. Automation of such a test is essential in a world where the timescales for completing test programs are being constantly reduced.

“TestDrive-GNSS unlocks the full power of a Spirent GNSS simulation system, enabling the test equipment to do the work with minimal intervention,” said Stuart Smith, product manager for Spirent’s navigation & positioning division. “It not only saves time, but helps to increase test quality and accountability with its comprehensive test reporting. With TestDrive-GNSS, fundamental GNSS receiver characterization has just become a much easier, more efficient process.”

TestDrive-GNSS has close synergy with Spirent’s industry-leading TestDrive-ULTS software for the 8100 Location Technology Solution (LTS), which tests GSM, UMTS and LTE mobile devices and chipsets and provides certified test cases to the 3G Partnership Project (3GPP) Assisted GPS (A-GPS) RF Minimum Performance and Signaling Conformance standards as well as to the Open Mobile Alliance Secure User Plane (SUPL) standards.

Spirent’s positioning & navigation solutions are the first choice of major manufacturers, integrators, test facilities and space agencies worldwide for GNSS testing and simulation solutions. Today, Spirent simulation systems are used throughout the world through a broad range of clients in more than 30 countries. Spirent delivers navigation and positioning test equipment and services to all sectors of the navigation and positioning community, from government agencies through to high volume commercial markets.

To learn more about TestDrive-GNSS stop by Spirent’s booth #32 at European Navigation Conference 2011 in London, November 29 – December 1.

Spirent Expands Application QoE, QoS and Security Testing Capabilities to High-Speed Ethernet Module

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent HyperMetrics™ mX 40/100G Module Now Supports Spirent Avalanche™, Expanding Test Capabilities and Improving Test Resource Utilization

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 15, 2011 – Spirent Communications today announced the addition of Spirent Avalanche’s application performance and security testing capabilities to Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics™ mX 40/100G module, expanding the functionality of this already-powerful high-speed Ethernet test module. With the ability to assess stateful layer 4-7 traffic and layer 2-3 traffic on a single module, Spirent is helping to reduce the amount of test equipment required in a lab, while expanding the number of devices that can be tested simultaneously through the industry’s highest-density interfaces.

The migration to high-speed data centers and networks designed to deliver Quality of Experience (QoE) aware applications means it is critical for system vendors and operators to validate that services are fully secure and meet customer expectations. This enhanced module is the first solution to address line rate 40Gbps layer 4-7 application performance on high-speed 40/100G Ethernet systems. The new capability allows test engineers to do more with their testing resources and enables the testing of highly realistic user and business workloads over 40G and 100G Ethernet interfaces.

“Network equipment manufacturers, service providers and data center operators face many challenges in today’s highly competitive, quickly-changing business environment,” stated Michael Howard, principal analyst, Carrier Networks, at Infonetics Research. “It is critical for test engineers to have efficient tools that quicken the development process in order to get 40GE and 100GE to a waiting market, and this includes the critical elements of QoE and QoS, parameters that are growing in importance for service differentiation.”

With up to four 40G ports or two 100G ports per module, the HyperMetrics mX 40/100G module delivers the highest density high-speed Ethernet test solution per rack unit, while ensuring the delivery of a complete mobile multi-play experience. It achieves this by combining high-performance stateful traffic, high-scale routing, access and mobile control plane characteristics on a single module.
“The introduction of these additional capabilities to the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX module further demonstrates our continued leadership in providing the industry’s most advanced high-speed testing equipment,” said Ankur Chadda, product marketing manager at Spirent. “With its design focused on providing realism with performance at scale, it is the first solution to validate stateful applications traffic on high-speed Ethernet interfaces. By extending the benefits of HyperMetrics mX, we’ve allowed existing Spirent TestCenter customers to leverage a single module for an even wider range of needs. At the same time, it enables the testing of more devices simultaneously using fewer products than in the past, ultimately helping to reduce associated costs.”

Spirent’s high-speed Ethernet solution will be featured in an interoperability demonstration at Ethernet Alliance’s booth #5101 at the SC11 event, November 15–17 in Seattle, WA.

For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter/HyperMetrics_mx_40-100.aspx

Leading MSO Selects Spirent’s Service Assurance Solution for Nationwide Ethernet Business Services and Mobile Backhaul Network

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter Live to Provide Performance Monitoring, Test & Diagnostics Capabilities Enabling Faster Service Turn up and Enhanced Quality of Service (QoS)

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 15, 2011 — Looking to overcome challenges associated with service turn-up, time required to resolve service difficulties and handling degradation of service, a leading North American provider of cable TV and Broadband services has selected Spirent TestCenter Live as its service assurance solution. The MSO will be using Spirent TestCenter Live for Ethernet performance monitoring, as well as test and diagnostics for Ethernet business and mobile backhaul services.

As Ethernet services continue to grow quickly, leading providers worldwide have struggled to keep up with service activation and are facing high turn-up failures rates. At the same time, they are experiencing long Mean-Time-To-Repair (MTTR) metrics associated with resolving issues and unable to fully address service degradation associated with quality of service.

“Maintaining the highest Quality of Service and SLAs remain critical attributes in today’s competitive business environment,” said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst, Broadband Access and Video at Infonetics Research. “Tools such as Spirent’s help reduce operational costs while delivering invaluable service installation & maintenance productivity gains.”

With Spirent TestCenter Live, the MSO gains a tool which enables faster and easier service activation, while ensuring turn up it is done correctly the first time. The MSO can also more rapidly resolve trouble calls from its business and mobility customers while gaining visibility into the quality of service it is providing to its Ethernet customers and partners. In today’s subscriber-centric market place, quick turn-up and trouble resolution can provide cable operators with a competitive edge.

“In order to ensure the lowest turn up cost possible and that the service is provided correctly, we built a market-leading platform designed to help cable providers troubleshoot the most difficult problems, regardless of location and service,” said Sean Yarborough, senior director of business development & strategy, Spirent. “Spirent TestCenter Live not only plays an integral part in the business processes for successful service activation, trouble management, and Quality of Service Monitoring, it provides MSOs with a competitive advantage.”

Spirent TestCenter Live provides operators with a means to efficiently address service activation, performance monitoring and fault isolation milestones. This flexible, highly scalable, software and hardware platform provides service visibility and SLA management over 1 and 10 GbE networks. The platform—supporting both performance monitoring and test and diagnostic disciplines—is deployed by telco, MSO, and wireless providers seeking to optimize service turn up, reduce dispatches, proactively manage SLAs and meet subscriber reporting obligations.

To learn more stop by Spirent booth #1732 at 2011 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, November 15 -17 in Atlanta.

For more information on Spirent TestCenter Live visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter_Live.aspx

Spirent Introduces New Field Management Application Increases Compliance, Efficiency of for In-Home Service Turn-Up and Testing

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent Field Management System for the Tech-X Flex Provides Seamless Back-office Integration, and Visibility Between Any Field Test Set, Technician, and Operations Management

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 15, 2011 — To better increase the efficiency of field technicians and reduce time spent troubleshooting potential service issues, Spirent Communications has introduced a Field Management System (FMS) application for its Tech-X Flex field test solution. The solutions improves productivity and effectiveness of field technicians and operations personnel by providing each other increase visibility into the automated test results, inventory, and repair management information through a single application. Field technicians can increase installation and maintenance process compliance while storing test results and managing inventory, which is accessible by field and operations personnel throughout the entire operations process.

Spirent’s FMS enables MSOs to better access and store test results, and perform inventory management using Spirent’s Tech-X Flex and other field testers deployed in the field with a “carrier-class” open-architecture. This approach helps to reduce maintenance costs, administrative effort, and the total cost of ownership by enabling the use of the FMS tool across an entire system. Previously, multiple back-office solutions from multiple test vendors were required to achieve this goal, resulting in additional cost, complexity and training challenges.

“MSOs, facing more commercial pressure than ever, have the continued needs to boost the efficiency of their field technicians. This includes reducing repeat dispatches and mean time to repair, or MTTR,” said Sean Yarborough, senior director of business development & strategy at Spirent. “Ensuring field technicians perform required tests before closing out a work order and verifying pre-determined thresholds are met remains critical to operating a successful network. Our FMS helps to gather detailed information from field technicians, providing a consolidated view of compliance and effectiveness. This ultimately allows for the identification of technicians who may require additional training or the need for changes in procedures.”

FMS, which supports gathering and analyzing SLM, DOCSIS 3.0 and other test results, delivers a simple tool for increasing real-time communication with field technicians, as MSOs seek to better understand the progress of their work force in near-real-time scenarios and have the ability to share those results for immediate validation before leaving the job site.

To learn more stop by Spirent booth#1732 at 2011 SCTE Cable-Tec Expo, November 15 -17 in Atlanta.

For more information on the latest Field Management System for MSOs visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Tech-X-Flex.aspx

Spirent Recognized For Helping Network Operators Overcome Critical Challenges in the Ethernet Services Lifecycle

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter Live Receives High Rating in Broadband Technology Report’s Diamond Technology Reviews

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 14, 2011 — Spirent Communications was recently recognized by BTR Diamond Technology Reviews for providing the cable industry with a solution that is unique, innovative and contributes to profitability. Spirent TestCenter Live 7500 Series Ethernet Services Probes was rated four out of five diamonds by an independent panel of executives from Bright House, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Suddenlink, Sunflower Broadband and Time Warner Cable. The judges commented that they awarded a score of four diamonds for the product’s ease of use, efficiency, and reliability.

Spirent TestCenter Live assists operations at three critical points in the service lifecycle: service turn-up, performance monitoring to meet customer expectations, and troubleshooting. The new probe architecture is designed to increase simultaneous user capacity and deployment flexibility with a first of its kind, multi-slot, modular format. This flexible and highly scalable platform provides service visibility and Service Level Agreement (SLA) management. It enables network operators to monitor performance across 1 and 10G Ethernet networks and beyond, without significant system upgrades. The platform is also available with Spirent TestCenter Live Connectors, enabling users to automate test configurations on the fly, without the need for scripting or manual access of network elements.

“Positive industry feedback is an accomplishment which underscores our role within the cable industry,” said John Cunningham, vice president of Service Assurance, Spirent. “For our solutions to continually be recognized for the impact they have on the bottom line of MSOs is extremely gratifying.”

Broadband Technology Report staff members had no role in judging submissions for the award and scores. This approach helps to provide useful insight to the engineering community about new products available for use in today’s cable networks.

For more information on Spirent TestCenter Live visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter_Live.aspx

New Agreement Ensures Successful Network Applications Delivery for Enterprise and Cloud Services

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

New Spirent/iTrinegy agreement offers enterprises and cloud providers a complete solution to de-risk network and cloud migrations and deployment

Sunnyvale, Calif. - November 8, 2011 — Enterprises and cloud providers can now pre-test applications and customers’ service upgrades before rolling them out into the live network, thanks to an agreement signed today which enables Spirent Communications to supply iTrinegy network emulation solutions to the European enterprise market.

This agreement with iTrinegy significantly enhances Spirent’s offerings in the enterprise space by enabling customers to run accurate network emulation with extensive application tests before committing changes to actual systems. For cloud providers there is an option to test deployments and migrations without risk as a “pay as you go” managed service.

“This is a win-win partnership for our enterprise customers,” commented David Hill, Spirent’s vice president of EMEA. “Spirent’s test solutions lead the industry in reproducing real world traffic conditions, for truly realistic test and monitoring of network function and performance. iTrinegy have brought accurate network emulation to applications. Combine iTrinegy’s network emulation with Spirent’s traffic emulation and you can see the true impact – under any traffic conditions – of any new application, system upgrade or configuration change on the network without putting the real network at risk. You can even make Quality of Experience assessments in advance – it’s that real!”

The network has become so critical to the delivery of applications that it no longer makes sense for companies to put their whole business at risk by applying untested changes. Spirent’s real-world solutions are a major advance, because they allow stringent testing of any networked application under both realistic and extreme operating conditions to see how it will actually perform under duress. A network under 24/7 usage is rarely available for testing in this way. Using iTrinegy emulation, the same tests can now be run without touching the operating network. Examples from actual case studies include upgrading or deploying new applications, moving services to the Cloud, upgrading a WAN to MPLS, consolidating application servers and datacenters and moving and distributing workloads.

Spirent now offers three key iTrinegy solutions to enterprises and cloud service providers:

The best-selling INE Enterprise, serving medium sized organizations with network speeds up to 1Gbps;
The high-end scalable INE Ultra for speeds up to 10Gbps, covering tens of thousands of network experiences, and suitable for large public network emulation; and
The downloadable software solution, INE for Windows, emulating networks on a desktop PC – ideal for software engineers wanting to make sure any changes or upgrades are thoroughly ‘unit’ tested in advance of rollout.

The INE appliances can realistically emulate any number of network elements – LANs, WANs, DSL, modems, satellite, mobile or WiFi links etc. These elements can be linked together to recreate complex networks in detail, with adjustable parameters for link speed, latency, jitter, dropped and error packets, bandwidth by class, device queue sizes, routing, prioritization etc. All this can be performed via a very easy-to-use graphical interface.

Graham Wood, Business Development director at iTrinegy, comments, “We are really excited to be working with Spirent, with its impressive global track record in helping companies to de-risk and evaluate today’s changing technologies. Spirent gains our enterprise-strength network emulation technology and iTrinegy gains the opportunity to increase our market traction. We’re looking forward to a very successful partnership.”

To learn more about Spirent’s INE solutions visit www.spirent.com/solutions-directory/Spirent_INE

To download white paper that explains the importance of testing in realistic network conditions visit http://www.spirent.com/Home/White-Papers/INE_Trial/Importance_of_Testing%20_SW_in_Realistic_NW_Conditions_Whitepaper.aspx

Interim Management Statement (Unaudited)

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT

London, UK – 3 November 2011: Spirent Communications plc (“Spirent”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (LSE: SPT), a leading communications technology company, announces the following unaudited Interim Management Statement for the period from 3 July 2011 to date. All growth rates are against the same period in 2010 unless otherwise stated.

Trading to date

Spirent’s performance for the period is in line with the Board’s expectations. Group order intake grew 8% year-on-year for the first nine months of 2011. Over the same period, revenue increased by 11% and adjusted operating profit grew by 13% with return on sales for the Group maintained at 23%. Spirent’s broad product portfolio of innovative test solutions and large number of geographically diverse customers has enabled the Group to mitigate substantially the effects of the current macro-economic uncertainties and deliver further positive momentum during the third quarter.

Highlights - third quarter 2011
Financial

Group order intake grew 4%; Performance Analysis increased 8%.

Group book to bill ratio of 102 (Q3 2010: 104); Performance Analysis ratio of 105 (Q3 2010: 108).
Revenue up by 6% to $130.2 million (Q3 2010: $123.3 million); Performance Analysis grew 10% to $104.0 million (Q3 2010: $94.2 million).
Reported operating profit increased by 7% to $31.1 million (Q3 2010: $29.0 million); adjusted operating profit grew 8% to $31.8 million (Q3 2010: $29.5 million).
Basic earnings per share rose 11% to 3.23 cents (Q3 2010: 2.92 cents); adjusted basic earnings per share also up 11% to 3.34 cents (Q3 2010: 3.00 cents).
Return on sales 24%.
Free cash generation of $25.8 million (Q3 2010: $14.8 million).

Operational

In Performance Analysis strong growth in demand continued for our wireless, positioning and data center test solutions.
Weaker demand in Service Assurance and Systems.
New test solutions and customer endorsements announced since 3 July include:
Release of the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G module, the highest density, most powerful solution for high speed Ethernet testing with increased emulation scale and realism;
Launch of Spirent’s Infrastructure Test Optimization initiative; enabling customers to test more effectively and efficiently through integration, automation and collaboration;
Alcatel-Lucent selects Spirent’s solution to test the performance of its new FP3 400G network processor in advance of its commercial introduction;
SGS Electrical and Electronics, a leading testing and certification company, chooses Spirent for LTE device performance testing;
U-blox selects Spirent for combined GPS/GLONASS multi-GNSS testing.

Market conditions and outlook

Market conditions during the third quarter exhibited similar trends to those reported at the half-year. Strong demand for wireless, positioning and data center test solutions continued, with a more cautious stance adopted by some wireline customers. Regionally Asia Pacific continued to grow strongly, with macro-economic concerns weighing on North America and Europe. We expect similar market conditions will remain through the fourth quarter this year. The Board anticipates that Spirent will meet its current expectations for the full year.

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“Spirent has performed strongly in uncertain macro-economic conditions. The pace of innovation in data technologies has not slowed and the broader market opportunities remain attractive created by mobile internet, global positioning and cloud computing, all of which will drive our business over the next several years.

“We remain focused on executing our strategy to make investments in the right areas through product development for long term growth while at the same time managing our costs through this time of global economic uncertainty. While we expect that near term macro-economic conditions will cause some to be cautious in their capital spending, we remain well placed within our industry to meet the growing and evolving demands of our customers."

Third quarter 2011

The results for the third quarter of 2011 are set out below:

$ million	3^rd quarter 2011	3^rd quarter 2010	Change (%)
Reported
Revenue	130.2	123.3	6
Operating profit	31.1	29.0	7
Basic earnings per share (cents)	3.23	2.92	11
Free cash flow¹	25.8	14.8	74
Adjusted
Operating profit²	31.8	29.5	8
Basic earnings per share² (cents)	3.34	3.00	11

Notes
1. Operating cash flow after tax, net interest and net capital expenditure.
2. Before share-based payment, acquired intangible asset amortisation and acquisition related costs.

In Performance Analysis the strong growth in demand for our wireless, positioning and data center test products continued into the third quarter of 2011. In wireline momentum slowed, reflecting the more cautious stance adopted by some customers. There was weaker demand in Service Assurance, and also in Systems.

Adjusted Group operating profit grew by $2.3 million to $31.8 million; return on sales was maintained at 24 per cent. Our commitment to increase our investment in product development and sales and marketing to expand into new markets and drive sustainable profitable growth remains unchanged.

Adjusted basic earnings per share grew by 11 per cent to 3.34 cents.

Performance Analysis

Performance Analysis order intake grew 8 per cent over the third quarter of 2010. Revenue was up 10 per cent to $104.0 million (Q3 2010: $94.2 million) and operating profit grew by 14 per cent to $29.5 million (Q3 2010: $25.8 million). The book to bill ratio for the third quarter was 105 (Q3 2010: 108). The strong growth trends for wireless, positioning and data center test solutions continue, driven by the pace of innovation in these technologies. In wireline revenue was impacted by a cautious stance adopted by some customers in response to the macro-economic environment, particularly in the US and Europe.

Service Assurance

Although order intake was flat period-on-period, revenue fell by 18 per cent compared with the third quarter of 2010 and operating profit by 54 per cent to $1.2 million. The lower revenue is due to spending restraint and delays in placing orders by our major customers which is likely to remain unchanged in the fourth quarter.

Systems

In the third quarter of 2011 US Medicare related sales remained depressed due to the changes in the reimbursement rules for wheelchairs. This was exacerbated by the lower demand for consumer funded wheelchairs due to the economic slowdown. Order intake was down 19 per cent compared with the third quarter of 2010. Systems’ revenue at $14.8 million for the quarter was 3 per cent below the same period in 2010. Operating profit at $2.5 million was marginally higher than the third quarter of 2010, benefitting from foreign exchange gains. Market conditions for our Systems business are expected to remain the same in the near term.

Cash

There was strong free cash generation of $25.8 million in the third quarter (Q3 2010: $14.8 million). As anticipated, working capital was released, as the build experienced late in the second quarter of 2011 reversed. Cash and cash equivalents closed at $226.9 million (3 July 2011: $210.1 million), after payment of the 2011 interim dividend of $8.1 million in September.

Women on Boards

In response to the Davies Review, the Company made the following statement on its website on 21 September 2011:

“The Board aims to have a broad range of skills, backgrounds and experience. We will continue to follow a policy of ensuring that we appoint the best people for the relevant roles and recognise the importance and benefits of greater diversity both at board level and throughout the Group and will take this into account when considering any particular appointment. The Company will report further regarding Lord Davies' recommendations in its 2011 Annual Report.”

Enquiries

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer	Spirent Communications plc	+44 (0)1293 767676
Eric Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer

James Melville-Ross/Emma Appleton	FTI Consulting	+44 (0)20 7831 3113

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organisations. We enable today’s communication ecosystem as well as tomorrow’s emerging enterprises to deploy life enriching communications networks, devices, services and applications. The Systems group develops sophisticated power control systems for electrical vehicles in the medical mobility and industrial markets. Further information about Spirent Communications plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

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 ADRs are quoted on the Pink OTC Markets electronic quotation service which can be found at www.pinksheets.com.

Spirent 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.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
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.

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CATR Selects Spirent for Over the Air Testing of Mobile Devices

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Leading Chinese Test Lab Uses Spirent Solutions to Test MIMO and Location Performance

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 1, 2011 — China Academy of Telecommunication Research (CATR) a leading Chinese test laboratory, has selected Spirent Communications’ solutions for over the air (OTA) testing of CDMA, UMTS and LTE mobile devices. To ensure the performance of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna schemes used in high-speed mobile technologies such as LTE, and of integrated GPS/A-GPS positioning functionality in mobile devices, testing needs to take into account the mobile device antenna. However, the traditional conducted approach used in lab-based certification testing bypasses the device antenna and testing devices on live networks does not yield repeatable results. This has led to the widespread adoption and ongoing standardization of OTA testing techniques.

CATR is an active participant in development of standards for OTA testing of MIMO antenna schemes in mobile devices, both locally and globally. Although MIMO antenna techniques are a key factor in achieving the high data rates promised by next-generation wireless technologies such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, they impose significant challenges on the design and development of devices, greatly complicating the associated RF testing.

CATR is using Spirent’s SR5500 and VR5 wireless channel emulators, in conjunction with an anechoic chamber, to investigate and validate approaches to MIMO OTA testing. The Spirent SR5500 and VR5 are ideally suited to this type of investigative work, since their unique real-time engine enables CATR to immediately see the impact of changes made to the RF environment on MIMO device performance.

“As a leader in wireless channel emulation, Spirent has been working with the major chamber manufacturers and making key contributions to the development of methodologies and standards for MIMO OTA testing,” said Randy Oltman, director of product management at Spirent’s Wireless business. “We are delighted to be working closely with CATR, another leader in the field, to advance the testing of this important technology.”

CATR is also in the forefront of testing the GPS/A-GPS positioning capability in CDMA and UMTS mobile devices over the air. The lab makes use of Spirent’s C2K-ATS and 8100 OTA location technology test systems to ensure devices meet minimum performance requirements, including those from the CTIA. CATR was one of the first CTIA Authorized Test Labs (CATLs) in Asia. CATR is also active in adapting standardized GPS/A-GPS test plans and methodologies to the specific needs of the Chinese mobile market. As the global leader in GPS/A-GPS OTA testing, Spirent’s solutions enable CATR to easily characterize the impact of antenna placement, form factor, interference and more in an anechoic chamber under real-world conditions.

“We are glad to cooperate with Spirent to expand our capability, especially in the MIMO and GPS area,” said Xiao Li, director of the antenna lab of CATR. “With the testing demand of LTE/MIMO increasing rapidly, we believe this new system can help our customers to enhance the quality of their products.”

For more information on Spirent’s GPS/A-GPS OTA test solutions, please visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Over_the_air.aspx.

For more information on Spirent’s MIMO OTA test solutions visit
http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/MOTA.aspx.

Spirent Positioning & Navigation Test Solution Now Supports China’s Compass Navigation System

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Compass/Beidou-2 Support Added to Spirent’s GSS8000 GPS, GLONASS & Galileo Constellation Simulator

Paignton, United Kingdom - October 26, 2011 — In response to recent public announcements on the readiness of the Beidou-2 navigation system and the planned release of the signal Interface Control Document, Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), the leading provider of navigation and positioning test solutions, today announced support for the Compass Navigation Satellite System (CNSS) on its GSS8000 navigation technology test system. The Spirent GSS8000, which is already widely used to test GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, SBAS and QZSS technology, enables easy set-up and control of simulated Compass constellations. This addition enables both Compass-only testing as well as multi-Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) testing that includes Compass. Initially Spirent is offering a Beidou-2 simulator based on public domain information only. When the signal Interface Control Document is released, Spirent plans to provide full Compass Open Service support.

The Compass system, also known as Beidou, is a project by China to develop an independent global satellite navigation system. The system is being deployed in three phases. Beidou-2, the second phase, is reported to be on track to be operational by early 2012 and will support regional operation from a network of geostationary and inclined orbit satellites.

Simulation is acknowledged as the best way to test GNSS receivers, systems and application performance. Only laboratory simulation can ensure controlled repeatable testing that explores both nominal and off-design conditions. By following a structured test approach, Spirent’s customers can test multi-GNSS receivers, systems and applications resulting in shorter development times and improved performance.

“With the successful launch of two Galileo satellites last week, a full GLONASS system and the recent Compass announcement this is an exciting time for the industry,” said John Pottle, marketing director of Spirent’s positioning and navigation group. “Spirent started offering multi-GNSS test systems over ten years ago, added Galileo in 2006 and is now pleased to announce our support for the Beidou-2 system. Our systems enable fine and flexible control of the constellations and signals from individual as well as combined navigation systems.”

Spirent’s GSS8000 multi-GNSS platform is also compatible with the third phase, Beidou-3, of Compass deployment, which is slated for full operation by 2020.

To see live demonstrations of Spirent’s positioning and navigation test systems stop by Spirent booths at the following upcoming events:

3rd Asia Oceania Regional Workshop on GNSS, Jeju Island, Korea, November 1-2,
IGNSS 2011: International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Society Symposium Sydney, Australia, November 15-17

To learn more about GSS8000 visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/GSS8000.aspx.

For multi-GNSS application notes and eBooks visit Spirent’s multi-GNSS resource center http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/PT_Video_Library.aspx

Spirent Announces New Testing Technology Bundles for Mobile Device Designers

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

CS8 Wireless Device Design Tester Addresses Needs of Developers

Sunnyvale, Calif.– October 24, 2011 — Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, today announced a new product offering for mobile device designers and developers. The Spirent CS8 Wireless Device Design Tester, targeted at engineers who design cellular phones, tablets, data cards and machine-to-machine cellular modules, bundles industry leading network emulation with innovative testing software and subject matter expertise into a package that addresses the needs of design engineers.

Spirent has established a global reputation for its wireless offerings, best known for highly automated testing systems used by manufacturers and network operators for design verification and acceptance testing of finished products.

“CS8 is about delivering our performance testing and rapid test case development technology, which until recently were available only in our network operator solutions, into the hands of the design engineer,” said Spirent vice-president Hesham ElHamahmy. “In fact, by offering purpose-specific software, interfaces and other components, this one platform can be used at every stage of the development process, from RF or baseband design to system-level DVT.”

Spirent’s Dr. Salim Manji added, “For example, the CS8’s Interactive Tester includes a network-grade Evolved Packet Core (EPC) that was originally developed to test 3G and 4G/LTE network equipment. Using the same EPC testing solution that is relied upon by infrastructure vendors to verify their network equipment provides immense advantages over using a fixed script-based EPC. First, it runs right out of the box, without requiring the user to spend weeks modifying scripts to control the network. Second, the implementation is very realistic, both in terms of latency and in the completeness of the message implementation.”

CS8 is available for RF/baseband design, protocol design, system DVT and chipset-platform testing. For more information on the solution visit www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/CS8

Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories Selects Spirent for Mobile Backhaul Network Testing

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Taiwan’s Largest Carrier uses Spirent TestCenter to Validate Performance and Application Quality of Experience of its Mobile Backhaul Network

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 24, 2011 — The dramatic growth in mobile data traffic presents service providers with both opportunities and challenges. To leverage the opportunities and address the challenges, Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories (CHTTL), the research and development arm of Taiwan’s largest network operator, is relying on Spirent TestCenter to help validate the performance of its mobile backhaul.

Service providers realize efficiencies and cost savings as they migrate from a TDM based mobile backhaul to a packet based network. During the transition to Ethernet/IP, service providers must also ensure that TDM-like reliability and OAM capabilities are maintained. Packets can be lost in Ethernet so the routers and switches must be carefully engineered to support timing and synchronization which are critical for scenarios such as call handovers between towers.

CHTTL is using Spirent TestCenter to ensure that its existing IP core network and new Ethernet mobile backhaul is ready to address customer requirements for higher bandwidth while delivering services with a high Quality of Experience (QoE). Specifically, Spirent’s testing solution is being used to validate timing and synchronization while performing interoperability testing among equipment from a range of vendors.

Spirent is the only vendor to offer a complete mobile backhaul test solution that enables test engineers to quickly and easily verify the performance of devices under test while ensuring compliance with standards for new and emerging technologies.

“Service providers are quickly upgrading their mobile backhaul to meet the requirements of increasing data traffic on their network,” said Gene Zhang, vice president, Asia at Spirent Communications. “However there are a number of key issues to be addressed during this transition and by leveraging Spirent’s expertise and test solutions for the mobile backhaul, CHTTL is able to ensure the delivery of services with the highest QoE.”

The latest version of Spirent’s Mobile Backhaul solution validates packet timing protocols such as IEEE 1588v2 and SyncE SSM. It also tests physical timing characteristics by generating and measuring impairments such as wander and packet delay variation. Earlier this year, Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul received Test & Measurement World magazine’s 2011 Best in Test award. Based on votes from the magazine’s readers, the award recognizes the company’s innovation and product excellence in mobile backhaul network testing.

For more information on Spirent’s mobile backhaul test solutions visit
http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile-backhaul.aspx

Spirent Extends Capability of GNSS Record and Playback Test System

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

New functionality reaffirms GSS6400 as the most versatile solution for real world testing

Paignton, United Kingdom – October 24, 2011 – Spirent Communications today announced the launch of new functionality on its GSS6400 GNSS Record and Playback test system. Users can now benefit from record and playback of two channels of serial digital data alongside the digitized GPS L1, GLONASS L1 and even QZSS signals. This is particularly useful when designing and testing integrated GNSS devices.

The GSS6400 now records and replays serial data from a wide range of data sources. Inertial sensors, DR sensors, reference receivers and 1pps signals can be recorded coherently with the GNSS embedded within the data file to guarantee synchronization. Additionally, the GSS6400 can log serial data into separate files for subsequent analysis or post processing. NMEA logs or Wi-Fi war-drive data are amongst the types of file that the GSS6400 is able to record.

The GSS6400 has always offered a simple, cost-effective and efficient way to capture real-world GNSS signals and replay them in the laboratory, to which is now added the ability to record other, serial data. It records all the radio frequency energy in the specified bandwidth – GPS L1, GLONASS L1 and QZSS. Both the wanted GNSS signals, including SBAS where present, and the background noise (or interference) are recorded.

“The new functionality further strengthens the GSS6400 live signal test offering, saving engineers valuable development time and expensive field testing costs,” said Rahul Gupta, product manager for Spirent’s navigation & positioning division.

The GSS6400 is an easy-to-use, self-contained unit with everything needed to start testing. Additional peripherals such as personal computers, hard drives, external power and cabling are not required. With the GSS6400, test engineers simply connect the supplied antenna and press the one-touch record button. Recorded files can be selected either from the front-panel display or the intuitive web-browser interface and replayed exactly as recorded.

The GSS6400 unit is appropriate for a wide range of test applications, from optimization of GNSS chipset performance in difficult environments through to testing mapping applications and repeatable production testing. The additional capability now extends the scope into testing integrated and hybrid navigation or positioning systems. Typical tests include acquisition & tracking sensitivity, TTTF for cold/warm/hot starts, positional accuracy etc.

To learn more about the GSS6400 Record and Playback System and download Spirent’s latest e-books visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_Record_and_Playback.aspx.

Spirent Ensures Performance and Scalability of 4G/LTE Networks

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Latest Spirent HyperMetrics mX Addresses 4G Network Challenges of Mobility, Application Performance, Interoperability and Mobile Backhaul

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 24, 2011 – To capitalize on the mobile Internet and smartphone revolution, carriers have to manage and optimize service performance while accommodating the exploding mobile traffic across the backhaul and core networks. Spirent Communications’ latest Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX modules enable carriers and their network equipment suppliers to navigate the complexity of converged network elements, ensuring that they perform at scale with realism.

As mobile operators upgrade their networks to support ‘Any G’ and 4G/ LTE services, there are three critical parameters that must be optimized to deliver a superior user quality of experience (QoE) – mobility for a seamless user experience, bandwidth management to optimize network resources for demanding applications and network intelligence to enable the monetization of services.

“Converged mobile packet core solutions provide mobile operators with the ability to transform their legacy networks into an open, secure and scalable mobile broadband network that enables them to monetize services and profit from the mobile Internet revolution,” said Stéphane Téral, Principal Analyst, Infonetics Research. “Testing with highly-capable tools such as these latest Spirent TestCenter modules helps carriers assess if the mobile broadband gateways they are selecting for their new networks can deliver seamless mobility across 2G, 3G and LTE, while scaling to millions of users in the carrier network.”

Although converged mobile networks simplify the physical network topology, they also introduce a high level of complexity in network design and deployment. To manage mobility and bandwidth and to monetize services, the converged network must support ‘Any G’ mobility, quality of service (QoS) and deep packet inspection (DPI). Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX modules greatly simplify and accelerate high-scale mobility, core network, mobile backhaul, routing, access and application testing.
A critical aspect of testing converged mobile networks is determining performance capabilities and limitations of network elements when millions of subscribers concurrently text, tweet, talk, browse or watch videos on their mobile devices. Unlike competitor’s solutions, testing with Spirent HyperMetrics mX ensures:

Mobility with high scalability of mobile data sessions, delivering high-performance multi-play applications with seamless mobility between 2G/3G and LTE networks, all critical for an uninterrupted user quality of experience (QoE)
Bandwidth Management with emulation of millions of subscribers under real-world network conditions, including an unprecedented number of applications being delivered concurrently, such as QoE-aware live IP video streaming along with voice, web based applications
Network Intelligence with the delivery of the mobile multiplay experience by combining high performance stateful traffic, high-scale routing, access and mobile control plane on a single module

“Converged mobile gateways are designed with enough processing capacity to deliver quality-of-experience-aware applications and content to millions of 3G and 4G/LTE subscribers,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “However, these new network elements require a new converged approach to testing that can validate speed, connection quality and application performance simultaneously.”

For more information on Spirent HyperMetrics mX and the entire Spirent TestCenter family of modules please visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter.aspx

Spirent Advances MPLS-TP and Mobile Backhaul Testing Through Isocore Interoperability Effort

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Participation in MPLS 2011 Testing Demonstrates Continued Commitment to and Success in Enabling Next-Generation MPLS Applications

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 19, 2011 — Spirent Communications continues to play a key role in public mobile backhaul testing efforts including its recent participation in a demonstration showcasing the use of MPLS-TP in the transport network. Isocore leveraged the MPLS-TP capabilities of Spirent TestCenter to validate interoperability across a multi-vendor network environment that included solutions from Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco, Juniper Networks and NEC. The highlights of this interoperability event will be presented at Isocore’s lab following the MPLS2011 International Conference, October 16 – 19 in Washington, DC.

Spirent enabled Isocore to successfully complete a number of interoperability tests, including testing traffic and OAM over statically provisioned MPLS-TP connections and sending and receiving multicast traffic over next-generation multicast VPNs.

“MPLS-TP interoperability is critical to highlight the readiness of MPLS technology for service provider trials and deployments,” said Dr. Bijan Jabbari, president, Isocore. “Testing solutions from companies such as Spirent provide the tools needed to address the requirements of the most challenging interoperability tests.”

During the MPLS 2011 conference, at booth #102, Spirent will discuss its mobile backhaul and MPLS-TP testing solutions. Spirent’s mobile backhaul expertise is further highlighted in a recently published white paper titled “Testing MPLS-TP Deployments in the Mobile Backhaul.” The white paper, explores why MPLS-TP is emerging, the applicability of MPLS-TP in the mobile backhaul and access networks, and the importance of testing new MPLS-TP deployments.

“Spirent is committed to addressing the testing requirements of the mobile backhaul with an emphasis on MPLS-TP, as well as timing and synchronization,” said Rajesh Rajamani, senior product marketing manager, Spirent. “Spirent already provides comprehensive support for the various IP/MPLS protocols and a number of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standardized MPLS-TP protocols. We are committed to keeping up with the MPLS-TP advances in the IETF and the roadmaps of key network equipment manufacturers.”

To download the Spirent white paper on MPLS-TP visit http://www.spirent.com/White-Papers/Broadband/PAB/MPLS_TP_WhitePaper.aspx

For more information on Spirent’s Mobile Backhaul testing solution visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile_backhaul/STC_MobileBackhaul.aspx

Spirent Adds QZSS support to its Multi-GNSS Simulation Platform

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Paignton, United Kingdom - October 17, 2011 - Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), the leading provider of navigation and positioning test solutions, announced today the addition of Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) simulation capabilities to its GSS6700 Multi GNSS Constellation Simulator, enhancing the ability to meet the current and future testing needs of GNSS devices.

The GSS6700 offers the industry’s most comprehensive solution for R&D, integration and verification testing of GPS, QZSS, GLONASS and Galileo devices. Spirent was the first to bring QZSS simulation to market on its GSS8000 platform in 2009. Now customers with evolving test needs can benefit from QZSS L1 C/A code support on the powerful GSS6700 platform.

"Many commercial receiver developers are realising the potential of multi-GNSS, first with GPS and GLONASS and now with the addition of QZSS,” said Rahul Gupta, product manager at Spirent's positioning technology division. "Spirent is committed to helping customers bring commercial QZSS devices to market and this latest software option enables testing of receivers, systems and applications that will use the QZSS signals.”

Spirent’s live-sky record and playback system, the GSS6400, is also capable of capturing the transmitted QZSS signal along with GPS and GLONASS. Record and playback is an increasingly widely-used technique to capture the full richness of multi-GNSS in challenging environments such as urban canyons and indoor/outdoor transitions.

Simulation of GPS, QZSS, GLONASS and Galileo is acknowledged as the best way of testing GNSS receiver, system and application performance. Only laboratory simulation can ensure controlled, repeatable testing that explores both nominal and off-design conditions with easy access to test data. By following a structured test approach, Spirent's customers can test multi-GNSS receivers, systems and applications resulting in reduced costs, shorter development times and improved performance.

The GSS6700 supports any combination of GPS/SBAS/QZSS, GLONASS and Galileo L1 signals and provides accurate, repeatable combined multi-GNSS signals and can be configured with up to 12 channels of one constellation only or with multiple constellations. Up to 36 channels are supported with 12 channels of simulation per constellation. The GSS6700 is available with a range of software capability to suit differing test requirements.

Spirent is the first choice of major manufacturers, integrators, test facilities and space agencies worldwide for GNSS testing and simulation solutions. Today, Spirent simulation systems are used throughout the world through a broad range of clients in more than 30 countries. Spirent delivers navigation and positioning test equipment and services to all sectors of the navigation and positioning community, from government agencies through to high volume commercial markets.

The QZSS license and software for the GSS6700 is now available for order. For more information on GSS6700 visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/GSS6700.aspx.

CONNEXUS Ecosystem Unveils Architecture that Highlights New Possibilities for Monetizing OTT Video Traffic

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Collaboration between Avvasi, BroadHop, CommProve and Spirent Communications enables service providers to reclaim relevance in OTT value chain

Denver; Dublin, Ireland; Sunnyvale, Calif. and Waterloo, Ontario. – October 11, 2011 – Leading solution providers aiming to enable monetization of Over-the-Top (OTT) video today announced the launch of CONNEXUS, a new and disruptive ecosystem and architecture aimed at enabling service providers, content providers and advertisers to become part of a connected value chain to deliver high-quality monetized video to subscribers in a multi-screen mobile and fixed broadband environment. CONNEXUS is the result of collaboration between, Spirent Communications, BroadHop, CommProve and Avvasi as founding members, who believe that mobile and fixed broadband service providers have a unique opportunity to enhance their service delivery architecture to dramatically increase relevance in the OTT value chain.

“Consumers are demanding a wide selection of broadcast-quality video on any device, at any time—and they’re willing to pay for it,” said Brian Partridge, vice president of network research at Yankee Group. “Service providers are currently facing an unprecedented win-win scenario: Improve customer satisfaction with OTT video by giving them the Quality of Experience they’re willing to pay for, therein monetizing this tremendous uptick in demand. CONNEXUS will bring the industry together to make this scenario a reality.”

The CONNEXUS architecture will focus on three primary goals:
Promoting the notion that service providers need to monetize OTT video and deliver a high quality of experience in order to fund the infrastructure capacity that will meet subscriber demand
Leveraging existing standards and associations to define how OTT video is delivered and monetized, and facilitate interoperability within the ecosystem
Accelerating the availability of integrated best of breed solutions across the OTT video ecosystem

OTT video streaming from sites such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer accounts for over 50% of Internet traffic. Service providers are already struggling to meet the demand that viewers place on their networks. A recent Nielsen study of media consumption trends reveals that the number of mobile OTT video consumers is growing by 41%, and the number of viewing hours is growing by 20%. This represents a significant opportunity for monetization but, because of the currently fragmented value chain, there is a substantial gap between total viewer penetration (10%) and the relative amount spent on advertising in that market (0.5%).

Service providers who want to monetize OTT video have an opportunity to create enormous value and therefore lucrative new revenue streams, however market fragmentation and lack of collaboration in the OTT value chain is preventing a pragmatic path to this opportunity. CONNEXUS is a disruptive architecture that enables a unique way of collaboration between vendors, service providers, content providers and advertisers to accomplish the shared goal of maximizing subscriber quality of experience, and delivering new video services and therefore new revenue streams for the entire ecosystem.

“The growing gap between exponential bandwidth demand and shallow revenue growth is no secret, and OTT video is the primary driver,” said Mate Prgin, president and CEO of Avvasi. “The CONNEXUS architecture seeks to address this issue by bringing together vendors committed to an open architecture for video service delivery. Reliable, high-quality video traffic management is the first step to QoE-differentiated subscription revenue which sets the stage for content monetization and, ultimately, ad revenue.”

BroadHop Inc., the leader in next generation policy control platforms for telecom operators, is among the first partners to join CONNEXUS. BroadHop enables service providers to control network resources in real time, monetize new services and applications, and deliver personalized, identity-based services in wireless and wireline networks.

“Service providers need policy solutions that give them a competitive advantage and meet the unique needs of their particular infrastructure and subscriber base,” said Bill Diotte, CEO and President, BroadHop, Inc. “The BroadHop team works with service providers to help them successfully manage their network resources, build relationships with subscribers through individualized customer service and a superior user experience, and find creative new monetizing opportunities. We look forward to uniting with Avvasi, CommProve and Spirent under the common goals of CONNEXUS.”

The third founder member, CommProve enables network operators to gain real-time visibility into their operations to control financial performance, quality of experience and network performance.

Dr. Lars Pedersen, CommProve CEO, said “It’s an exciting time in the industry with the convergence of video, mobile and the Internet, and we are delighted to be part of today’s announcement. We look forward to working with the other members to bring video delivery solutions to market, enabling service providers to offer new video services, maximize the subscriber experience as well as maximize the return on their network investment.”

The fourth founding CONNEXUS partner, Spirent Communications, is a global leader in network, device and service testing and performance validation. Spirent’s integrated test & diagnostics and performance monitoring solution, Spirent TestCenter Live, enables service providers to take full advantage of Ethernet by delivering OTT services with greater efficiency, lower cost and increased scalability.

Spirent’s vice president of service assurance, John Cunningham, commented, “Spirent’s leadership position in the service assurance of mobile backhaul and Ethernet/IP based services means that our solutions are a perfect fit in helping to deliver high quality OTT Video services. With Spirent TestCenter Live, providers have a means to monitor the performance of the mobile backhaul and Ethernet/IP circuits which deliver this service, while also isolating layer 2/3 issues when OTT QoS suffers.”

For further information on CONNEXUS, please register for The Yankee Group webinar on Nov 2nd by visiting https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/668237002.

If you are interested in learning more about becoming a CONNEXUS partner, please visit CONNEXUS at http://www.connexus-ecosystem.com.

Spirent Testing Solutions Play Key Role In EANTC’s Carrier Etherent Interoperability Demonstration

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Multi-Vendor Testing Effort at Carrier Ethernet World Congress Uses Spirent Equipment to Test Timing, Synchronization and 100G Interfaces for Carrier Ethernet

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 10, 2011 — Spirent Communications, for the fifth consecutive year, played a key role in the European Advanced Networking Test Center AG (EANTC) Carrier Ethernet interoperability testing event. The test event examined and assessed solutions from leading equipment manufacturers that are offering the latest solutions for Carrier Ethernet. The outcome of this comprehensive undertaking is being highlighted at Carrier Ethernet World Congress in Amsterdam, October 11 -13.

The growing demand for high bandwidth applications and always-on mobile connectivity is driving deployment of Carrier Ethernet technologies in backhaul networks. However, Carrier Ethernet presents critical challenges such as distributing timing and maintaining synchronization in the backhaul, validating interoperability of Ethernet OAM procedures among vendors, and testing the performance of 100G Ethernet modules in the presence of high scale traffic.

“After months of preparation and two weeks of hot staging, we concluded a successful event validating Carrier Ethernet innovations,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, managing director, EANTC AG. “Spirent remains a trusted partner in public testing events and Spirent’s solutions in the interoperability event were important to help showcase the advances in implementations and features of Carrier Ethernet.”
To help highlight the industry’s progress in addressing key technology issues, EANTC leveraged Spirent testing solution to successfully complete interoperability tests with multiple vendors, validate timing and synchronization and test 100G interfaces.

Spirent TestCenter was used to test SyncE SSM protocol across microwave links, and validated the functionality and performance of boundary and slave clocks from multiple vendors.
Spirent Anue 3500 was used to inject packet impairments such as PDV, physical impairments such as wander, as well as to verify the compliance of slave and boundary clocks to G.8261 and G.8262 standards.
Spirent’s Hypermetrics mX 100G Ethernet module was used to validate a leading vendor’s 100G interface and its ability to police traffic and adhere to SLAs.

“We’re excited to continue to play a major role in advancing the deployment and use of carrier grade Ethernet services,” said Rajesh Rajamani, senior product marketing manager, Spirent. “With our strong portfolio of Ethernet testing solutions, we deliver the industry’s most comprehensive set of offerings, enabling equipment vendors, service providers and enterprises.”

To learn more about the test and its results, download the EANTC test report at http://www.eantc.de/cewc2011.

For more information about how prepare networks for advanced Carrier Ethernet service visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile_backhaul.aspx

Spirent Test Solution Validates Network Elements and Architecture In Juniper Networks’ Cloud Virtualization Environment

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter Virtual Enables Network Designers to Test within the Junosphere Cloud

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 3, 2011 — Spirent Communications’ cloud computing testing solution has been selected to validate the performance of network designs created within the Junosphere Lab virtual environment, announced today by Juniper Networks. Junosphere Lab, which enables the creation and modeling of networks and elements running the Juniper Networks® Junos® operating system, will include Spirent TestCenter Virtual to provide visibility into network infrastructures, as well as to accurately benchmark and optimize performance.

Using Spirent TestCenter Virtual within Junosphere enables network designers working with Junosphere’s Junos-based routers and other equipment to successfully test and understand configurations in a simulated environment. The solution helps to accelerate the network validation and verification process, with a virtualized traffic generation and analysis tool that allows users to identify potential design flaws.

“The ability to run real traffic on the networks created within Junosphere is a powerful tool for validation and testing,” said Judy Beningson, vice president and general manager, Virtual Junos Business Unit, Juniper Networks. “With this ability, test engineers have greater insight into the network’s real-world performance, availability, security and scale. Spirent’s test capabilities are a natural complement to the Junosphere ecosystem.”

As the market’s leading virtualized network test tool, Spirent TestCenter Virtual offers the flexibility of testing in a variety of environments, from mixed physical and virtual to virtual-only scenarios. Its functionality includes the ability to generate any customer-defined traffic encapsulation, a wide range of emulation capability and measurement of key performance metrics.

“As one of the first Junosphere partners and a Juniper Networks Technology Alliance Partner, Spirent is pleased to play a prominent role in helping to benchmark and optimize the performance of cloud-based routers, switches and security devices in this unique setting,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “With the ability to gain a complete end-to-end view of what both the network and the user will experience before such a system goes live, Spirent TestCenter Virtual plays a valuable role in replicating physical networks in the cloud for modeling, planning and experimentation.”

Spirent TestCenter Virtual resides on the virtual machine, providing unsurpassed visibility into the entire virtualized infrastructure. It extends and complements the capabilities of the Spirent TestCenter hardware-based solution to accurately benchmark and optimize performance of virtual server switches and cloud-based virtualization.

For more information on testing Cloud Computing environment visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Cloud_Computing.aspx

Spirent Communications Salutes the UK’s Unsung Network Heroes

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Network Heroes Award Winners Selected by Independent Panel of Experts as the Best and Brightest in the World of Networking

London - September 26, 2011 — The unsung heroes of the network world had their day when an esteemed group of individuals were awarded Network Hero Awards by Spirent Communications (LSE: SPT) at a recent glittering reception held at The Churchill War Rooms in Whitehall, London. The awards, in six different categories, were presented to Network Heroes from Cambridge Broadband Networks, Cisco, Marlow Enterprises, Steria and Verizon.

The awards aimed to reward individuals who have made an outstanding effort in understanding and implementing delivery of first class network performance, to acknowledge the true value of an individual’s network expertise, and to applaud those individuals whose significant contribution in perfecting their company’s network performance has contributed to the company’s overall business success. The winners were chosen by an eminent panel of judges from the British Computer Society, Informa Research Service, IDC and the National Computing Center.

The judges selected more than 20 finalists from a wide-range of consulting companies, service providers, equipment makers as well as businesses with unique enterprise networks – all of which involved network heroes who addressed challenges resulting in superior outcomes for their employers. Nominees were chosen from BAE Systems, BBC, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Cambridge Broadband Networks, Cisco, Huawei, ITSUS Consulting, Juniper Networks, Marlow Enterprises, Paradigm, Steria, Thomson Reuters, Virgin Media Business and Verizon.

“These awards were created to applaud the individual, and we certainly achieved that at the recent Awards Ceremony” said David Hill VP EMEA Spirent Communications. “It was great to see winners from across the industry stepping forward to take the applause of their fellow colleagues and industry peers, and rightly so. This is the first year we’ve run these awards and we were delighted by the number and quality of the nominations received. This award obviously has resonated within the industry and we’re delighted to be part of it.”

Spirent Network Hero Award winners in each category are:

Firewall/Cyber/Security Hero – Gerard Garrihy, Cisco
Test Automation Hero - Adrian Marlow, Marlow Enterprises
Cloud Hero - John Hastwell, Cisco
Proof of Concept & Pre-Sales Support Hero - John Easy, Cambridge Broadband Networks
Network Design/Architect Hero – Trevor Abrams, Verizon
Test Leader/Evangelist Hero - Jan Seymour, Steria

A special “Technology Globetrotter Network Hero” award was also presented to Alan Way of Spirent Communications by his colleagues for his unique evangelism of voice and data networking technologies around the globe.

To see all the shortlisted individuals and their companies, along with the category winners, go to http://www.spirent.com/go/network-heroes.aspx.

Women on Boards

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

The Board notes the publication of the Davies Review on Women on Boards in February 2011 and the subsequent consultation being undertaken by the Financial Reporting Council in relation to potential changes to the UK Corporate Governance Code. The Board aims to have a broad range of skills, backgrounds and experience. We will continue to follow a policy of ensuring that we appoint the best people for the relevant roles and recognise the importance and benefits of greater diversity both at board level and throughout the group and will take this into account when considering any particular appointment. The Company will report further regarding Lord Davies' recommendations in its 2011 Annual Report.

ARCOM, Spirent Partner to Offer Test Solutions to Cable and Telecom Providers, and Enterprises in the Canadian Market

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Value-Added Reseller to Bring Spirent TestCenter Live, Other Solutions to Canadian Customers

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 20, 2011 — ARCOM Telecom Limited and Spirent Communications have partnered to offer test and measurement solutions across Canada to service providers, cable operators as well as enterprises who offer and support advanced IP services. As Spirent’s exclusive value-added reseller in the country, ARCOM will sell solutions such as Spirent TestCenter™ Live performance monitoring, test and diagnostics solution, Spirent Tech-X Flex field test solutions, along with related professional services.

“We’re excited about our relationship with Spirent and how its leading portfolio compliments the products and services we currently offer,” said Rob Lane, president, ARCOM. “ARCOM is passionate about helping enterprise and service provider customers build and operate highly reliable and scalable IP networks. With Spirent, we can offer our customers a range of embedded and handheld test tools that ensure end users receive a reliable, high quality experience”.

This partnership enables ARCOM to offer centralized testing for enterprise data centers and service provider Network Operation Centers (NOC) along with comprehensive handheld tools to field technicians. ARCOM will be able to used Spirent’s award-winning service assurance solutions to seamlessly integrate testing routines into new network upgrades and deployment plans, thereby offering customers more complete services. In addition, Spirent helps ARCOM offer its customers cost effective approaches to ensuring that the IP/Ethernet data networks are prepared to meet the subscriber’s quality of experience expectations.

“As ARCOM’s product partner for test and measurement equipment, we bring a unique set of solutions to the table that help ARCOM best meet the needs of its wide-ranging customer base,” said John Cunningham, vice president, Service Assurance group at Spirent. “Our industry-first integrated 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) live network test, diagnostics and performance monitoring solution, allows us to help cable and telecom service providers as well as enterprises reduce operational costs, increase service quality levels and deploy services faster.”

Spirent TestCenter Live helps network operator improve operational efficiencies and reduce the overall cost of network deployment, troubleshooting and maintenance. Spirent Tech-X Flex is a leading field test solution for all telco and cable providers, enabling qualification of the service and troubleshooting of transport and service related issues within the consumer’s home and in the outside plant.

For more information about Spirent’s test equipment for Ethernet services on live network visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/EthernetSvcsOnLiveNetworks.aspx

Alcatel-Lucent Tests World's First 400G Network Processor With Spirent’s High Speed Ethernet Test Solution

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Alcatel-Lucent uses Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G to validate the scale and performance of its FP3 Processor in initial public demonstrations

Sunnyvale, Calif. – September 15, 2011 — Alcatel-Lucent selected Spirent Communications solution to test the performance of its new FP3 400G network processor in advance of its commercial introduction. Validating a leading-edge, high-speed network processor such as the FP3 requires a test tool able to match its performance, scale and density. The Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G provided Alcatel-Lucent with the ability to test its FP3-based Service Router modules under real-world scenarios with high-scale services and traffic.

“Our innovative FP3 processor delivers a four-fold increase in performance over today’s leading-edge NPU silicon,” said Kevin Macaluso, vice president and general manager of the Service Router product group with Alcatel-Lucent. “To ensure we are able to address the needs of tomorrow’s IP networks, it is critical to validate how our solutions will perform in the real world as our service provider customers enhance their offerings and deploy 100GE technology. We look for test products that can match our leading-edge capabilities to ensure we deliver to our customers the reliability and quality they need. As we validated our high-density 100GE modules, Spirent was able to provide the robust testing we looked for to confirm that we had a deployment-ready product.”

Spirent provides key test capabilities that its closest competitor cannot achieve including:

Multi-protocol testing at extreme scale by leveraging an advanced test architecture based on Spirent TestCenter Cloud Core ™ technology, which provides the highest processing power per port
Real-time routing and traffic updates that offer a testing environment representative of dynamic scenarios encountered in service provider networks
The highest test port density with one-to-one ratio between test port and device under test, translating to the need for less equipment, power and management with improved cost savings over traditional solutions

“As networks evolve to handle faster data speeds and to support new services, thorough testing of the equipment, components and infrastructure is the key to success,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president of marketing, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “We are the only test equipment provider to architect our solutions specifically to address the industry’s move toward multi-protocol environments. Our no-compromise approach doesn’t force our customers to choose one particular aspect of testing over another. With the highest port density, performance per port, and scale testing, our test solution helps determine how tomorrow’s network equipment performs under realistic conditions.”

For more information on Spirent’s high speeds Ethernet solution visit www.spirent.com/ethernet

For more information on Alcatel-Lucent’s FP3 400G network processor visit http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/fp3/

u-blox selects Spirent simulator to evaluate performance of its new GPS + GLONASS multi-GNSS receiver components

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

GPS + GLONASS Record & Playback and Multi-GNSS Simulator systems enable
progressive testing approach

Sunnyvale, California and Thalwil, Switzerland – September 12, 2011 – u-blox has selected Spirent’s GSS6700 Multi-GNSS GPS + GLONASS simulator and Spirent’s GSS6400 GPS + GLONASS Record & Playback test system to evaluate performance of its new GNSS receiver components.

“u-blox conducts rigorous testing on all new receiver designs” said Clemens Buergi, Vice President of Software at u-blox. “To make this process as efficient as possible, we use Spirent’s multi-GNSS simulator remotely. Spirent’s comprehensive remote command set enables us to complete the testing in the shortest possible time and in a repeatable way”.

The GSS6700 multi-GNSS simulator is designed to be integrated into an automated test system or with the advanced Spirent SimGENTM graphical user interface. The GSS6400 Record & Playback system enables u-blox to capture complex real-world signal effects and then repeatedly replay the RF in the laboratory.

“Combining Spirent’s record and playback system with the GNSS simulator enables
u-blox to have a progressive and complete test approach” added John Pottle, Marketing Director at Spirent’s Positioning unit. “With the traditional receiver characterization tests, u-blox is able to test for real-world signal effects and classic challenges of navigation systems. An example would be entering and leaving tunnels while simultaneously changing direction in mountainous and alpine driving scenarios.”

Additional Resources
For more information testing multi-GNSS solution visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_Multi-GNSS_Simulation.aspx

To learn more about Galileo simulators visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_a_Glonass_Simulator.aspx

Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Huawei, Solana and Spirent Showcase Shortest Path Bridging Interoperability

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Industry-First Test Shows SPB Readiness for Large Multi-Vendor Deployments

OTTAWA, Ontario (September 7, 2011) – Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Huawei, Solana Networks and Spirent Communications today announced that they have completed the industry's first large-scale, multi-vendor interoperability test leveraging IEEE 802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) technology.

SPB allows customers to greatly simplify how they create and configure networks—across the enterprise and for the cloud— by requiring service provisioning only at the edge of the network. It uses Intermediate System To Intermediate System (IS-IS), a proven carrier-grade link state protocol, to dynamically build the topology between network nodes, saving network administrators time and effort, and virtually eliminating human error.

The interoperability test simulated a large network environment of almost 200 nodes and more than 400 links. It demonstrated full control plane interoperability between each vendor's equipment, native network discovery in a multi-vendor network and Layer 2 Virtual Private Network (L2VPN) interoperability. L2VPN connectivity was validated by passing real and simulated traffic between network connected devices and a network emulator. Avaya and Spirent also tested the Ethernet Connectivity Fault Management (IEEE 802.1ag) standard, showing successful Layer 2 operations.

This test builds on previous validation efforts that have showcased SPB's capabilities for multi-site data centers and hybrid clouds, including the migration of a virtual machine over a multi-vendor SPB network that seamlessly transferred services between nodes delivered by different vendors.

“This was the first multi-vendor commercial test for multi-path Ethernet leveraging Shortest Path Bridging technology,” said Mike Spanbauer, principal analyst, Current Analysis. “Shortest Path Bridging was built on the premise of retaining capital investments customers have today in addition to building on the engineering strength of Ethernet over the last 30 years.”

The SPB network consisted of 10 physical switches—including the Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch™ 6900, Avaya Ethernet Routing Switch 8800 and Huawei Quidway S9300—alongside Spirent TestCenter™, a Huawei LINUX/Quagga emulator and SmartHawk, a non-intrusive, real-time network discovery and topology mapping tool from Solana Networks.

Additional Resources

Product: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Data Center Switching Solutions
Product: Avaya Virtual Enterprise Network Architecture
Wikipedia: Shortest Path Bridging (IEEE 802.1aq)

SGS Chooses Spirent for LTE Device Performance Testing

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent 8100 System Commissioned at New SGS Laboratory

Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 24, 2011 — SGS Electrical and Electronics, a leading testing and certification company, has selected Spirent Communications’ mobile device testing equipment for its new Basking Ridge, New Jersey laboratory. The Basking Ridge site will provide substantial 3G/LTE device testing support in cooperation with a major wireless network operator. Spirent’s 8100 Mobile Device Test System will be used to test the performance of CDMA/EV-DO, LTE and multi-mode mobile devices intended for the US market.

“Spirent’s automated system gives us a wide range of testing on a single platform,” said Michael Spitzer, Global Wireless manager at SGS. “In addition to testing basic mobile device performance, we’ll use the system to test performance in several specific areas. This testing helps the operator ensure high quality, trouble-free cellular service.”

The Spirent 8100 test solution implements radio frequency (RF) performance testing, a wide range of data performance testing, and Inter-Radio-Access-Technology (Inter-RAT) testing, which verifies performance as the mobile device user moves between LTE and 3G service areas. The platform can be expanded to test performance of other device features such as integrated location technology, including GPS.

“It’s always gratifying to see long-term customers coming back to us for solutions,” said Hesham ElHamahmy, vice president of product marketing at Spirent. “We have been working with SGS since they opened a lab in San Diego many years ago. We look forward to supporting SGS’ continued growth and success.”

For more information on how Spirent enables LTE mobile device testing visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/LTE_devices.aspx.

Corero Selects Spirent to Validate Performance and Reliability of Security Solutions

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent Tests Network Intrusion Prevention and Distributed Denial of Service Defense Systems

Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 23, 2011 — A recent rash of cyber-security attacks such as hacking, data breaches, and denial of service attacks begs the question – how secure are enterprises’ security solutions? Enterprise networks are being attacked on multiple fronts, sometimes simultaneously. Corero Network Security has selected Spirent Communications’ security testing solutions to ensure that its Network Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Defense Systems are prepared to address the multi-dimensional cyber security challenges of businesses.

Corero is using Spirent TestCenter™ as well as Spirent Avalanche to validate the effectiveness of its solutions. Testing with Spirent tools allows for the reproduction of the highest level of realism across the broadest range of test scenarios for cyber security. Testing across Layer 2-7, Spirent TestCenter and Spirent Avalanche offers the industry’s most comprehensive security testing scenarios, intended to ensure that attacks are stopped while legitimate traffic continues to be delivered.

“Our customers expect our network IPS and DDoS Defense solutions to provide the highest protection against cyber attacks while remaining transparent to good network traffic and enabling business as usual” said Mike Paquette, chief strategy officer at Corero Network Security, “Test solutions from Spirent enable us to emulate realistic customer traffic loads and analyze the effects of malicious traffic and other attack activity on the network so we can thoroughly test our security solutions and ensure they perform as promised.”

Security measures must stand or fall on the results of stringent testing under realistic operating conditions. Testing with Spirent confirms not only that data is protected and not altered, corrupted or leaked, but also that service performance is maintained under a wide range of operating and attack conditions.

“Defending against today’s ever-growing variations of increasingly sophisticated security attacks is a relentless task,” said Ankur Chadda, senior product marketing manager at Spirent. “The ability to deliver security solutions that do what’s promised and are backed by comprehensive testing provides a solid foundation for organizations that are looking to protect their mission critical assets from cyber threats. By choosing Spirent testing solutions, Corero is demonstrating its commitment to provide the highest quality security solutions to its customers.”

For more information on Spirent security solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Network_security.aspx

Spirent Selected to Test IT Infrastructure of South Korea’s Sejong City

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

South Korea’s Telecommunications Technology Association Picks Spirent Test Solutions to Benchmark Network Performance across Sejong City

Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 22, 2011 — South Korea’s Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) has selected Spirent Communications solutions to benchmark the performance and functionality of an IT network deployed in Sejong City, the country’s new multifunctional administrative, business and technology hub.

TTA, tasked to advance IT technologies and applications in the new city, is using Spirent TestCenter and Spirent HyperMetrics modules to conduct performance and functional testing of network routers and switches planned for deployment. Testing with Spirent enables TTA to ensure that the communications and IT networks in Sejong City will deliver high performance, reliable, secure and scalable next-generation enterprise and residential services over wireline, wireless and cellular networks. With the new city’s infrastructure expected to offer a range of consumer and business services such as IPTV, video on demand, video conferencing, and VoIP, TTA is trusting Spirent to validate the network’s readiness and its ability to deliver on its full potential.

“Sejong City was designed to be a model planned community with best-in-class communications infrastructure,” said Dong-Hyun Seok, senior researcher at TTA. “Testing with Spirent solutions helps us ensure the network can reliably and securely support millions of subscribers accessing a myriad of multi-play applications. Spirent’s extensive testing experience and high-quality customer support were key factors in our selection of the test vendor’s solutions as we work to help deliver services that many people have only dreamed of.”

Spirent TestCenter benchmarked the Ethernet and IPv6 performance of a variety of network equipment solutions, enabling TTA to fully evaluate network equipment before deployment. Spirent TestCenter’s high port density and accurate low latency testing were critical contributors to TTA’s ability to validate network and application performance.

“As we migrate to a connected world characterized by media-rich applications and mobility, testing the readiness of networks for today’s and tomorrow’s services remains a critical step in the deployment of these systems,” said Gene Zhang, vice president, Asia Pacific at Spirent. “By leveraging Spirent’s high-performance test solutions, TTA is able to ensure the highest level of network performance in this new city.”

Spirent recently introduced the latest generation of its HyperMetrics modules, the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet test module, to help ensure delivery of the mobile multi play experience by combining high performance stateful traffic, high-scale routing, and access and mobile control plane testing on a single module. The solution can be used to test the access network, routing, mobile backhaul, mobility, cloud infrastructure and application performance.

Spirent’s industry leading Ethernet and next-generation network testing solutions help its customers become market leaders by providing unsurpassed test realism. Unlike traditional test systems with a single-dimensional focus that sacrifices realism and performance for scalability (port density), Spirent TestCenter leverages its multi-core architecture to offer cost effective, high-port density modules with flexibility and high functionality. This industry first architecture advantage enables optimal performance for realistic testing, with high scalability and intelligent results analysis.

For more information on Spirent TestCenter visit, http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter/HyperMetrics_Main.aspx.

Mobile Internet and Location Based Services Drive Demand for Spirent Wireless Testing Solutions

Thu, 11 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Order Intake Growth for Spirent Wireless Solutions in the First Half of 2011 Reflects
Demand for the Latest Mobile Technologies and Services

Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 11, 2011 – Spirent Communications plc announces strong results for its wireless test products during the first half of 2011. Spirent, with its broad portfolio of innovative wireless test solutions for mobile devices, as well as access, backhaul and core networks, has benefited from the rapid growth in mobile Internet services and from fixed/mobile convergence.

Putting the Promise of LTE Devices to the Test

The new LTE devices introduced into the market in the first half increased the need for additional testing capacity at both network operators and device manufacturers which drove demand for Spirent’s 8100 LTE Test System. New testing needs also resulted from the ramp up of LTE device development teams by manufacturers, as device technology evolved rapidly from data modems/dongles and embedded modules to smartphones, with Verizon Wireless releasing its first commercial LTE smartphone in March. Some of the highlights of Spirent’s performance in this area include:

Increased order intake for LTE device testing solutions threefold over the same period in 2010
Expanded Spirent’s deep understanding of leading North American carriers’ testing challenges in bringing devices to market.
Established leadership in key LTE device performance testing areas including mobility, data performance, and concurrent services, such as simultaneous voice and LTE data

Testing for the “Location-Aware” Generation

The ever-expanding consumer enthusiasm for location based services (LBS) and the devices that support them was an important driver for Spirent’s 8100 Location Technology Test System. According to a recent report by Berg Insight, shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets grew 97 percent in 2010 over the previous year and growth rates were maintained into 2011. Smartphones are increasingly making use of location technologies beyond GPS and even the earliest LTE devices include comprehensive location technology support to take advantage of the burgeoning demand for LBS. Some of the highlights of Spirent’s performance in this area include:

More than doubled order intake for location test solutions compared with the first half of 2010
Served as an expert advisor to the massive industry-wide test effort aimed at determining whethe LightSquared’s new terrestrial LTE network proposed for the US is likely to cause unacceptable interference to GPS
Pioneered new test methodologies for hybrid location technologies that leverage not just GPS, but Wi-Fi, cellular and other satellite technologies such as GLONASS

Advanced Antenna Technologies for LTE, Tested with Spirent

Growth in the need for realistic testing of the complex MIMO antenna schemes used in LTE base stations and devices drove demand for Spirent’s RF channel emulator solutions. The need to deliver higher data rates, greater coverage areas, and lower operational cost is expanding research and development into MIMO antenna technologies. Development momentum for Time Division LTE (“TD-LTE”), expected to be widely deployed in countries such as the US, China and India, continued to build in the first half. TD-LTE’s use of complex beamforming techniques to maximize range and network capacity is resulting in new testing opportunities. Some of the highlights of Spirent’s performance in this area include:

Record half-year order intake for Spirent RF channel emulator solutions
Introduced the VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator, a powerful new platform aimed specifically at simplifying the latest MIMO testing challenges
Introduced the MIMO-OTA Environment Builder software solution to greatly simplify complex over-the-air testing of MIMO LTE devices in an anechoic chamber

Testing New Network Architectures for Mobile Broadband

The rapid expansion of mobile Internet usage on mobile devices and migration of mobile backhaul networks to Ethernet/IP were major contributors to demand for Spirent’s mobile broadband testing solutions including Spirent TestCenter, Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul, Spirent Landslide and Spirent Avalanche. Acceleration in upgrades to next-generation converged network architectures that support LTE, as well as mobility across LTE, 3G and 2G networks has given rise to a new class of mobile gateway that combines IP Routing, quality of service (QoS), deep packet inspection/content awareness with “Any G” mobility. All of this is changing how service providers and network equipment manufacturers approach systems and sub-system testing. Some of the highlights of Spirent’s performance in this area include:

Doubled order intake for Landslide compared with the first half of 2010
Record half-year order intake for Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul, which was also recognized as “Best in Test” by Test & Measurement World magazine, an award based on test equipment user feedback
Conducted industry-first public 180 Gbps mobile core test demonstration with Alcatel-Lucent using Spirent Landslide
Landslide and Avalanche converged onto Spirent TestCenter hardware platform to better address evolving testing requirements from the convergence of mobile and fixed broadband networks

Spirent Well Positioned to Benefit from Mobile Industry Growth

“We’re delighted with the performance of our Wireless test portfolio in the first half. Spirent is well positioned to benefit from the ongoing demand for data service on mobile devices, and the continued global deployment of new wireless technologies such as LTE.” said Charles Simmons, president of Spirent’s Wireless Division. “Spirent solutions ensure that our customers’ products and networks not only meet baseline industry standards but go beyond them to deliver the highest possible quality of experience for subscribers. Quality of experience is a major contributor to the successful take-up of new products and services.”
For more information on Spirent’s wireless solution visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/LTE_Testing.aspx
For more information on Spirent’s financial results, visit http://www.spirent.com/Investors.aspx

Half-Year Results for the six months ended 3 July 2011

Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

London, UK – 4 August 2011: Spirent Communications plc (“Spirent”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (LSE: SPT), a leading communications technology company, today announces its half-year results for the six months ended 3 July 2011.

Financial highlights

Order intake was up 10% with a book to bill ratio of 99.
Revenue up 15% to $260.4 million, with growth across all lines of business and geographies.
Adjusted operating profit up 16% to $57.8 million. Reported operating profit $55.2 million (first half 2010: $49.0 million).
Invested in product development for future growth, which increased by $5.8 million to $44.0 million.
Return on sales, before acquisition expense, maintained at 22%.
Basic earnings per share rose 17% to 5.94 cents. Adjusted basic earnings per share up 24% to 6.25 cents.
Free cash flow of $17.1 million (first half 2010: $33.4 million) reflected an increase of $20.4 million in working capital to fund higher trading activity late in the second quarter.
Interim dividend increased by 15% to 1.26 cents per share (equivalent to 0.77 pence per share, 12% up on the first half of 2010).

Operational highlights

Positive market trends are continuing, driven by expansion in data connectivity.
Increased demand for more rigorous, secure and complex testing capabilities to meet the demand for:
- Cloud computing
- Proliferation of smartphones
- Mobile location based and voice/data/video services
- Network expansions and upgrades in 3G and 4G/LTE
- Data center virtualization
These trends are leading Spirent to increase investment in test solutions to address new areas, our success in doing so was confirmed by the launch of new solutions during the first half-year such as:
- High performance Ethernet-based solutions for high speed cloud computing deployments
- Cyber security validation of the latest network security platforms
- Over-the-air test of 4G/LTE wireless devices, such as smartphones and base stations that use multiple antennae
- Virtualized data center performance at 40Gb Ethernet speeds
- Test and impairment of Ethernet-based mobile backhaul networks
These innovations are in turn leading our customers to use our test solutions in new ways:
- China Mobile to evaluate high density Fibre Channel switches
- Extreme Networks to test 40GbE switches for Open Fabric data center solutions featuring 20 terabit speeds
- Alcatel-Lucent to demonstrate high scalability and performance of LTE mobile gateways

Outlook

The growth trends in data communications which we saw last year are continuing in 2011. We believe these represent long term trends. We are therefore continuing to invest in product development, sales and marketing to expand into new markets and drive sustainable profitable growth whilst maintaining underlying operating margins.

In the wireless and positioning markets, we have seen strong growth in the first half of 2011. Towards the end of the period we saw a more cautious stance adopted by some of our customers in the wireline market, particularly in the USA.

Spirent sells a broad product offering to a large number of customers based across all geographies, which gives us confidence as we move into the second half. We anticipate further momentum throughout the remainder of the year, albeit at a lower rate than the first half, and in line with our original expectations for the second half-year.

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The positive outlook is based on the long term trend in our industry for investment in higher speed data connectivity worldwide. Within the test and measurement industry we deliver best in class profitability coupled with increasing revenue. Spirent is well positioned to achieve further progress during the second half-year.”

Results summary

$ million	First half 2011	First half 2010	Change (%)
Reported
Revenue	260.4	227.2	15
Operating profit	55.2	49.0	13
Profit before tax	55.8	48.8	14
Basic earnings per share (cents)	5.94	5.08	17
Interim dividend per share¹ (cents)	1.26	1.10	15
Free cash flow²	17.1	33.4	(49)
Adjusted⁵
Operating profit³	57.8	49.9	16
Basic earnings per share⁴ (cents)	6.25	5.05	24

Notes
1 Dividends are determined in US dollars and paid in sterling at the exchange rate prevailing when the dividend is proposed or declared. The interim dividend declared for 2011 of 1.26 cents per Ordinary Share is equivalent to 0.77 pence per Ordinary Share.
2 Operating cash flow after tax, net interest and net capital expenditure.
3 Adjusted operating profit is before charging share-based payment, acquired intangible asset amortisation and acquisition related costs.
4 Adjusted basic earnings per share is based on adjusted earnings as set out in note 6 of the Notes to the half-year condensed consolidated financial statements.
5 The basis used for the calculation of adjusted operating profit and adjusted basic earnings per share has been modified from that which was reported in 2010 to exclude share-based payment, acquired intangible asset amortisation and acquisition related costs.

Enquiries

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer	Spirent Communications plc	+44 (0)1293 767676
Eric Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer
James Melville-Ross/Emma Appleton	Financial Dynamics	+44 (0)20 7831 3113

The Company will host a results presentation today at 9.15am for 9.30am UK time at UBS, 1 Finsbury Avenue, London EC2M 2PP. A simultaneous webcast of the presentation will be available in the Investors section of the Spirent Communications plc website www.spirent.com.

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organisations. We enable today’s communication ecosystem as well as tomorrow’s emerging enterprises to deploy life enriching communications networks, devices, services and applications. The Systems group develops sophisticated electronic control systems for electrically powered vehicles in the medical mobility and industrial markets. Further information about Spirent Communications plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

Spirent 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.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
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.

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Spirent and Symmetricom to Address Critical Timing, Synchronization Issues Associated with Ethernet Mobile Backhaul

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent and Symmetricom to Address Critical Timing, Synchronization Issues Associated with Ethernet Mobile Backhaul

Spirent Joins the SyncWorld™ Ecosystem Program as a Communications Test & Measurement Partner

Sunnyvale, Calif. – July 28, 2011 — Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global leader in test & measurement, and Symmetricom® Inc. (NASDAQ:SYMM), a worldwide leader in precision time and frequency technologies, today announced Spirent’s participation in Symmetricom’s SyncWorld™ Ecosystem Program. The program was launched earlier this year to support the precise timing and synchronization required as part of the transition to all-IP backhaul networks and 4G/LTE mobile platforms. It enables interoperability and cooperation among network equipment vendors, chip manufacturers and testing companies, focused on addressing the advanced networking requirements of service providers and enterprises.

Membership of the program aligns well with Spirent’s strategy of applying its industry-leading mobile backhaul testing solutions to help service providers and equipment vendors validate the performance of the most demanding applications on the mobile Internet and ensure a good quality of experience (QoE) for mobile subscribers. Spirent’s solutions validate packet timing protocols, including IEEE 1588v2 and Synchronous Ethernet (SyncE), and test physical timing characteristics by generating and measuring impairments such as wander and packet delay variation (PDV).

“Precise timing synchronization is essential to ensure quality of experience in all-IP/Ethernet mobile backhaul to support increasingly real-time-related traffic,” said Manish Gupta, vice president of Marketing at Symmetricom. “We are delighted to have Spirent join SyncWorld, with its complete portfolio of solutions to smoothly facilitate the transition to packet-based networks.”

As a partner in the SyncWorld™ Ecosystem program, Spirent is providing test methodologies to comprehensively test timing and synchronization across the mobile backhaul. These test methodologies bring together the nanosecond accuracies of Symmetricom’s TimeProvider® 5000 Grandmaster Clock and the performance testing capabilities of the Spirent TestCenter™ solution.

“Spirent remains committed to helping our customers make the complex transition to an all-IP/Ethernet mobile backhaul by delivering the most advanced solutions for accurately measuring the performance of these networks at scale,” said Rajesh Rajamani, senior product marketing manager at Spirent. “By forging strong partnerships such as this one we help ensure that our testing solutions characterize the accuracy of boundary clocks and transparent clocks that operate in a packet network.”

For more information on Symmetricom's SyncWorld™ Ecosystem program, visit http://www.symmetricom.com/syncworld.

For more information on Spirent’s mobile backhaul test solutions, visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile_backhaul.aspx.

Japan’s Largest Internet Exchange Provider Leverages Spirent Solutions for 100G Ethernet Testing

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Internet Multifeed Co. Uses Spirent TestCenter in Country’s First 100G Ethernet Internet Exchange Point Interoperability Test

Tokyo– July 26, 2011 – The growth in Internet traffic across service provider networks as well as Internet Exchange Points (IXP) is driving the deployment of 100G Ethernet networks. To validate the readiness of Japan’s carriers to support high speed Ethernet services, Internet Multifeed Co. (MF) conducted the first 100G Ethernet IXP Interoperability Test (IOT) on its Japan Network Access Point (JPNAP), the country’s largest Internet exchange. The test leveraged the award-winning Spirent TestCenter solution, which was provided by Toyo Corporation, Spirent's channel partner in Japan.

The IOT, conducted in partnership with Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) and NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com.), Japan’s two largest service providers, tested the interoperability of routers and switches from Brocade, Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. JPNAP, IIJ and NTT Com interconnected the routers and switches to test the interoperability of the physical and network layers, optical switches, routing exchange and redundant IXP topology at 100G speeds.

The test took advantage of the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics™ 40/100G Ethernet module, the industry’s best-in-class high-speed Ethernet test solution. Operating on the Spirent TestCenter platform, the solution validates performance, scalability and realism by leveraging Spirent’s HyperMetrics multi-core processor.

“With Spirent and Toyo’s assistance, we created a 100G Ethernet interoperability test environment using Spirent TestCenter,” said Daisuke Touda, manager, Technology Department at JPNAP. “Spirent TestCenter, together with Toyo’s solid technical support team, helped us to verify the interoperability of various vendor solutions used in the Internet exchange and to ensure their performance. This gives us additional confidence for the successful launch of a 100G Ethernet service later this year.”

Based on the test results, IIJ and NTT Com are also considering deployment of 100G Ethernet to cope with the growth in Internet traffic exchanged through the IXP.

“There are many challenges associated with deploying 100G Ethernet service, especially in the IXP,” said Gene Zhang, vice president and general manager, Asia Pacific at Spirent Communications. “Interoperability issues between different vendor products are of significant concern and Spirent’s leading network testing capabilities have been clearly demonstrated in this interoperability event. Our unique PASS methodology helps service providers and network equipment manufacturers validate the Performance, Availability, Security and Scalability of 100G Ethernet networks.”

For more information on 40/100G Ethernet testing using Spirent TestCenter, visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter/STC_40-100GbE_Ready.aspx

Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories Selects Spirent for Cloud Security Testing

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Taiwan’s Largest Carrier Selects Spirent for Cloud Infrastructure and Application Security Testing

Sunnyvale, Calif. – July 12, 2011 — Addressing the uncertainty surrounding cloud security is critical for large-scale adoption of cloud computing in enterprises. Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories (CHTTL), the research and development arm of Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan’s largest network operator, clearly understands the need to ensure secure and reliable cloud services, and is relying on solutions from Spirent Communications to help validate the security of its cloud computing centers.

Security testing must extend across multiple aspects of the cloud including services and virtual machines, as well as the physical infrastructure. This led CHTTL to use Spirent Avalanche Virtual, the industry’s only “all-in-one” cloud testing solution, as well as Spirent Avalanche, the leading layer 4-7 application performance test solution. Testing with Spirent enables CHTTL to simulate attacks in a cloud computing environment for virtual firewall testing, and to measure the performance of virtualized network infrastructures and applications deployed in the cloud.

Chunghwa Telecom aims to be a leading cloud service provider, and plans to deliver reliable and secure services to customers. According Chunghwa Telecom, Spirent’s security solutions enable it to ensure that its cloud platform is reliably delivering the business benefits of elastic computing.

Last year, Chunghwa Telecom announced plans to launch four cloud computing centers aimed at deploying a wide range of services. As was previously announced, CHTTL already selected Spirent TestCenter Virtual for benchmarking the performance of its data centers and virtual servers.

“Many enterprises and service providers are planning to deploy cloud networks and services, and security is definitely their top concern.” said Gene Zhang, vice president, Asia at Spirent Communications, “By leveraging Spirent’s cloud computing test solution for both infrastructure and applications, especially our security test application tailored for virtualized networks, Chunghwa Telecom is able to ensure it offers high-performance, reliable and secure cloud services.”

Spirent Avalanche Virtual is the only test solution that offers both client and server emulation, required to accurately replicate real user traffic in cloud environments and to validate the robustness and resiliency of the cloud with encrypted traffic and threats. Spirent Avalanche Virtual also provides the empirical data necessary to measure the performance of applications deployed in the cloud, enabling enterprises and cloud service providers to understand the impact of large-scale cloud-based application deployments against their expected quality of experience benchmarks.

For more information on Spirent’s cloud computing test solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Cloud_Computing.aspx.

Spirent Receives Best of Interop Tokyo Award for High Speed Ethernet Solution

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet Module Recognized for Increasing Test Port Density and Advanced Functionality

Sunnyvale, Calif. – June 30, 2010 — The Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet module was recently named 2011 Best of Interop Tokyo winner in the Assessment Products category. The solution was recognized for its ability to support 2 ports of 100G or 4 ports of 40G Ethernet interfaces on a single module while increasing emulation scale and realism.

Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet module uniquely enables engineers to test ultra-high scale multi-terabit datacenter fabrics as well as core and edge routers. Part of the Spirent HyperMetrics neXt family, this module leverages Spirent’s Cloud Core™ technology to emulate multi-protocol network topologies with millions of data flows at line-rate 40/100G Ethernet speeds.

“Rapid advances in cloud computing and the massive uptake of video applications is driving the need for testing quality of service under realistic network loads,” said Patrick Johnson, senior director of product marketing at Spirent. “This award recognizes Spirent’s unsurpassed capabilities in testing 40G and 100G Ethernet performance at scale.”

Each year, Best of Interop Tokyo award winners prove to be the key players in the continuing evolution of business technology. There were close to 200 candidates for Best of Interop Tokyo consideration in 19 different categories. Spirent’s HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet module win was judged by a panel of leading industry analysts and experts.

For more information on Spirent HyperMetrics mX module visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter/HyperMetrics_mx_40-100.aspx

Spirent Helps Service Providers Overcome Operational Challenges of Ethernet Mobile Backhaul Migration

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Enhanced Approach to Testing and Performance Monitoring of IP Services in the Mobile Backhaul Improves Operational Efficiencies and Reduces Costs

Singapore – June 21, 2011 – As service providers make the transition from TDM to Ethernet in the backhaul, they are quickly discovering the operational challenges of managing these new networks – especially the need to reduce operational expenses in the face of decreased revenues per bit. Spirent’s important enhancements to its Spirent TestCenter Live service assurance tool drives greater operational efficiency by enabling service providers to align service assurance costs with new Ethernet service business models.

The enhanced Spirent TestCenter Live offering combines 1 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and 10 GbE interfaces in a single probe and helps carriers to better plan for service activation and troubleshooting dispatches, while gaining greater visibility into the network for SLA management and reporting. With support for 24/7 remote and automated monitoring of services, and a future-proof design to support 40/100G speeds, the new probes offer unprecedented flexibility in testing and monitoring mobile backhaul networks. This latest solution can deliver cost savings of more than 25 percent over competitive solutions.

“As the cost per bit associated with delivering data decreases, service assurance solutions must become more efficient with increased port density and functionality,” said Sean Yarborough, senior director of Strategy & Business Development at Spirent. “By allowing service providers to assure more services with fewer probes, Spirent provides a unique foundation for enabling growth and profitability among today’s leading telcos, cable and wireless operators.”

The probes feature both testing and performance monitoring capabilities aimed at those building and operating LTE networks, including critical precision clock synchronization (IEEE 1588) and one-way delay measurements. The new Spirent TestCenter Live probes are available in two configurations – Spirent 7502 and Spirent 7606A – that can support from two to six 1GbE or 10GbE ports. A single probe can now facilitate up to 45 unique test sessions, with each test session supporting on-demand or performance monitoring tests of up to 4000 VLANs.

Prior to this Spirent advance, service providers needing both 1GbE and 10 GbE probes had to purchase them separately. Additionally, while most competitive probes are still limited to a single Ethernet test port per probe, Spirent’s innovation is enabling network operation centers (NOCs) to overcome inefficiencies, upgrade limitations and cost restrictions often associated with utilizing multiple test ports and probes. With its ability to support multiple test interfaces as well as its field upgradeability, service providers can continue to use Spirent TestCenter Live as their requirements grow, while conserving valuable rack space. These multi-port probes only require a one-time chassis installation and can then be field upgraded to address new functionality in the future.

“Our rich history of providing the most advanced Ethernet testing and measurement tools for the lab and live networks is further extended through this latest enhancement to Spirent TestCenter Live,” said Yarborough. “We’re helping service providers to improve operational efficiencies, quality of service and SLA compliance, from services that range from business Ethernet and mobile backhaul to VoIP, IP video, and IP/VPN - a capability which is unmatched in industry.”

Spirent TestCenter Live provides simultaneous on-demand testing and proactive, 24/7 performance monitoring on a single probe, enabling Layer 1-3 testing. This combination of features provides efficiency and automation for typical NOC activities such as service turn-up, troubleshooting, and SLA compliance. With support of industry standards such as 802.1ag, Y.1731, and RFC 2544, Spirent TestCenter Live can perform coordinated tests with CPE devices already in the network to provide true end-to-end test coverage. With Spirent, service providers benefit from a huge reduction in total cost of ownership, and continued operational efficiency over the service lifecycle.

Visit Spirent on Booth BL3-07 at CommunicAsia 2011, being held June 21-24 at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

For more information on Spirent TestCenter Live visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent-TestCenter_Live.aspx.

Spirent Achieves ‘Ready for IBM Rational’ Software Validation

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent iTest ‘Ready for Rational’ Integration Enables Test Optimization to Accelerate Deployment of New Products and Services

Sunnyvale, Calif. – June 6, 2011 – Spirent Communications today announced that its flagship test optimization product, Spirent iTest®, has achieved ‘Ready for IBM Rational Software’ validation for its integrations with IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM Rational Functional Tester. In addition, the Spirent iTest/Rational Quality Manager integration has achieved the ‘Ready for IBM Rational Best Practices Indicator’.

Spirent iTest, when used with Rational Quality Manager and Rational Functional Tester, reduces the challenges of developing and testing network equipment, as well as service provider and cloud-based IT infrastructure. Customers can execute iTest test cases from Rational Quality Manager. In addition, iTest users can rapidly create complex system tests which include automation created using Rational Functional Tester.

Michael Loria, vice president, IBM Rational Business Development said: “Using collaboration through integration, we're enabling our joint customers to address the unique technical and business requirements associated with validating and deploying IT equipment and infrastructures. Industry-leading partner solutions like Spirent iTest enable our joint customers to bring new products and services to market faster while increasing quality and test coverage.”

Spirent iTest, the industry’s leading network test optimization and orchestration software, enables testers and developers to develop and execute tests which verify the functionality, performance and behavior of a device or groups of devices. These tests can then be used to find, reproduce and resolve defects quickly. Spirent iTest customers experience greater test coverage, faster defect detection, shorter testing cycles, and smaller testing backlogs, resulting in faster time to market, improved profit margins, and enhanced customer service.

“Carrier networks and IT networks are becoming more dynamic due to ever-increasing software content, virtualization, and global pressure to innovate,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president of Networks & Applications at Spirent. “Spirent iTest provides Rational’s customers with the ability to extend their existing software development and test processes to address hardware products such as network equipment and IT/cloud infrastructure, while Rational Quality Manager enables Spirent customers to integrate their network equipment test processes into their overall application management lifecycle.”

Spirent will be showcasing its iTest product on booth #213 at IBM’s Innovate 2011 conference in Orlando, Florida, June 5-9.

For more information on Spirent iTest visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/iTest.aspx

Spirent Salutes the UK’s Unsung Network Heroes

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:00:00 GMT

New awards salutes network optimization skills

London (UK) 1st June — The unsung heroes of the network world will have their day, thanks to a new award scheme announced today by Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT), a global provider of performance analysis and service management solutions. The Spirent Network Hero Awards will be presented to individuals from nominations whom the judging panel considers to have made an outstanding effort in optimizing their company’s contribution in one or more of a variety of technical fields associated with networking, and as a result, benefited the business performance of the company they work for.

“Spirent Communications has instigated ‘The Network Heroes Awards’ as a way to acknowledge the true value of technical expertise in networking. These awards, which have been created to applaud the individual, are open to anyone working in the UK, who can nominate a person or persons, whom in their opinion, have made an outstanding contribution in one or more of a variety of technical fields associated with networking.” Said David Hill VP EMEA Spirent Communications.

To underline the award’s prestige, the company has appointed David Clarke MBE, Chief Executive of the BCS –The Chartered Institute for IT – to chair the eminent judging panel, which includes: Camille Mendler, Principal Analyst and Head of Enterprise Verticals Informa, Eric Owen, Vice President, Telecommunications IDC EMEA and Tim Ring Editorial & Operations Director of the National Computing Centre, and Editor Conspectus.

The award nominations are open to everyone working in the UK who meets the various category criteria the details of which, is fully explained on the Spirent website: http://www.spirent.com/go/network-heroes.aspx

People are now invited to submit names of individuals working in the UK, whom in their opinion, have made an outstanding contribution in one or more of a variety of technical fields associated with networking. The award winners and their partners will be invited to an Exclusive Awards Dinner at the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall, along with senior members of their organizations. This year’s nominations should be made before 30th June 2011.

Spirent Solutions Receive 2011 NGN Leadership Award

Thu, 26 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent iTest, Spirent HyperMetrics neXt, Spirent VR5 HD Recognized for Work in Advancing NGN Services, Technologies

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 26, 2011 — Three Spirent test solutions recently received NGN Magazine’s 2011 NGN Leadership Award in recognition for exceptional work in advancing NGN services and technologies.

The Third Annual NGN Leadership Award highlights the growth, evolution and distinction between the applications and services designed for next generation networks and the enabling technologies that make them possible.

“Spirent has been recognized for its exceptional work in advancing NGN services and technologies, “ said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “The company’s products have proven it is exceptional and its innovation has contributed to the transformation of the industry.”

Honored products include:

Spirent HyperMetrics neXt for helping to deliver the most demanding data and application workload at cloud computing scale, ensuring the delivery of services to millions of enterprise users with the highest quality of experience
Spirent iTest for providing a comprehensive approach for rapidly developing, automating and maintaining test cases while maximizing an organization’s existing test resources
Spirent VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator for its unprecedented ease of use in testing MIMO/beamforming techniques in mobile devices and base stations

“Spirent continues to offer the widest and most comprehensive array of testing solutions designed to help reduce deployment costs and improve the time to market associated with launching new products and services,” said Nigel Wright, vice president of corporate marketing at Spirent. “Whether putting the cloud to the test or better understanding how next-generation wireless networks perform under the most extreme conditions, we continue to deliver offerings that allow equipment manufacturers and network operators to more efficiently deploy and operate NGN services and technologies.”

Sandvine Chooses Spirent for Mobile Core Testing of Network Policy Control

Wed, 18 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 18, 2011 — Sandvine has selected Spirent Communications to verify the performance of its network policy control solutions under mobile network conditions. With Spirent’s mobile core testing solution, Sandvine can ensure its Policy Traffic Switch (PTS) supports stringent mobile requirements such as high volumes of subscribers with dynamic IP traffic flows. Designed to emulate real-world 3G/LTE traffic models in the core network at mobile scale, Spirent’s test solution enables Sandvine to significantly reduce the cost of testing and improve the time to market of its solution.

As the industry continues to monitor the explosive growth of mobile data traffic, operators are looking for innovative ways to create new revenue streams and optimize network resource utilization to ensure that subscribers continue to enjoy a high quality mobile broadband experience.

Sandvine’s Fairshare Traffic Management provides the ability to detect and manage mobile radio access network congestion, taking into account the mobile sectors from which millions of wireless subscribers generate a variety of multimedia data traffic, thus resulting in lower network costs and improved subscriber experience. Differentiated mobile service plans, enabled by Sandvine’s Usage Management, combine usage thresholds or application segmentation with accurate billing, providing subscribers with a choice of service offerings allowing mobile operators to fuel revenue growth.

“Sandvine gives carriers the ability to leverage application, subscriber, device and congestion awareness to enforce policy decisions that have the greatest impact on managing network loading, reducing operating expenditure, and increasing the subscriber experience,” said Brad Siim, COO and vice president of engineering at Sandvine. “Being able to model the entire mobile network – network elements, subscribers, and applications – with the realism and scale of the real-world is critical in ensuring that our solutions will continue to meet the deployment requirements of our mobile operator customers.”

Also used by leading mobile operators worldwide, Sandvine is utilizing Spirent Landslide Mobile Core Test Solution to comprehensively emulate 3G/LTE mobile networks with millions of subscribers accessing a multitude of mobile applications and to test how its PTS responds in the mobile core network. As the industry’s only solution that emulates real-world traffic models, Spirent Landslide emulates all of the key mobile core data network elements, and combines control plane and data plane simulation. This provides realistic emulation of millions of mobile nodes in various stages of activation, deactivation, and hand-off between cells, all while transmitting and receiving real-world application data.

“Testing mobile elements with network, application and subscriber realism at scale is central to ensuring QoS and QoE in the mobile network,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president of Networks & Applications at Spirent. “Spirent is a pioneer in mobile core testing and is the leading choice of carriers for core network testing which is why industry leading equipment vendors such as Sandvine continue to rely on us.”

For more information on testing the mobile core, policy control and DPI solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile_packet_core.aspx

About Sandvine

Sandvine’s network policy control solutions focus on protecting and improving the quality of experience on the Internet. Our award-winning network policy control equipment and software helps DSL, FTTx, cable, fixed wireless and mobile operators better understand network traffic, manage network congestion, create new services and revenues, mitigate traffic that is malicious or undesirable to subscribers, deliver QoS-prioritized multimedia services and increase subscriber satisfaction. With over 220 service provider customers in more than 85 countries serving hundreds of millions of broadband and mobile data subscribers, Sandvine is enhancing the Internet experience worldwide. For more information, please visit www.sandvine.com

Spirent Showcases Successful LTE/UMTS Mobility Testing with Icera

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent eAirAccess Proves Out LTE/UMTS Roaming Test Capability Using Icera Espresso® 410

Sunnyvale, Calif.– May 17, 2011 — Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, has verified successful testing of LTE/UMTS mobility using Spirent’s eAirAccess Multi-RAT (Radio Access Technology) network emulator with Icera’s Espresso® 410 LTE/Dual Cell reference platform. The Espresso® 410 was one of the first platforms to add LTE capability to existing high speed multimode HSPA+ / 3G / 2G technology support. The activity took place in Icera’s laboratories in Bristol, England, United Kingdom.

“Mobility” refers to the ability of a cellular device to seamlessly transition voice and data calls as a user moves throughout and between networks using different technologies. This process, called “handover”, is a critical part of the rollout of LTE services which must co-exist with legacy-technology cellular networks.

eAirAccess is Spirent’s multi-RAT (CDMA/EVDO/UMTS/HSPA/LTE) network emulator used for testing chipsets and mobile devices during their research and development as well as design verification phases. Icera’s Espresso® 410 is a reference design based on the company’s Livanto® baseband and RF chipsets. The design is the basis for multi-mode LTE/UMTS data cards and handsets.

“Spirent has already helped leading CDMA operators and device makers deliver successful LTE/CDMA mobility,” said Spirent vice president Hesham ElHamahmy. “As a result, subscribers are able to roam in and out of LTE coverage areas while continuing to enjoy the best possible quality of experience.,.Now we’ve shown that we’re able to deliver the same capabilities to UMTS carriers and vendors who are preparing to roll out LTE services.”

For more information on Spirent’s LTE device testing solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/LTE_devices.aspx

About Icera

Icera is a fabless semiconductor company, pioneering soft modem chipsets for the fast growing smartphone and mobile broadband device markets. Icera technology delivers the highest performance modem solutions with the smallest silicon die size for smartphones, tablets and USB dongles. Icera technology supports 4G (LTE), 3G (HSPA) and 2G standards. Founded in 2002, Icera is headquartered in the UK, with design locations in the UK, France, USA and China and customer engineering and sales offices in Europe, Asia and the USA. For more information, visit the Icera web site at www.icerasemi.com.

Alcatel-Lucent and Spirent Demonstrate Highest Scalability and Performance of LTE Mobile Gateways Supporting Millions of Subscribers

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Testing LTE Serving Gateway, Packet Data Network Gateway Configurations, Alcatel-Lucent Uses Spirent Solution to Demonstrate Highest Throughput to Date

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 17, 2011 – A live demonstration this week at TIA 2011 in Dallas, Texas will showcase how the Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router (SR) Mobile Gateway performs under the most demanding conditions in a 4G/LTE environment while maintaining the highest Quality of Service (QoS), even for bandwidth intensive video applications. Using Landslide on Spirent TestCenter, Alcatel-Lucent will show how the 7750 SR Mobile Gateway supports millions of active mobile broadband subscribers, each with multiple data connections. Landslide on Spirent TestCenter is the industry’s only test platform that combines real world subscriber behavior and mobile broadband traffic to evaluate wireless core packet network performance.

The demonstration features high scalability and performance with sustained aggregate throughput in excess of 180 Gbps, which is the equivalent of more than 250,000 simultaneous and individual iPad/iPhone quality Netflix streams. Even in this demanding network scenario, Alcatel-Lucent reaches the highest publicly-demonstrated throughput achieved to date.

“These tests show the 7750 Service Router’s ability to handle speed, high-throughput and connectivity challenges under an assortment of real-world cases.” said Kevin Macaluso, vice president and general manager of the Service Router product group within Alcatel-Lucent. “This is critical in allowing our service provider customers to understand that our solution will help to not only address their needs today, but also as video applications become even more pervasive. LTE and other 4G technologies require a powerful platform for testing and Spirent’s Landslide was the principal tool we used in the lab that helped us to validate the performance of our router in the role of a mobile gateway.”

This public demonstration will showcase the highest subscriber traffic aggregate speeds while supporting 1.5 million active mobile devices and three million default and dedicated data connections. It will use two Alcatel-Lucent 7750 SRs configured as an LTE Serving gateway (SGW) and a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway, and will emphasize the way this solution performs under the most demanding real world conditions.

The Landslide on Spirent TestCenter solution provides a comprehensive end-to-end offering that emulates millions of mobile data subscribers, simultaneously accessing the wireless network using various access models. It tests all of the key wireless core elements, and combines control plane and data plane simulation. This provides real-world emulation of millions of mobile nodes in various stages of activation, deactivation, and hand-off between cells, all while transmitting and receiving real-world application data over an AnyG mobile network.

“This testing builds on our long relationship with Alcatel-Lucent, allowing this leading mobile infrastructure provider to deliver products that live up to the promise of next-generation networks.” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “As a leader in next-generation mobile infrastructure testing, Spirent’s ability to scale up to millions of data connections at line rate enables Alcatel-Lucent to gain a detailed awareness of subscriber scalability and data performance.”

The Alcatel-Lucent 7750 Service Router integrates the scalability, resiliency, and predictability of MPLS along with the bandwidth and economics of Ethernet and a broad selection of high-speed (100 Gbps) and legacy interfaces, to enable a converged network infrastructure for the delivery of next-generation services. The platform’s advanced and comprehensive feature set enables it to be deployed as the aggregation router in mobile backhaul applications or as a mobile gateway for wireless networks.

Visit Alcatel-Lucent on booth #801 at TIA 2011, May 17-20 in Dallas, Texas.

Spirent Wins Test & Measurement World’s 2011 Best in Test Award

Tue, 17 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Magazine Readers and Editors Honor Spirent’s Mobile Backhaul Test Solution

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 17, 2011 — Spirent Communications has won Test & Measurement World magazine’s 2011 Best in Test award for the Network and fiber-optic testers category. The award, based on votes from the magazine’s readers and editors, recognizes the Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul solution for helping companies save costs and bring products/services to the market faster.

The Best in Test award honors important and innovative new products and services in the electronics test and measurement industry. This recognition by users of test equipment underscores Spirent’s commitment to developing and delivering solution that address the critical and changing needs of the communications testing community.

“The 2011 Best in Test finalists include 72 impressive products in 16 competitive categories,” said Rick Nelson, editorial director of Test & Measurement World Magazine. “In the Network and fiber-optic testers category, readers and editors voted Spirent TestCenter for Mobile Backhaul as the Best in Test winner, in part due to its ability to improve test cycle times and reduce the overall cost of test while ensuring optimal QoE.”

Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul simplifies testing by emulating cell sites, access, aggregation, edge networks, and end-user traffic, all from a single port. Designed to support the IP/Ethernet enabled mobile backhaul, this comprehensive solution improves test cycle times and reduces the overall cost of testing. Testing with Spirent helps to ensure that service quality in the Ethernet backhaul goes beyond "best effort."

“Today’s 3G services are already taxing wireless networks, and emerging 4G (LTE) networks are only adding to that pressure,” said Ross Cassan, senior product marketing manager at Spirent. “Interestingly, the desire to be connected wirelessly has resulted in increased performance requirements for wired networks which places new operational demands on mobile backhaul capabilities. Spirent is honored that Test & Measurement World magazine and its readers have recognized our efforts in delivering a solution that better prepares both service providers and equipment makers for service turn-up, maintenance and troubleshooting of these advanced systems.”

As service providers migrate from TDM to an Ethernet-based backhaul, they benefit from reduced costs and improved packet transport efficiencies. But this transition requires testing of TDM like features such as timing and OAM since Ethernet does not natively support timing and management. With its accurate testing of IEEE 1588 and SyncE timing protocols, MPLS-TP and OAM protocols, Spirent TestCenter helps reduce the risk of dropped mobile calls and enables delivery of video and data applications in conformance with SLAs. Additionally, by simulating real-world packet and physical-layer impairments, Spirent eliminates the need for expensive test beds and helps manufacturers eliminate the risk of introducing untested features into the market. The comprehensive protocol, scale and impairment testing capabilities of Spirent’s Mobile Backhaul solution helps service providers ensure highest Quality of Experience to end customers.

For more information visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Mobile_backhaul.aspx

Spirent Recognized for Accomplishments in LTE Wireless Device Testing

Mon, 16 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Multiple Organizations, Publications Recognize Spirent for Solutions that Help to Advance the Industry

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 16, 2011 – As LTE networks begin to gain popularity and wireless operators push the benefits of the technology to their subscribers, testing device performance has never been more important. Without taking the proper steps, the performance and quality of experience (QoE) associated with using new smartphones and other devices will suffer and reflect poorly on the device manufacturer and service provider.

Spirent continues to demonstrate why its LTE device testing solutions are among the industry's most recognized, widely used and honored. A number of products were recently highlighted by leading publications and organizations:

Spirent's VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator received a 2011 NGN® Leadership Award for its unprecedented ease of use in testing MIMO/beamforming techniques in devices and basestations.
Spirent's 8100 Location Technology solution was named a finalist for the Informa LTE Awards 2011 within the Best Network / Device Testing Product category. The solution offers the most advanced, comprehensive environment available for testing A-GPS/GLONASS-enabled LTE devices.
Spirent's eAir Access Network Emulator for multiple radio access technologies was named a finalist in the Wireless test category for Test & Measurement World's 2011 Best in Test award. eAirAccess is designed to provide a complete and realistic network for testing mobile devices in the lab and is capable of providing simultaneous LTE, CDMA/EV-DO and GSM/UMTS/HSPA+ networks in a single solution.

"Spirent prides itself on developing and providing test engineers with the most complete set of tools required to successfully develop and launch high-performing LTE devices," said Nigel Wright, vice president of marketing, Wireless group at Spirent. "With so much riding on the deployment of 4G networks and the devices which access them, it is gratifying that industry leaders recognize our efforts in delivering products which help to ensure that the quality of experience delivered by LTE devices will exceed subscriber expectations."

For more information on Spirent LTE device testing solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/LTE_devices.aspx

Spirent, Extreme Networks Team to Demonstrate Performance of Industry’s Open Fabric Data Center Solutions

Wed, 11 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Extreme Networks Leverages Spirent Data Center Testing Solution to Demonstrate Switch Performance at 20 Terabits Traffic Rate

Las Vegas – May 11, 2010 — Extreme Networks has selected Spirent Communications’ high-speed data center and cloud computing test solution to showcase the performance of Extreme Networks® Open Fabric data center solution featuring the newly announced BlackDiamond® X8 switch, a high capacity, high density 40GbE core chassis for Cloud environments, which is expected to begin customer trials in October 2011. The demonstration, featuring a 20 Tbps Ethernet switch fabric, marks one of the first public tests in which traffic is scaled to over double digit terabit speeds with dense 40GbE port connectivity.

Extreme Networks Open Fabric data center solution includes a portfolio of purpose-built, Cloud-scale data center network switching solutions allowing organizations to more cost-effectively build highly scalable, mobile and virtualized networks with low latency, high density and energy efficiency.

“The ability to validate services and infrastructure between any points in the cloud is critical, particularly as enterprises and cloud providers look to scale and virtualize their networks,” said Harpreet Chadha, vice president of product management for Extreme Networks. “Spirent has allowed us to put our latest Open Fabric data center solution, the BlackDiamond X8, to the test and demonstrate its 40 GbeE performance and capacity to deliver critical services.”

For this demonstration, Extreme Networks is utilizing the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics 40/100G Ethernet solution. Because modern switch and router fabrics span multiple chassis and can be expanded to build systems supporting hundreds or thousands of ports, the level of traffic produced by the Spirent HyperMetrics module can fully load modern multi-terabit backplanes and fabrics to assess system performance and verify reliability when deployed in large mission critical environments supporting millions of user application flows. Spirent’s high speed data center solutions offers cloud data center switch manufacturers space efficient, power efficient, and cost effective solutions for loading multi-terabit fabrics to full capacity.

“Recent reports regarding cloud attacks, downtime and poor performance raise questions about the amount of time and money that can potentially be saved by thorough testing,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications at Spirent. “It is gratifying to offer companies such as Extreme Networks the data density and application traffic capacity required to conduct cloud testing at a cost-effective price point.”

For more information on Spirent’s data center and enterprise testing solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Enterprise_networks.aspx

About Extreme Networks

Extreme Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR) delivers networks for the mobile world. The company's open network solutions enable a quality user experience, providing a platform for improved business agility. From the converged mobile edge of enterprises to virtualized clouds, and from data centers to global carrier networks that backhaul mobile traffic, Extreme Networks' extensible services architecture helps set a foundation for mobility, user awareness and faster performance to empower people and machines to connect and move seamlessly. Extreme Networks is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, with offices in more than 50 countries worldwide. For more information, visit: www.extremenetworks.com

Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo and BlackDiamond are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other names are the property of their respective owners.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release, including without limitation statements as to features and benefits of Extreme Networks products are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date. Because such statements deal with future events, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, including network design and actual results of use of the product in different environments. We undertake no obligation to update the forward-looking information in this release. Other important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are contained in the Company's 10-Qs and 10-Ks which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.sec.gov.

Spirent Brings Efficient Troubleshooting Test Solutions to Enterprises with cPacket Networks Real-Time Monitoring Switches

Wed, 11 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

New Smart Filtering Test Tool Increases Efficient Troubleshooting with Spirent Test Center Live.

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 11, 2011 — Spirent Communications has extended its cPacket Networks offering to include the cVu 120G, a 10G Ethernet intelligent data center monitor switch. These products work with Spirent’s performance monitoring and test & diagnostics solution –Spirent TestCenter Live. Together, the companies enable enterprises, particularly financial institutions to, monitor, analyze and manage network traffic to remain competitive and profitable.

With the cVu family of solutions, enterprises can validate latency with nanosecond granularity. This approach ensures, for example, that financial trades are made quickly, while providing alerts related to potential decreases in network efficiency, ultimately ensuring services and devices are operating in a manner. For service providers, this agreement enables the deployment of a complete test solution that not only addresses multiple testing requirements but also minimizes the number of ports needed to run a variety of tests. Ultimately, a single port can be used to facilitate the use of several test tools freeing the other ports for expanded revenue generation opportunities.

“As we continue to seek ways to accomplish a wide range of testing needs, the idea of accomplishing more with less is extremely attractive,” said Spenser Gruis, Network Technician, OmniTel. “Spirent and cPacket provide us with an integrated solution that makes testing easier and much more cost-effective.”

The cPacket cVu product line’s precision timestamping, complete packet filtering, mircoburst detection and automatic flow balancing, paired with the Spirent TestCenter Live solution, delivers a combined solution which offers network operators a way to drastically reduce the time and cost of troubleshooting and fault identification.

“This relationship between Spirent and cPacket introduces a new level of integration for cost-effectively solving complex test and measurement issues,” said Sean Yarborough, senior director of Business Development at Spirent. “As a company we remain committed to bringing solutions to enterprise and service provider customers today and in the future that address the needs of their increasingly complex networks, allowing them to solve the emerging challenges they face.”

For more information on how to drive cost efficiencies and productivity in the live network visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/EthernetSvcsOnLiveNetworks.aspx

Spirent Demonstrates Industry’s First NTAF Specification-Based Testing Product at Interop 2011

Wed, 11 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Demonstration Shows Commitment to and Endorsement of Open Standards in Test Automation

Las Vegas– May 11, 2011 – Spirent Communications today demonstrated the industry’s first commercially-available test solution based on specifications from the Network Test Automation Forum (NTAF). The demonstration, at Interop Las Vegas 2011 at Booth #733, marks an important milestone as it is the first time any test vendor has publicly shown generally available product that incorporate NTAF-based implementations.

Spirent showcased an NTAF-based integration between Spirent TestCenter and its Spirent iTest automation solution. The open-standards-based combination delivers expanded functionality to Spirent iTest users allowing for greater control over Spirent TestCenter.

“Our customers are telling us clearly that standards-based interoperability of test systems and test beds are important to them,” said Todd Law, product manager at Spirent, and vice-president of NTAF. “We share that vision and are pleased to be the first to implement this latest integration based on the open NTAF specification.”

A founding member of NTAF, Spirent is an avid supporter of open standards for test automation and has made significant contributions toward the specifications. The new specifications are the result of a collaborative effort from other NTAF members, including Spirent customers and competitors.

“Following Spirent’s acquisition of Fanfare, we reaffirmed our commitment to an open-standards-based approach, giving our customers greater flexibility in their test system selection and test bed set-up,” added Law.

Spirent acquired Fanfare Software in February 2011 which included the award-winning iTest test authoring software product line.

For more information on Spirent’s test automation solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Lab_and_Test_Automation.aspx

Spirent Puts the Reality of Cloud Infrastructure and Application Performance to the Test

Tue, 10 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics neXt Reduces Cost of Testing by More than 70 Percent by Optimizing Testing Resources

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 10, 2011 – Recent high-profile news, such as Amazon’s cloud outage and Sony’s security breach, has helped to fuel the growing concerns around cloud security and reliability. Addressing these concerns, along with the infrastructure performance and scale demands of cloud computing, presents a multi-dimensional testing challenge. Spirent’s latest HyperMetrics neXt modules for Spirent TestCenter™ enables service providers, equipment vendors and enterprises to validate all dimensions of cloud computing performance, availability, security and scale (PASS) to help ensure a seamless application user experience.

Showcased on Spirent Booth #733 at Interop Las Vegas 2011, May 10-12, the HyperMetrics neXt family introduces several modules:

HyperMetrics dX, offering unprecedented density with 32-ports of 10G Ethernet per module, is designed to test the terabit capacity of switch and router fabrics at more than 70 percent lower cost than the previous generation of test solutions.
HyperMetrics mX 10G Ethernet, available in 2, 4 and 8-port versions, is designed to test converged cloud infrastructure, with the ability to scale to a terabit of stateful traffic per chassis and emulate 6 million mobile subscribers and billions of IPv4 and IPv6 flows and routes.
HyperMetrics mX 40/100G Ethernet, with 4 ports of 40G or 2 ports of 100G Ethernet on a single module, doubles the port density per module compared to any other 40/100G test solution. It is the industry's first high-speed Ethernet test module specifically designed to stress infrastructure scalability, measure multi-play experience and validate cloud application security.

Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics neXt modules achieve their unprecedented performance by combining Spirent's Cloud Core™ technology with the world's fastest integrated processors from Intel. The modules deliver on Spirent’s PASS methodology and, when combined with Spirent TestCenter Virtual and Spirent Avalanche Virtual, enable engineers to test between any points in the cloud infrastructure.

“Despite the accelerating adoption of cloud computing, performance, availability and security remain critical concerns, and potential barriers to ubiquitous acceptance,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications at Spirent. “With the growing emphasis on the quality of experience of cloud applications, testing the PASS attributes of the network as well as the virtualized servers is central to rapid deployment of cloud services. The addition of HyperMetrics neXt to our existing solution portfolio, in conjunction with our world-class Global Services organization, positions Spirent to do this better than anyone, whether it’s for network equipment manufacturers, service providers or the enterprise.”

For more information on how Spirent is helping to build high performance cloud computing environment visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Cloud_Computing.aspx

To learn more about what Spirent is showcase and demonstrating at Interop Las Vegas 2011 visit http://www.spirent.com/About-Us/Events/Interop.aspx

Spirent Advances Testing for Ethernet in the Mobile Backhaul

Tue, 10 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

New Solution Helps Validate Timing, Synchronization and Carrier Ethernet Technologies

Sunnyvale, Calif.– May 10, 2011 — Spirent Communications and Anue Systems today introduced a mobile backhaul testing solution designed to validate timing and synchronization as well as carrier Ethernet protocols including SyncE, IEEE 1588/PTPv2, and EthOAM. The new Spirent Anue 3500 provides carriers and network equipment manufacturers with a comprehensive test impairment and analysis platform for mobile backhaul.

The Spirent Anue 3500 enables the verification of multimedia as well as legacy TDM services over next-generation wireless backhaul systems including LTE networks. Combined with Spirent TestCenter Mobile Backhaul, this offering delivers the industry’s most complete solution for testing and validation through an intuitive, easy-to-use interface which provides automatic and real-time pass/fail results.

“As the industry continues to witness the emergence of new and complex protocols required to support increasingly data and video-centric wireless networks and associated traffic, the ability to ensure the performance and quality of experience of all-IP/Ethernet systems required to scale and meet these needs is critical,” said Elisabeth Rainge, research vice president, NGN Operations at IDC. “A complete end-to-end mobile backhaul test solution plays a significant role in the successful introduction and continued operation of 4G networks that must live up to the expectations of service providers and their subscribers.”

The flexible Spirent Anue 3500 platform supports a wide variety of port configurations providing users with a means, for example, to test PTP and SyncE technologies simultaneously at 1G and 10G Ethernet, allowing validation of mobile backhaul solution performance under real-world conditions.

“Gaining an advantage in today’s hypercompetitive wireless environment is a must for both equipment manufacturers and wireless operators,” said Andrew Armstrong, senior manager at Spirent. “The ability, through testing, to simulate dropped packets, emulate and analyze synchronization wander and understand how protocols operate and respond to different conditions plays a key role in the successful adoption of Ethernet technologies and the deployment of mobile backhaul networks.”

“Through our partnership with Spirent we are able to provide customers worldwide with superior, comprehensive test solutions,” said Jason Nutt, Anue Systems director of test and measurement. “The combination of the Spirent Anue 3500 and Spirent TestCenter provides our customers with a unique solution that covers both physical layer and protocol layer synchronization performance analysis along with protocol conformance and validation.”

For more information on the Spirent Anue 3500 http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Spirent_Anue_3500.aspx.

Spirent Anue 300 will be on display at WSTS ’11 2011 Telcordia - NIST - ATIS Workshop on Synchronization in Telecommunication Systems in Westminster, CO, May 10-12.

About Anue Systems

By design, Anue Systems products help network engineers more effectively monitor their networks and utilize their network tools by eliminating port shortages, increasing visibility points and reducing network management complexity. This added efficiency creates significant ROI for Anue’s Fortune 2000 customers by maximizing IT resources, streamlining network troubleshooting and expanding network monitoring capacity. Founded in 2002, Anue’s intelligently designed products simplify complex network tasks for its customers – the world’s largest corporations, communication providers and government agencies. Information about Anue Systems is available at http://anuesystems.com.

Icera Selects Spirent for Testing of Advanced Receivers in UMTS/HSPA+ Devices

Tue, 10 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent Solution Enables Automated Testing of Advanced Receiver Designs for Next-Generation UMTS/ HSPA+ Devices

Sunnyvale, Calif. and Bristol, UK – May 10, 2011 – Spirent Communications announced today that it has supplied the industry’s first automated solution for testing Type 3i advanced receivers in UMTS/HSPA+ mobile devices to Icera, a leading developer of soft modem chipsets for smartphones and mobile broadband devices. The Spirent solution, built on the Spirent 8100 Development Library, combines advanced automated test software with Spirent’s channel emulator and multi-cell UMTS/HSPA+ network emulator to enable comprehensive real-world device performance testing.

Receiver design can greatly impact cellular modem device performance and network resource allocation. Type 3i advanced receiver designs enable network operators and device vendors to significantly reduce the impact of interference from other users or cell sites, resulting in data throughput gains, especially for users who are located at or near the edge of a cell. This design helps operators to reduce costs and to maximize the quality of experience for subscribers. Icera launched its IceClear™ technology in January 2010, enabling device manufacturers and network operators to take advantage of Type 3i receiver technology.

The Spirent system’s ability to automate testing of our advanced receiver performance in the lab under real-world network conditions greatly reduces our test time as well as increases our test coverage for these interference-limited scenarios,” said Steve Allpress, CTO of Icera. “We can now set up our testing in minutes, including 3GPP standard test cases as well as our own challenging test environments that include complex fading models and the interference effects from other cell-sites.”

“The widening availability of HSPA+ data networks and devices has increased the demand for effective tools to verify performance of the latest receiver designs,” said Nigel Wright, vice president of product marketing for Spirent’s wireless division. “Our automated test capability enables Icera to carry out more testing in less time, helping to ensure that device user experience meets the expectations of today’s demanding consumers. As a leader in mobile device performance testing, Spirent is uniquely positioned to offer the industry’s first automated solution for testing Type 3i receiver performance”.

For more information about Spirent’s 8100 test solution visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Radio_Access.aspx

University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory Partners with Spirent to Test Network Protection Devices

Mon, 09 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Independent Government Accredited Lab to Use Spirent’s Avalanche™ for High Performance Security Testing

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 9, 2011 – University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL), seeking to utilize the latest and most comprehensive tools for government certification testing, has announced it will use Spirent solution to address network protection device (NPD) testing. Testing with Spirent will enable UNH-IOL to ensure related NPDs meet necessary security requirements.

UNH-IOL, one of the industry's premier independent proving grounds for new technologies, will use Spirent Avalanche for multi-10Gbps capacity, security and performance testing. Spirent Avalanche provides the industry with an advanced high-throughput security test solution, with more than 10Gbps of encrypted traffic generation capabilities. The 1Gbps and 10Gbps Layer 4-7 multi-protocol solution also delivers the ability to test devices to their ultimate limits at line rate. The solution simulates daily business traffic, helping users to understand the impact under worst case scenarios of network faults and attacks. It is capable of multi-10Gbps of stateful application traffic generation while injecting attacks.

“UNH-IOL maintains a strong reputation for independent, vendor-neutral testing that offers an extension to a company’s in-house testing capabilities,” said Erica Johnson, director, UNH-IOL. “Our work with Spirent allows us to provide a means of testing critical infrastructure and equipment, allowing organizations to pre-test a variety of solutions and potentially save time and money during what can often be a complex process.”

Spirent Avalanche provides extensive testing for secure network communication, vulnerability assessment with around 7,000 attack profiles and user authentication including IPSec, SSL, 802.1x, Network Access Control (NAC) and RADIUS.

“As a long-standing provider of test solutions to UNH-IOL, this latest effort allows for the organization’s member companies to employ Spirent Avalanche to thoroughly assess equipment and understand if they meet government standards required for certification,” said Ankur Chadda, senior product marketing manager, Spirent. “This continues Spirent’s commitment of ensuring companies that work with UNH-IOL gain access to high-caliber interoperability, security and conformance testing applications.”

To learn more visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/Avalanche.aspx.

Spirent Showcases the Reality of Cloud and Data Center Network Performance at Interop 2011

Wed, 04 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Company Participates in Live Demonstration at Customer, Partner Booths; Spirent Addresses Attendees at Carrier Cloud Forum

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 4, 2011 — As the industry debates the security and reliability of cloud computing and public data centers at Interop Las Vegas 2011, May 9 – 12 , Spirent will demonstrate and discuss how service providers and enterprises can effectively prepare for the uncertainties and pitfalls of these emerging network environments.

Understanding Today’s Cloud Reality - Addressing the Critical Questions for a Connected World

Cloud computing offers tremendous opportunities. However, not understanding the impact on service performance, availability, security, and scale (PASS) when moving enterprise workloads into the cloud will have serious consequences. At booth #733, Spirent experts will deliver short presentations which answer key questions enterprises need to ask themselves including:

Are all cloud service providers equal?
Do all cloud solutions provide the same performance?
How can cloud security be ensured?

Live On-site Demos at Interop

During the show, Spirent solutions are putting leading cloud infrastructure solutions to the test. Live demonstrations will take place at the following booths:

Extreme Networks (Booth #2051) – Spirent will test 40GbE data center switch performance
Napatech (Booth #739) – Spirent will test the performance of the industry’s first data center virtualization environments supporting 40GbE server interfaces
Net Optics (Booth #1262) - Spirent will test and measure the performance, availability, security and scale (PASS) of a data center virtualization network monitoring tool

Building a Better Cloud

Spirent’s data center and cloud computing expert, Jurrie van den Breekel, will join a discussion with executives from Brocade, Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks at the Carrier Cloud Forum at 1:15 pm on Monday, May 9 at the Jasmine E room at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. During a session entitled “Building a Secure, High Performance Cloud Service,” van den Breekel will address how carriers can deliver high performance, secure cloud services at the promised SLAs.

To learn more, visit the Spirent website: http://www.spirent.com/About-Us/Events/Interop.aspx

Interim Management Statement (Unaudited)

Wed, 04 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

London, UK – 4 May 2011: Spirent Communications plc (“Spirent”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (LSE: SPT), a leading communications technology company, announces the following unaudited Interim Management Statement for the period since 31 December 2010.

Trading performance for the period is in line with the Board’s expectations and continues the positive trend that Spirent reported in its full year 2010 results.

Highlights – First quarter 2011

Revenue up by 14% to $122.8 million.
Operating profit up 16% before charging $0.6 million of share-based payment and acquired intangible asset amortisation (first quarter 2010: $0.4 million) and acquisition expenses of $1.2 million. Reported operating profit up 10% to $23.7 million.
Basic earnings per share up by 15% to 2.39 cents per share after charging 0.24 cents for share-based payment, acquired intangible asset amortisation and acquisition expenses, net of tax.
Order intake growth of 11% in our Performance Analysis division. Group order intake was up 5%.
Increased investment in product development of 14% to $21.7 million.
Acquisition of The Fanfare Group, Inc. (“Fanfare”) for a cash consideration of $15.0 million.

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The dynamics in our industry during the first quarter of 2011 reflect the growth trends in data communications seen last year. We have invested in our business through product development and sales and marketing, while maintaining operating margins before acquisition expenses. We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of Fanfare and its integration into Spirent is well underway. We look forward to a continuation of the positive start to 2011 throughout the remainder of the year.”

Results Summary

	1st quarter 2011 $ million	1st quarter 2010 $ million	Change %
Revenue	122.8	107.9	14
Operating profit	23.7	21.5	10
Basic earnings per share (cents)	2.39	2.08	15

Group revenue grew 14 per cent over the first quarter of 2010 to $122.8 million.

In our Performance Analysis division order intake increased over the first quarter of 2010 by 11 per cent. In Systems, however, order intake was down 22 per cent due to the changes in the US Medicare reimbursement process. For the Group the growth in order intake was 5 per cent over the first quarter of 2010.

Gross margin was 65.9 per cent compared with 66.1 per cent for the first quarter of 2010. As expected gross margin has reduced in Performance Analysis due to the product mix and in Service Assurance due to the lower software content, however, both were within the normal range expected.

Reported operating profit improved by 10 per cent to $23.7 million. Operating profit, before charging $0.6 million for share-based payment and acquired intangible asset amortisation and $1.2 million of acquisition and integration costs, was up 16 per cent. Acquired intangible asset amortisation includes $0.1 million for Fanfare, representing the pro-rata share of the expected annual amortisation charge of $1.5 million. Other expenses include an increase in product development engineering as well as the expansion of our sales activities to drive future growth.

Basic earnings per share for the quarter was 2.39 cents (first quarter 2010: 2.08 cents). This includes a charge of 0.24 cents per share for share-based payment, acquired intangible asset amortisation and acquisition and integration costs, net of tax (first quarter 2010: 0.06 cents).

Performance Analysis

The positive trends that we saw in 2010 have continued into 2011 resulting in revenue growth of 14 per cent to $92.8 million in our Performance Analysis division. All lines of business reported growth in the first quarter. This performance was driven in particular by our customers increased investment in our Ethernet, wireless and positioning test solutions. Gross margin was within the normal range at 71.8 per cent (first quarter 2010: 72.6 per cent). Operating profit grew to $22.2 million, an increase of 14 per cent with return on sales maintained at 24 per cent.

Service Assurance and Systems

In Service Assurance revenue grew by 31 per cent to $15.5 million compared with the first quarter of 2010 and operating profit improved by 62 per cent to $2.1 million.

Systems, as discussed above, reported lower order intake by 22 per cent compared to the prior year although revenue at $14.5 million for the quarter was just 3 per cent down period-on-period. Operating profit was $2.1 million, $0.3 million below the first quarter of 2010. The effects of the changes to US Medicare funding are expected to be less marked as the year progresses.

Cash

Free cash flow¹ for the first quarter of 2011 was $13.8 million (first quarter 2010: $25.6 million). The reduction in free cash flow is due to an increase in working capital of $8.1 million to fund increased activity and further investment in the business, and the payment of acquisition and integration expenses. After paying the cash consideration of $15.0 million for the acquisition of Fanfare and $10.0 million for on market share repurchases and the purchase of shares into trust, cash and cash equivalents closed at $215.1 million (31 December 2010: $223.9 million).

Outlook

We expect to maintain progress throughout the remainder of 2011, as we continue to invest in the expansion of our product portfolio to meet our customers’ demand for innovative test solutions to enable the development and deployment of new technologies that drive the ever-evolving communications industry.
Note
1 Operating cash flow after tax, net interest and net capital expenditure.

Enquiries

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer	Spirent Communications plc	+44 (0)1293 767676
Eric Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer
James Melville-Ross/James Macey White/Emma Appleton	Financial Dynamics	+44 (0)20 7831 3113

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organisations. We enable today’s communication ecosystem as well as tomorrow’s emerging enterprises to deploy life-enriching communications networks, devices, services and applications. The Systems group develops sophisticated power control systems for electrical vehicles in the medical mobility and industrial markets. Further information about Spirent Communications plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

Spirent 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.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
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.

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Net Optics Leverages Spirent to Validate Latest Virtualized Network Monitoring Tool

Tue, 03 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent Solutions Test, Measure Performance, Availability, Security and Scalability of Network Monitoring Product

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 3, 2011 – To enable enterprises to deliver superior network visibility and performance to virtualized data centers, Net Optics is testing its latest virtualized network monitoring tool with Spirent’s cloud computing and data center solution. Spirent enables the maker of intelligent monitoring access solutions to verify the performance, availability, security and scalability (PASS) of its Phantom™ Virtual Tap.

“With the continuing trend toward virtualized and cloud computing environments, the need for a network traffic monitoring solution to support these emerging networks is critical to addressing and maintaining security, cost-effectiveness, investment value, manageability and compliance concerns,” said Sharon Besser, vice president, technology, Net Optics. “Phantom is the first solution of its kind and we had to create a testing methodology since none existed. The ability to assess Phantom Virtual Tap with Spirent’s proven virtualization test tools allows us to ensure we are delivering the strongest product available to service providers, enterprises and equipment makers who are seeking to streamline a variety of aspects related to their cloud and virtualized networks.”

Net Optics is using Spirent TestCenter Virtual and Spirent Avalanche Virtual, which together deliver the industry’s only solution designed to test and measure the PASS of virtualized network infrastructure and of applications deployed in the cloud. Testing with Spirent enables Net Optics to ensure that its latest network monitoring tool is better prepared to assess potential security and compliance issues as well as the traffic that passes through the virtual and physical network interfaces the Phantom Virtual Tap resides on.

“There’s little doubt that virtualization has become an increasingly important consideration for many organizations seeking ways to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president of Networks & Applications at Spirent. “With this move from a physical to a virtual world, delivering testing solution that test the PASS of both infrastructure and applications is critical to both the acceptance and success of this network transformation.”

Spirent TestCenter Virtual provides unsurpassed visibility into the entire data center infrastructure, accurately benchmarking and optimizing the performance of virtual server switches and cloud-based virtualization. Spirent Avalanche Virtual provides the empirical data necessary to measure the performance of applications deployed in the cloud, enabling enterprises and cloud service providers to understand the impact of large-scale cloud-based application deployments against their expected quality of experience benchmarks.

For more information on testing the performance, availability, security and scalability of cloud computing and data center networks and network elements, visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Cloud_Computing.aspx or stop by Spirent booth #733 at Interop Las Vegas, May 10-12.

Signals Research Group Uses Spirent Testing Solution to Reveal Significant Differences in HSPA+ Chipset Performance

Tue, 03 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Benchmark testing of HSPA and HSPA+ chipsets and devices from nine leading suppliers uncovers important performance differences that impact mobile subscriber experience

Sunnyvale, Calif. – May 3, 2011 — Signals Research Group, LLC (SRG) has announced the findings of the industry’s only independent HSPA+ and HSPA chipset data performance benchmark test. The SRG report reveals large performance differences between HSPA+ chipsets and devices, as well as between commercial devices and solutions supplied directly by vendors. SRG leveraged the capabilities of Spirent’s lab-based 8100 Mobile Device Test System to obtain the performance data used in the report.

“Unlike years past, no single company dominated the competition; however there still remains a meaningful performance gap between commercially-procured devices and vendor-supplied solutions,” said Michael Thelander, CEO, Signals Research Group. “This suggests that, while the industry is reaching a degree of maturity, in particular with the lower category chipsets, these improved features have yet to enter the distribution channel.”

Using a lab-based testing approach with the Spirent 8100 solution, SRG collected and analyzed performance results of 16 different device/chipset configurations from nine chipset companies, including HiSilicon (Huawei), Icera, Intel Mobile Communications, MediaTek, Motorola, Qualcomm, Renesas Mobile, Samsung, and ST-Ericsson. These configurations included seven HSPA+ (Category 14, up to 21Mbps) devices from five chipset suppliers, and nine HSPA (Category 8, up to 7.2Mbps or Category 10, up to 14.4Mbps) devices from six chipset suppliers.

The report indicates that, although the variation between vendor-supplied chipsets is becoming less significant, the biggest differences exist with HSPA+ chipsets. In some test scenarios, SRG found that commercially-available HSPA+ devices underperformed their peers by more than 50 percent, indicating opportunities for significant improvement. The findings in the report clearly illustrate that testing chipset and device performance beyond minimum certification requirements uncovers performance differences which can significantly impact a subscriber’s satisfaction with a particular device, not to mention degrade the overall performance of the operator’s 3G network.

“The most compelling finding, however, was that late entrants into the 3G chipset market have highly competitive solutions that rival the best chipsets that the industry has to offer,” Thelander added . “Today’s dominant chipset suppliers will need to continue to advance the performance of their chipsets if they expect to maintain their market leadership.”

This recent round of tests marked the fifth time that SRG and Spirent have collaborated on chipset performance testing and was by far the most comprehensive to date. For the HSPA and HSPA+ data performance benchmark test, the Spirent 8100 solution was used to subject all the devices and chipsets to the exact same sets of network conditions, automatically repeating each test multiple times to generate statistically significant, objective results

A complete analysis of the HSPA+ and HSPA chipset performance benchmark is contained in SRG’s latest report. For more information please visit www.signalsresearch.com.

For more information on testing HSPA+ and HSPA chipsets and mobile devices visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Radio_Access.aspx.

Napatech and Spirent Communications Demonstrate 40G Virtualized Data Center Performance at Interop 2011

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Andover, Mass. and Sunnyvale, Calif., - April 28, 2011 – Napatech and Spirent Communications will be jointly demonstrating one of the industry’s first data center virtualization environments supporting 40G Ethernet (GbE) server interfaces. The live demo, featured at booth #739 during Interop Las Vegas, May 10 – 12, will showcase the performance and scalability capabilities of virtualized data centers at 40G speeds.

As more applications migrate to the cloud and are accessed by a variety of mobile devices, there is a need to expand data center capacity in a cost effective and flexible way. This is driving the adoption of 40 GbE and virtualization. However, understanding the performance and scale limitation on these high speed data center environments is critical to deploying new services.

“With applications moving to the cloud and traffic needs increasing, the ability to test virtual environments at 40G will be crucial,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications at Spirent. “Testing with Spirent allows enterprises to identify, test, and analyze the performance of physical and virtual network elements at 40 GbE scale.”

The demonstration will feature Spirent TestCenter with HyperMetrics 40/100G test modules as well as Spirent TestCenter Virtual which validates the performance and scale of multiple virtual test machines established in virtual servers at 40 GbE line rate. Napatech’s recently announced NT40E2-1 provides full 40 GbE packet capture of burst traffic, which can be distributed to the available virtual machines on a per port, protocol, flow or service basis based on Napatech’s VMware support.

“Virtualization provides a number of benefits for network appliance vendors”, stated Henrik Brill Jensen, CEO, Napatech. “It allows multiple network appliance applications to run on a single server, with each appliance running in its own tailored virtual environment. This in turn allows legacy and new applications to be run side-by-side. The data captured by the NT40E2-1 on a single 40 GbE port can be intelligently distributed to multiple virtual machines”.

Spirent TestCenter Virtual, used by cloud service providers as well as data center operators and hardware vendors like Napatech, provides unsurpassed visibility into the entire data center infrastructure, accurately benchmarking and optimizing performance of virtual server switches and cloud-based virtualization.

The Napatech NT40E2-1 is the first 40 GbE network adapter on the market with intelligent features that allow frame decoding, intelligent flow detection and distribution to up to 32 CPU cores, which can off-load and accelerate the performance of network appliances. The latest capability to be offered by Napatech is virtualization support allowing several monitoring applications running on virtual machines to share data captured at line rate by one or more Napatech network adapters.

For more information on Spirent’s data center and virtualization testing solutions visit Spirent’s Data Center and Networking Webpage.

For more information see Napatech’s 40 GbE demonstration at Interop Las Vegas.

Spirent Innovation Reduces Complexity of MIMO Testing

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 18:24:42 GMT

New One-Box Solution Emulates LTE, LTE-Advanced Scenarios

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (March 15, 2011) — Spirent Communications, a leader in wireless networks, services and devices testing, today introduced its next-generation solution for testing MIMO-based wireless base stations and mobile devices. The VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator addresses the increased complexity of MIMO technologies such as LTE and LTE-Advanced, which rely on large numbers of antennas, higher bandwidth, and band aggregation to deliver high-speed data. The Spirent system embodies groundbreaking concepts in both hardware and software used for wireless testing.

“Testing cutting-edge MIMO receivers requires a large number of synchronized RF channels,” said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst, service provider mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research. “The 8x4 TD-LTE research currently being performed in China is a great example. MIMO Over-the-Air (MIMO-OTA) testing is another. The ability to create these intricate RF test cases in a single bench-top unit can have a direct effect on the efficiency and cost of testing.”

The VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator’s software implements an innovative touchscreen interface, developed specifically for intuitive control of complex MIMO systems. With a few finger-strokes, test engineers can set up scenarios involving literally dozens of radio channels. The interface also provides step-by-step graphical feedback during setup and execution, so that any missteps are quickly caught and corrected.

“This unprecedented level of test integration demands a new way to control it, so the VR5’s touchscreen GUI was built on a completely user-oriented design philosophy,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent’s Wireless group. “Now, even the least-experienced user can run complicated handover and bi-directional testing quickly and accurately while reproducing the realistic performance of a deployed system.”

To address test requirements for the next several years, the solution also offers integrated RF components which eliminate the need for external splitters, duplexers and amplifiers in most cases while delivering order-of-magnitude improvements in available channel bandwidth. The VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator can host proprietary applications including virtual drive testing, dynamic environment emulation and direct data playback which bring the “real world” into the lab.

For information on testing complex and advanced antenna technologies and to learn more about Spirent’s VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/VR5.aspx.

China Mobile Selects Spirent for Fibre Channel Switch Testing

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent Solutions Used to Evaluate Leading Vendors’ Fibre Channel Switches

Beijing – April 6, 2010 — China Mobile, China’s largest mobile operator has selected Spirent Communications to evaluate the performance of high density Fibre Channel Director Switches currently in its evaluation lab. Spirent’s Fibre Channel solution helps China Mobile ensure the superior scalability, performance and reliability of storage area networks (SAN) demanded by modern data centers.
Spirent will help the Chinese mobile operator evaluate multiple leading vendors’ switches with 128 ports of 8 Gigabit Fibre Channel. Following the initial round of testing, China Mobile plans to standardize on Spirent for subsequent Fibre Channel switch testing.

“As China’s largest mobile operator, China Mobile always stays ahead of new technologies and applications,” said Mr. Lijun Zhao, Director of Testing Technology Research Institute, China Mobile Research Institute. “With rich and new applications pushing the need for greater and faster storage, we realize it is vital to test performance of Fibre Channel switches, and are pleased to leverage Spirent’s leadership and expertise in Fibre Channel testing in our vendor evaluation process.”

Spirent’s data center solution delivers the industry’s first layer 2-7 converged performance benchmarking test system, including Spirent TestCenter 2/4/8 Gigabit HyperMetrics Fibre Channel test module and the Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) test module. Together, they reduce the total cost of ownership by eliminating the complexity of multiple systems.

“Spirent has pioneered Fibre Channel benchmark testing for more than a decade and is now driving a new set of benchmarking methodologies to meet the requirements of a new generation of converged cloud data center networks,” said Gene Zhang, vice president, Asia Pacific at Spirent. “We are pleased to work with China Mobile in jointly defining next generation Fibre channel benchmarking methodologies that will enable data center operators to evaluate the best solution for their networks.”

For more information of Spirent Fibre Channel test solution visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Enterprise_networks/HyperMetricsFC.aspx

CETECOM Selects Spirent Communications for Location Technology Conformance Testing

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

First laboratory to offer SUPL 2.0 conformance testing

Essen, Germany and Sunnyvale, Calif. – March 30, 2011 — CETECOM has selected Spirent’s 8100 Location Technology Solution to provide the industry’s first and only SUPL 2.0 conformance test capability for GSM and WCDMA devices, based on standards from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

SUPL 2.0 is the latest release of the Secure User Plane Location protocol that enables wireless service providers to provide a new generation of location based services (LBS). As a leading provider of testing services for location technology in mobile devices, the ability to test SUPL 2.0 enables CETECOM to add to its extensive validation experience as well as to extend its strong partnership and excellent collaboration with Spirent.

“As the first laboratory worldwide to support SUPL 2.0 conformance testing, we are delighted to be able to satisfy the market’s needs at such an early stage,” said Thorsten Stabenau, Director Corporate Marketing & Sales of CETECOM.

Spirent’s 8100 Location Technology Solution, embodying more than a decade of experience in testing location technology on mobile devices, is the first and only solution to have validated SUPL 2.0 test cases approved by the PTCRB, the cellular industry’s certification body in the US. With support for CDMA, GSM, WCDMA and now LTE devices, most of the world’s leading mobile operators, test labs, and mobile device and chipset manufacturers, rely on the Spirent 8100 for design, test and certification of their LBS solutions.

“Spirent and CETECOM’s long relationship has helped advance location technology testing,” said Brock Butler, director of location technology at Spirent. “With the industry first and only solution for SUPL 2.0, we have already implemented more than 90 percent of PTCRB’s test requirements, and CETECOM provided the third party verification services for our solution.”

For more information on Spirent’s 8100 Location Technology Solution, visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/8100_Location_Technology.aspx.

Spirent and ETS-Lindgren Collaborate to Advance Mobile Device RF Testing

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

New Alliance Streamlines MIMO Over-the-Air Testing

Sunnyvale, Calif. and Cedar Park, Texas – March 23, 2010 — Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, and ETS-Lindgren, a leading supplier of test systems, services and anechoic chambers, today announced their collaboration to advance Over-The-Air (OTA) test methods for mobile devices.

The collaboration brings together ETS-Lindgren’s anechoic chamber expertise with Spirent’s unique capabilities in the area of wireless RF channel modeling, integrating Spirent’s MIMO-OTA Environment Builder and Spirent’s channel emulation capabilities with ETS-Lindgren’s AMS-8700 and AMS-8900 series Multiple-In Multiple-Out (MIMO) OTA Environment Simulation Systems.

MIMO antenna techniques are used in wireless technologies such as LTE. The purpose of such an approach is to extend data speed capabilities without requiring additional wireless spectrum. MIMO-OTA testing uses channel emulation equipment and anechoic chambers to create live RF environments that enable testing under controlled over-the-air conditions, allowing designers to maximize the data performance of MIMO-equipped mobile devices.

“The collaboration with ETS-Lindgren makes use of our MIMO-OTA Environment Builder, which brings an important new capability to both our SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator and our new VR5 HD Spatial Channel Emulator,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president, Wireless group at Spirent. “In fact, a key goal of the VR5 HD development was to create a single bench-top unit that could easily and accurately manage the most demanding MIMO-OTA test cases. The Environment Builder uses a graphical interface that makes set up of these test cases easy, in contrast to earlier approaches which were extremely complicated.”

“Spirent’s contributions to the development of MIMO-OTA testing have been invaluable to the industry,” said Bryan Sayler, a senior vice president ETS-Lindgren. “We’re very pleased to be working with them, and we’re excited about the capabilities offered by their MIMO-OTA Environment Builder.”

Spirent and ETS-Lindgren experts will also be taking part in a key panel discussion - Understanding MIMO OTA Testing - at the International CTIA Wireless 2011 event in Orlando on March 24. For more information visit: http://www.ctiawireless.com/events/eventdetails.cfm/1256.

For more information on Spirent’s solutions for OTA testing of MIMO in mobile devices visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/MOTA.aspx.

For more information on ETS-Lindgren’s test system, visit: http://www.ets-lindgren.com/MIMOWirelessTestSystem.

PCTEST Selects Spirent for Industry’s First Over-The-Air Testing of GPS in LTE Devices

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 12:10:00 GMT

Spirent’s 8100 Location Technology Solution Enables Leading Test Lab to Offer a One-Stop-Shop for Radiated GPS Testing over CDMA, GSM, UMTS and LTE

Sunnyvale, Calif. – March 22, 2011 — Spirent Communications, a global leader in testing wireless networks, devices and services, today announced that PCTEST Engineering Laboratory will use the Spirent 8100 Location Technology Solution for Over-the-Air (OTA) testing of GPS in LTE and multi-mode devices. PCTEST is a CTIA Authorized Testing Laboratory (CATL) for certification and is also authorized to carry out third party certification testing for leading wireless operators, including Verizon Wireless.

OTA testing under real-world conditions can help identify and isolate potential antenna performance and design issues which have a direct impact on the user experience of location-based services (LBS), and which can be very costly if discovered after commercial device deployment. Combining Spirent’s GPS OTA test system with PCTEST’s anechoic chamber implementation provides the industry’s first and only solution for measuring the GPS performance in LTE devices over the air. The solution includes Spirent’s LTE Network Emulator, GPS Simulator and test automation software to help replicate real-world LTE network and GPS satellite conditions in the lab.

“Offering the first OTA testing capability for GPS in LTE devices catapults PCTEST’s technical leadership into the forefront of 4G testing of mobile devices.” said Andrea Zaworski, Laboratory Manager at PCTEST. “Our partnership with Spirent enables PCTEST to provide comprehensive testing solutions for device manufacturers and service providers across multi-radio access networks. Spirent’s solution provides a single platform for A-GPS OTA testing across all air interfaces, LTE, CDMA, GSM, and WCDMA, saving time and reducing cost.”

The potential of location-based services to generate revenue growth has made support for location technologies such as GPS a ‘must-have’ in LTE smartphones, tablet and other devices. However, the complexity of LTE devices as well as their need to support and perform well across multiple positioning and cellular technologies is a major testing challenge. For example, the spectrum bands used for some LTE deployments in North America create the potential for interference with GPS signals.

“Testing for LBS performance in the radiated environment is the best approach to characterizing LTE and GPS interaction, because radio and platform interference is most apparent when the actual antennas are used in the testing,” said Brock Butler, Location Technology Product Management Director at Spirent Communications. “We are building on Spirent’s long-term relationship with PCTEST in this space, enabling them to extend their current high-volume GPS OTA device testing beyond CDMA and UMTS to LTE devices”.

Built upon the expertise gained from Spirent’s PLTS, launched into the CDMA market in 2001, the 8100 Location Technology Solution was the first commercially-available A-GPS test system for UMTS and now for LTE. Since then, most of the world’s largest network operators, together with all the major mobile device and A-GPS chipset manufacturers, have relied on the Spirent’s location technology solutions for design, test and certify their LBS solutions.

For more information please visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Over_the_air.aspx

Spirent Selected by Crossbeam to Test Performance of its Network Security Platform

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Leading Provider Relies on Spirent Security Solution for Simulation of Real-World Threat Activities and Attacks

Sunnyvale, Calif. – March 15, 2011 — Spirent announced today that Crossbeam Systems, the leading provider of next-generation security platforms for high-performance networks, has selected Spirent’s cyber network security solution to validate the performance of its latest X-Series network security platform. Crossbeam is using Spirent during a series of live multi-city technical briefings that allow security professionals to better understand how to simplify and scale security infrastructure while protecting networks, even under the worst case scenarios.

According to Identity Theft Resource Center, in 2010 there were 662 breaches that exposed more than 16 million records. And that’s just the reported breaches. The reported increase in the number of cyber-attacks highlights the devastating effects they can have on revenue due to stolen assets, damage control, lost productivity and reduced brand confidence. With the migration to cloud computing, security becomes even more important as organizations rely on external providers for data segregation, data privacy, privileged user access, availability and recovery.

“Our demonstrations are designed to show how multiple best-of-breed security partner applications can be consolidated and performance-optimized while running on the X-Series to protect even the most high-traffic, high-risk enterprise environments,” said Peter Doggart, director of product marketing, Crossbeam Systems. “Spirent’s solution enables us to quickly and easily create a variety of scenarios and profiles and then replicate security threats under realistic conditions, allowing our customers to understand how our platform will protect them, even in the most tenuous situations.”

Crossbeam is using Spirent Avalanche™ to generate traffic over the Crossbeam X60 platform to simulate real-world threat activity and security attacks. With the most realistic user emulation available, Spirent Avalanche delivers comprehensive network security testing, including secure network communication and vulnerability assessment with real attacks and user authentication.
“The spectrum of attack is no longer limited to the gateway of the physical facilities but extends to threats between and across physical servers and virtual machines,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “To validate the network elements, the test bed must reproduce the complexity and scale of a real network, down to the virtual machine level. If a test system can’t deliver this level of realism, the end users can’t have the assurance that the system will perform in a real network.”

For more information on network and cyber security testing, visit http://www.spirent.com/Networks-and-Applications/Network_security.aspx

About Crossbeam Systems

Crossbeam Systems®, Inc. offers a proven approach to deploying network security that meets the extreme performance, scalability and reliability demands of large enterprises, service providers and government agencies. Its leading X-Series security platform offers an open, high-performance architecture that easily provisions and scales multiple best-in-class security applications to meet the ever-changing threat landscape. Companies rely on Crossbeam to intelligently manage risk, accelerate and maintain compliance, and protect their businesses from evolving threats. Crossbeam is headquartered in Boxborough, Mass., and has offices in Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. More information is available at www.crossbeam.com.

Spirent Tests High Speed Ethernet Technologies for the Cloud

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent Participates in Ethernet Alliance Multi-Vendor Interoperability Demonstration, Speaks on Future of High Speed Ethernet at OFC/NFOEC 2011

Sunnyvale, Calif. – March 8, 2011 – Growth in bandwidth-intensive applications, particularly video services, continue to push the limits of today’s network infrastructure. But with the prospect of faster and even more capable networks comes a whole new level of user expectation and demand. To help prepare carriers for the new wave of high performance cloud computing, Spirent Communications is particpating in the Ethernet Alliance’s live high-speed Ethernet network demonstration. The multi-vendor interoperablity event is showcased at OFC/NFOEC 2011 in Los Angeles, March 8-10.

As networks begin to reach their current bandwidth and capacity limits, carriers are planning their migration to 40/100G Ethernet. As with any new technology, the key to success is testing. But 40/100G Ethernet brings a new set of issues to the development cycle and some key early challenges are at the physical layer. The demonstration features a live network transporting 10G, 40G and 100G traffic over optical and copper links, as well as 200G traffic through each router and 420G traffic through the switch. The interoperability event uses Spirent’s award-winning layer 1-7 integrated performance test platform, SpirentTestCenter™ to generate and validate network traffic.

“The challenge of high speed Ethernet networks extends from moving bits at 100 Gbps per link to handling billions of frames and tera bits of traffic on the network while maintaining quality of service and experience,” said Jurrie van den Breekel, senior product marketing manager at Spirent. “Spirent’s network testing approach, as demonstrated at the high-speed Ethernet interoperability event, helps cloud service providers validate performance from 10G access links to 100G core network trunks.”

The demonstration features the Spirent HyperMetrics™ 40/100 Gigabit Ethernet module, the industry’s best-in-class high-speed Ethernet solution and the Spirent HyperMetrics CV module, the market-leading solution for stress testing networks at 10 Gigabit Ethernet speeds.

Also at OFC/NFOEC 2011, Jurrie van den Breekel is speaking on a panel titled “The Future of High Speed Ethernet.” During the panel, scheduled at 1:00 pm on March 9 in Expo Theater II on the show floor, Jurrie will explore the importance of testing the quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) of Ethernet technologies to meet the exponential growth of high bandwidth traffic, from cloud data centers across broadband networks to user devices.

For more information on how Spirent is advancing Ethernet technologies visit Ethernet Alliance booths #1253 and 2108 during OFC/NFOEC 2011 or visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Enterprise_networks.aspx.

Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2010

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:00:00 GMT

London, UK – 3 March 2011: Spirent Communications plc (“Spirent”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (LSE: SPT), a leading communications technology company, today announces its preliminary results for the financial year ended 31 December 2010.

Financial Highlights

Order intake growth of 17%, resulting in a book to bill ratio of 105.
Operating profit up 30% to $112.7 million on revenue up 13% to $482.2 million.
Return on sales increased to 23% from 20%.
Adjusted basic earnings per share up 31% to 11.62 cents after eliminating the impact of the change in the effective tax rate. Basic earnings per share down 14% to 11.77 cents.
Final dividend increased by 40% to 1.40 cents per share (equivalent to 0.86 pence per share).
Strong cash generation resulted in cash and cash equivalents of $223.9 million compared to $173.9 million in the previous year.
Acquisition of The Fanfare Group, Inc. for $15.0 million completed on 16 February 2011.

Operational Highlights

During 2010 demand for Spirent’s solutions increased as our customers invested in:
data center technologies to enable cloud computing and virtualization;
growth of Ethernet across telecom and datacom network infrastructures;
expansion in mobile internet driving exponential growth in data traffic;
new investment in global positioning technologies to modernise GPS and to upgrade other satellite navigation systems.
Spirent introduced new test solutions to address increasing customer demand:
higher speed Ethernet data test solutions on Spirent TestCenter^TM to validate network performance, availability, security and scalability of cloud computing using Spirent test methodology;
wireless test solutions for the rollout of LTE networks and for higher 3G wireless network speeds;
new positioning test capabilities to serve the rapid expansion of satellite navigation and location based services.

Outlook

We are confident that the market for test and measurement will show further growth in 2011 and future years. Ethernet, wireless device and positioning test markets all show positive signs for growth in 2011. We continue to invest in new test solutions and in enhancing our current capabilities in the areas that matter most to our customers as they look to improve time to market of their industry leading products and services.

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“This is an exciting time within the telecom and data communication industries with increasing investment in both proven and emerging technologies driving demand for our leading test solutions. 2010 was an excellent year for Spirent – one in which we delivered a strong performance through the execution of our strategy. Our broad test solution portfolio coupled with our global reach gives us the ability to pursue further profitable growth in 2011 and beyond.”

Results Summary

$ million	2010	2009 (restated)⁴	Change (%)
Reported
Revenue	482.2	427.2	13
Operating profit	112.7	86.8	30
Profit before tax	112.2	84.9	32
Basic earnings per share (cents)	11.77	13.67	(14)
Total dividend per share¹ (cents)	2.50	1.93	30
Free cash flow²	82.6	86.5	(5)
Adjusted
Adjusted basic earnings per share³ (cents)	11.62	8.86	31

Notes
1 Dividends are determined in US dollars and paid in sterling at the exchange rate prevailing when the dividend is proposed. The final dividend proposed for 2010 of 1.40 cents per Ordinary share is equivalent to 0.86 pence per Ordinary share.
2 Operating cash flow after tax, net interest and net capital expenditure.
3 Adjusted basic earnings per share is based on an effective tax rate of 30.4%, being the rate applicable for 2010. See note 6 of Notes to the preliminary consolidated financial statements.
4 Restated due to the change in the Group’s reporting currency.

Enquiries

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer	Spirent Communications plc	+44 (0)1293 767676
Eric Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer

James Melville-Ross/James Macey White/Emma Appleton	Financial Dynamics	+44 (0)20 7831 3113

The Company will host a results presentation today at 9.00am for 9.15am UK time at RBS, 250 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4AA. A simultaneous webcast of the presentation will be available in the Investors section of the Spirent Communications plc website www.spirent.com.

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organisations. We enable today’s communication ecosystem as well as tomorrow’s emerging enterprises to deploy life-enriching communications networks, devices, services and applications. The Systems group develops sophisticated power control systems for electrical vehicles in the medical mobility and industrial markets. Further information about Spirent Communications plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

Spirent 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.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
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.

Chairman's Statement

Spirent delivered a strong performance in 2010: reporting growth of 13 per cent in revenue to $482.2 million and growth of 30 per cent in operating profit to $112.7 million. The Company is consistently achieving a return on sales of over 20 per cent, with the return in 2010 being 23 per cent. The order book increased in the year, with a book to bill ratio of 105. Earnings per share was distorted compared to the prior year by the recognition of deferred tax assets in 2009. Eliminating this effect by taking a constant tax rate for both years shows that adjusted basic earnings per share increased by 31 per cent in 2010 to 11.62 cents, after charging 0.27 cents in respect of share-based payment and acquired intangible asset amortisation.

The financial performance of the Group reflects the improvement in operations achieved through the pursuit of excellence in all aspects of the business coupled with growth in the markets for Spirent’s leading test solutions. This trend of improvement seen in the past several years is now combined with revenue growth driven by the innovation of our employees in developing world-class test solutions to serve the needs of a rapidly evolving communications industry. We plan to expand the Group’s capabilities through additional investment for organic growth by the expansion of product development engineering and extension to our sales activities. In addition, we are pursuing growth through acquisition, when and where we can see that the return on investment is attractive. As the first step in this process we completed the acquisition of The Fanfare Group, Inc. in February 2011.

The Group’s free cash generation was $82.6 million in 2010, representing a cash conversion to earnings ratio of 104. Cash balances were $223.9 million at 31 December 2010. Given the strong overall performance of the Group, the Board recommends a final dividend of 1.40 cents per share compared with 1.00 cents per share in 2009. The Company intends to maintain its policy to repurchase shares in order to counteract any dilutive effect from the exercise of share-based incentives.

Ed Bramson stood down as Chairman on 4 March 2010, and both he and Gerard Eastman retired as non-executive directors on 5 May 2010. We thank them for their outstanding achievements during their tenure.

The strong performance in 2010 was achieved through the hard work and commitment of our employees and management teams throughout the world. I wish to thank all of them for their contribution to making 2010 such a success for Spirent.

We are mindful of global macro-economic factors that are likely to create challenges in the coming year. However, Spirent’s diversified customer base, market leading product offerings and promising market opportunities mean that we are well placed to deliver further growth through 2011.

Chief Executive Officer's Review

This is an exciting time within the telecom and data communication industries with increasing investment in both proven and emerging technologies driving demand for our leading test solutions. 2010 was an excellent year for Spirent – one in which we delivered a strong performance through the execution of our strategy. Our broad test solution portfolio coupled with our global reach gives us the ability to pursue further profitable growth in 2011 and beyond.

The fundamental drivers for growth in our industry are strong, as consumers and businesses demand anytime, anywhere, always-on access to data, applications and services. As a result, Service Provider and Enterprise IT spending has returned, either to seek new revenue streams or to resolve challenges associated with network capacity and performance. Spirent’s expertise is in delivering test solutions that capitalise on data center transformation, cloud computing, the concept of Ethernet everywhere, the proliferation of new wireless devices and infrastructure, and applications that enrich our lives.

Executing on our strategy delivered profitable growth for Spirent and a strong overall financial performance in 2010 which enabled us to increase sales by 13 per cent and adjusted basic earnings per share by 31 per cent year-on-year. Spirent delivers best in class financial performance compared to its peers. Our pace of innovation leads the test and measurement market. The key elements of our strategy are to focus on growing and emerging technology markets, to invest in our people and to utilise innovation to deliver the ‘right solutions’ to the global market at the ‘right time’. These strategic goals have been furthered through the hard work, dedication and enthusiasm of our people. It is key to Spirent’s success and future that we continue to develop our employees, reward them and recognise their critical contribution.

Spirent’s solutions span all major technologies and serve all major customer segments across the telecommunication industry. We have prioritised engineering development spending on areas that matter most to customers such as the evolution of wireless technologies to 4G/LTE, high speed Ethernet, next-generation data centers, wireless infrastructure and application performance. Our worldwide sales and service organisation has industry leading capability, serving over 1300 customers globally across all segments including network equipment manufacturers, mobile device manufacturers, service providers, enterprise and governments as we enable the development of technology from inception to deployment in live networks.

The outlook is promising with our customers making new investments to bring next-generation technologies to market, as a result we are confident that the market for test and measurement will show further growth in 2011 and future years. Ethernet, wireless device and positioning test markets all show positive signs for growth in 2011. We continue to invest in new test solutions and in enhancing our current capabilities in the areas that matter most to our customers as they look to improve time to market of their industry leading products and services. We enter the year with the industry’s broadest and, we believe, most innovative test solution portfolio. Additional investment in product development to drive innovation coupled with a relentless focus on executing our strategy will enable Spirent to continue to prosper.

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Spirent Participates in EANTC Multi-Vendor Test to Demonstrate Interoperability of Latest Advances in MPLS and Carrier Ethernet

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent TestCenter Leveraged for Testing at Industry's Largest MPLS and Carrier Ethernet Interoperability Event

Sunnyvale, Calif. – March 1, 2010 – Spirent Communications plc, the global leader in Ethernet networks, device and services testing, today announced its continued collaboration with EANTC for interoperability testing of MPLS and Ethernet networks. Spirent’s solutions were used to validate carrier-grade Ethernet and MPLS Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) solutions across backhaul, transport and access networks in a multi-vendor environment. The interoperability event was showcased at the MPLS Ethernet World Congress 2011 in Paris.

“At the MPLS and Ethernet World Congress in Paris, EANTC focused on testing latest innovations in MPLS-TP, Mobile Backhaul and Carrier Ethernet OAM,” said Carsten Rossenhoevel, managing director of EANTC. “Spirent has supported and actively participated in our interoperability events consistently. This time, Spirent's latest generation of test solutions enabled the validation of more than 40 packet transport and mobile backhaul implementations.”

Spirent used Spirent TestCenter ™, the award winning integrated layer 2-7 test system, along with the Spirent xGEM in the interoperability test. Together, the solutions supported several key test cases including MPLS-TP Protection Switching, Clock Synchronization, and the generation of video traffic. Spirent TestCenter is the most flexible, scalable and reliable test system in the industry for testing highly-integrated, converged, MPLS networks of today and tomorrow.

“Spirent is focused on advancing critical networking technologies such as MPLS and Carrier Ethernet,” said Rajesh Rajamani, product marketing manager at Spirent. “By participating in these events with a leading lab like EANTC, Spirent helps prove system vendors' solutions are ready for deployment.”

For more information on Spirent's role is large scale public tests visit http://www.spirent.com/Planet-Spirent.aspx

Spirent and Bluetest Collaborate to Advance Mobile Device RF Testing

Tue, 15 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Collaboration Focuses on Reducing Time and Cost of Testing

Barcelona, Spain – (February 15, 2010) — Spirent Communications, a leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, and Bluetest AB, a leading supplier of reverberation test systems, today announced their collaboration to advance Over-The-Air (OTA) test methods for mobile devices. Through their collective research and development, these two industry leaders will dramatically improve the time and reduce the cost required to deliver a superior user experience to mobile subscribers.

Mobile device innovation is rapidly evolving and many smartphones now include five or more separate antennas to support radio technologies such as GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and MIMO for LTE. The increasing number of antennas and decreasing device size combine to create new RF and signal processing challenges for device designers and network operators.

“There has been an order-of-magnitude increase in the RF complexity of multi-antenna devices,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent’s Wireless group. “In order to ensure that user satisfaction keeps pace with the rapid increase in functionality, new test methods are needed. But thorough testing can’t be allowed to delay a product’s time to market. Together, the contributions of Spirent and Bluetest will enable our customers to test more in less time and at reduced cost.”

The two companies have been conducting trials and making technical contributions to industry standards groups. By combining Bluetest’s expertise in reverberation technology with Spirent’s expertise in wireless channel emulation and GNSS testing, the companies plan to greatly improve test methods for characterizing MIMO and GPS OTA performance of mobile devices. Automated test solutions based on these advancements will characterize device performance in a fraction of the time spent using alternative approaches.

“Customers want the test time, accuracy and cost advantages of our reverberation test technology,” said Kjell Olovsson, vice president of Business Development at Bluetest. “In some cases they want to extend the existing capabilities for more advanced testing. Our work with Spirent will ensure that these customers achieve their objectives.”

For more information on OTA testing of mobile devices visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/Over_the_air.aspx

Spirent Communications plc Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire The Fanfare Group, Inc.

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Test Automation Expertise Enables Customers to Reduce Costs and Improve Time to Market in the Face of Rapid Convergence

Sunnyvale, Calif. – February 14, 2011 – Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT) (“Spirent”), a leading communications technology company, announces today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held The Fanfare Group, Inc. (“Fanfare”), based in Mountain View, California, for a cash consideration of $15 million. Fanfare is a leading provider of test automation solutions that help equipment manufacturers and service providers accelerate time to market and improve product quality in the face of rapidly growing complexity.

“Addressing a clear customer need to simplify testing and increase productivity is an important part of our vision. It has been the driver for our successful partnership with Fanfare over the past two years,” said Bill Burns, CEO of Spirent. “Bringing Fanfare’s software expertise and its innovative iTest technology to Spirent will enable us to realise that vision much more quickly, including an on-going commitment to an open, standards-based approach.”

Convergence, in multiple forms, is driving exponential growth in the complexity and scale required for successful testing of IP and Ethernet devices, networks and services, creating a clear need to streamline the product and services development process. An integrated and collaborative test automation approach is becoming an increasingly important business requirement to innovate in this market. Combining the two companies’ products and services will result in a common automated test experience and a common platform that brings together engineers, technologies and processes.

“Over the past few years we’ve built an extremely successful partnership with Spirent,” said Tom Ryan, CEO of Fanfare. “This acquisition is a logical way to deliver even more value to customers, through Spirent’s scale and global reach and through seamless integration with test solutions, including market-leading solutions from Spirent.”

Spirent and Fanfare have played leading roles in an industry initiative to move beyond vendor-specific, proprietary approaches to test automation. As founding members of the Network Test Automation Forum (“NTAF”), both companies have made major contributions to the development of industry standards that promote interoperability of commercial testing tools and test infrastructure.

Spirent will continue its support for standardization through NTAF, and the acquisition of Fanfare will accelerate its ability to bring to market commercial implementations of new standards as they emerge. This commitment provides a clear path forward for customers that are applying test automation in both Spirent and multi-vendor equipment environments.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to complete on or about 16 February 2011.

Spirent Enables Wireless Operators and Mobile Device Vendors to Successfully Launch Location-Based Services (LBS) on LTE Devices

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent Releases Industry’s First Lab-Based Test Solutions to Accelerate Deployment
of LBS on LTE Devices

Barcelona, Spain – February 14, 2011 — LTE networks make possible a new breed of location-based services (LBS) that need to determine a user’s location quickly and accurately, at any time and in any place. To help accelerate the availability and verify the performance of these location services on LTE devices, leading mobile operators, technology developers and device manufacturers are using a pioneering lab-based LBS LTE test solution from Spirent Communications.

To satisfy growing consumer demand, the mobile industry is relying heavily on advances in location technology to enable a new wave of creative LBS applications. Spirent continues to develop innovative test solutions that help bring new location technologies to market faster and with better performance. Spirent’s new LBS test solution for LTE devices is built on top of the company’s market-leading Position Location Test System (PLTS) and UMTS Location Technology Solution (ULTS). Spirent solutions are already used by all the leading industry players to test location technologies such as Assisted GPS (A-GPS) and A-GLONASS in CDMA and WCDMA devices.

A critical enabler of LBS on LTE networks is a new protocol from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) called Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) version 2.0. SUPL 2.0 enables A-GPS and other location technologies to be employed across LTE, CDMA and WCDMA networks. It also supports the use of hybrid location technology combinations. The first test offerings from Spirent include SUPL 2.0 protocol conformance for LTE/CDMA and LTE/WCDMA dual-mode devices. Another test area supported by Spirent is standalone GPS performance while LTE data transfers are in process.

“No legacy protocol could do what SUPL 2.0 can, so major network operators have decided to make it a requirement to enable LBS across all the cellular technologies supported by an LTE device,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent’s Wireless business. “In some cases it will also be used for E911. Spirent has made major contributions to development of the OMA’s protocol conformance tests, helping to make SUPL 2.0 a reality.”

In addition to its technical advantages, SUPL 2.0 enables new revenue opportunities for the industry, with features such as Area Event triggering. This new capability allows applications to automatically alert users when they enter or leave a pre-defined boundary such as a shopper receiving updates on the best deals from a store upon entering a shopping mall. Mobile coupon providers and creative advertising agencies are eagerly awaiting this type of capability which is expected to trigger a wave of new innovation in the LBS application marketplace.

Spirent has already implemented more than 75 percent of the OMA’s conformance test cases, enabling the industry to start validating SUPL 2.0 capability in devices. Additionally, Spirent offers performance testing beyond basic conformance requirements and is working with industry leaders to define A-GPS performance test over SUPL 2.0.

For more information about testing location-based services on LTE devices visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/8100_Location_Technology.aspx.

Spirent Announces Major Innovation in LTE MIMO Testing

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

MIMO Over-The-Air Environment Builder Simplifies Complex LTE Device Testing

Barcelona, Spain – (February 14, 2010) — Spirent Communications, the leader in testing wireless networks, services and devices, today announced the addition of MIMO Over-The-Air (OTA) Environment Builder software to its wireless channel emulation product line. When equipped with this new capability, Spirent’s wireless channel emulators can be used to predict user experience of MIMO devices prior to deployment. The innovative new software reduces the complexity and uncertainty of chamber-based MIMO OTA implementations for LTE device performance testing.

LTE mobile devices rely heavily on MIMO antenna technology to increase the theoretical maximum data speeds that can be delivered to mobile subscribers. The actual data speeds experienced by a user are highly dependent on how well a mobile device performs under the range of harsh mobile environments it encounters in the real world. While a traditional conducted (cabled) approach can be used to test LTE device performance, only OTA test methods are able to fully characterize the effect of an LTE device’s MIMO antenna design on the user experience.

“With the onset of multi-antenna, multi-band devices in ever-shrinking form factors, optimizing OTA performance is critical to the success of LTE,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent’s Wireless group. “Spirent’s test experts are leading the industry in developing a range of new MIMO OTA test methodologies, including techniques that use anechoic and reverberation chambers.”

When MIMO OTA tests are performed using an anechoic method, wireless channel emulators apply real-world spatial channel models to the signals that are sent to antenna probes mounted in the chamber. This enables the user to precisely characterize how well a mobile device receives signals with these real-world spatial properties, which are arriving from a specific direction. Spirent’s MIMO OTA Environment Builder software allows the test operator to select the desired mobile environment, and then automatically configures a Spirent wireless channel emulator to correctly supply the multiple signals to the chamber. Unlike competitive approaches, the Spirent solution allows the mobile environment to be reconfigured in real time, increasing test coverage while reducing test time.

To learn more about Over-the-Air testing of LTE devices and Spirent’s MIMO OTA Environment Builder visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment/MIMO.aspx.

Spirent Puts Mobile Internet Performance to the Test

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Next-Generation Architecture Tests Performance of Cloud Data Centers, Mobile Broadband and Application Experience

Sunnyvale, Calif. – February 9, 2011 — Smartphones and tablets are re-defining the mobile Internet. This disruptive trend, characterized by content and device mobility, raises a pressing yet unresolved issue - are networks ready to support the performance and reliability requirements of advanced services? To help carriers and equipment vendors test the most demanding data and application workloads on the mobile Internet, Spirent introduces Spirent TestCenter HyperMetrics neXt.

Networks have to be prepared to handle complex, traffic from millions of mobile and fixed subscribers using a myriad of connected devices, while delivering a high quality of service (QoS) and subscriber quality of experience (QoE). For example, FIFA World Cup, Olympic Games and other major world events can cause a huge pulse in video streaming and multimedia applications to mobile devices. With Spirent HyperMetrics neXt, carriers can test a network’s ability to deliver these services to millions of subscribers, without service disruptions or quality issues.

“As carriers prepare for the exponential growth in traffic across the mobile Internet they have to guarantee enough data capacity as well as application performance” said David Emberley, research manager, Telecommunication Infrastructure at IDC. “Carriers and equipment vendors need to invest in solutions that validate performance and scale of the mobile Internet to ensure quality of experience”
HyperMetrics neXt, powered by Intel’s latest processor technology combined with Spirent TestCenter Cloud Core™ architecture, is the highest-performing and most scalable and energy efficient solution available for testing networks and applications. It allows test engineers to validate support for more advanced services for more subscribers, to maximize return on investment and utilization of test resources, and to expand test coverage without expanding test equipment footprint.

The Cloud Core™ architecture is central to the HyperMetrics neXt’s advanced capabilities. It utilizes native elastic computing to optimize testing tasks with parallel processing, including pooling resources across any number of test ports. Tests beds built on the Cloud Core architecture provide an exceptional combination of scalable performance and realism, and are ideal for testing the most complex converged IP systems, such as cloud data centers and 3G/4G/LTE mobile networks.

“Applications such as Facebook, YouTube as well as streaming videos can have a major impact on the mobile Internet.” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “To deliver these services, carriers need to ensure performance from the cloud data center, through the mobile broadband network to the application on a wide range of user devices. Spirent’s new solution is specifically designed to accurately measure performance of the mobile Internet with realism at scale.”

HyperMetrics neXt is fully compatible with existing HyperMetrics and the original Spirent TestCenter modules, by leveraging the flexible and future-proof Spirent TestCenter platform which was introduced in 2007. Compared to traditional high-end performance test modules, HyperMetrics neXt delivers:

Twice the application encryption performance per module to match the most demanding security testing needs
Three times the test coverage, enabling testing of cloud data centers, any-G mobile networks and stateful applications on a single module
Four times the port density with half the power consumption, minimizing the need for additional space and with the power to scale to 1.92 terabits in a single chassis
Eight times the performance with line rate data, routing emulation scale and stateful application traffic on all ports

For more information on testing the Mobile Internet and to learn more about Spirent HyperMetrics neXt visit www.spirent.com/hypermetricsnext.

Japanese Aerospace Agency Selects Spirent for Multi-GNSS Testing

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Uses Spirent Solution to benchmark QZSS receiver performance

Paignton, United Kingdom – January 26, 2010 – To further the development of the Quazi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) program, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has selected Spirent Communications’ testing solutions to verify performance of its satellite receivers. Responsible for the development of initial QZSS receivers, JAXA is using Spirent's GSS8000 Multi-GNSS Constellation Simulator to verify QZSS receiver performance.

The highly elliptical orbits of QZSS allow satellites to dwell at high elevations, improving coverage in urban canyons and providing additional overhead ranging sources in Japan. JAXA needed to design receivers that supported multiple satellite technologies. To that end, it turned to Spirent for a solution that not only included testing capabilities for GPS at L1, L2 and L5 signals but also tested performance of QZSS signals at the same frequencies.

“Spirent GNSS simulators are the first choice of commercial and government organizations to evaluate navigation and positioning system performance,” said John Pottle, marketing director at Spirent’s Positioning and Navigation business. “Our engagement with JAXA will enable the agency to play a critical role in QZSS receiver development work.”

The Spirent simulator includes a wide range of software modeling capability to enable the receivers to be tested under extreme and error conditions as well as in normal performance test cases. For more information on multi-GNSS testing visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_Multi-GNSS_Simulation.aspx

Spirent Communications Awarded Frost & Sullivan’s Product Line Strategy of the Year for Wireless Test Equipment

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent’s Breadth of Product Line, Impact on Customer Value Considered Industry’s Best

Sunnyvale, Calif. – Jan. 25, 2011 — Spirent Communications, a leading provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services, has received Frost & Sullivan’s Product Line Strategy of the Year award for wireless test equipment. Frost & Sullivan’s research showed that Spirent’s wireless solutions lead the industry in product line breadth, addressable customer base, impact on customer value, impact on market share and breadth of applications and markets served.

As the wireless industry evolves to meet the needs of a highly sophisticated and demanding subscriber base, Spirent’s test solutions enable wireless service providers, network equipment manufacturers, handset vendors and technology providers to deliver on promised levels of performance, reliability and quality of experience. With top-tier customers such as China Telecom, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks and Verizon Wireless, Spirent has emerged as the global leader in wireless testing.

“This recognition demonstrates Spirent’s deep understanding of the issues service providers and equipment vendors face across the entire network, with Spirent being one of the leading companies to tackle such a broad range of wireless testing needs,” said Olga Yashkova, Program Manager, Communications Test, Frost & Sullivan. “This prestigious award clearly highlights Spirent’s expertise and leadership in product line strategy in wireless testing.

Frost and Sullivan notes that Spirent differentiates itself from other testing companies by focusing on performance testing, in addition to basic functional testing. “Unlike other major competitors in the market, Spirent can offer both functional and performance testing on a single platform,” according to Frost and Sullivan.

“With such a complete line of products, Spirent remains the leading choice for testing both existing and next-generation networks and devices,” said Nigel Wright, vice president of wireless at Spirent. “We continue to work very closely with the top-tier service providers, equipment manufacturers and device manufacturers, which enables us to ensure they have the tools necessary to successfully deploy new wireless networks and services that deliver on their full potential for subscribers.”

The award notes that Spirent offers the most extensive product line which caters to the needs of multiple market segments. Spirent’s wireless test solutions include the 8100 (UMTS/LTE), SR5500, C2K-ATS, AirAccess, GSS4200, Spirent TestCenter and Landslide.

Spirent will showcase its portfolio of solutions and the capabilities of these offerings on booth 1C14 at Mobile World Congress 2011 from Feb. 14 – 19 in Barcelona, Spain.

To read the full Frost & Sullivan award report visit http://www.spirent.com/About-Us/News_Room/Hall_of_fame/2010_Frost_Sullivan_Wireless_Product_Line_Strategy_Award.aspx.

For more information on Spirent wireless testing solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Devices-and-Equipment.aspx.

Spirent Brings “Real-World” Navigation & Positioning Testing into the Laboratory with New Record & Playback System

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT

The leader in GNSS test brings innovative, affordable new solution to market

Paignton, United Kingdom – January 6, 2011 – A critical challenge to achieving the performance and quality of experience expectations of today’s navigation and positioning systems is accurately testing user devices in complex and dynamic real-world scenarios. To address this issue Spirent Communications today introduces the GSS6400 Record and Playback System, a solution designed to improve device performance while reducing the need for and cost of field testing.

Consumer navigation and positioning products have to operate in very challenging signal environments such as urban canyons, indoors, under bridges and so on. Recreating these environments synthetically takes time as well as considerable knowledge and skill. Spirent’s Record and Playback System (RPS) captures and subsequently replays complex real-world signal environments in the laboratory at a press of a button. This approach enables “real-world” lab testing by allowing the same signal conditions to be repeatedly replayed. The GSS6400 reduces the uncertainty and expense of field testing by eliminating differing sky signal conditions typical of live network testing.

“The GSS6400 Record and Playback System is a simple and efficient way to capture real world GNSS signals and replay them in the laboratory,” said John Pottle, director of marketing for Spirent’s Positioning division. “The combination of features and performance make the GSS6400 the best value and easiest to use system on the market today.”

The GSS6400 is designed to capture complex environments efficiently and with the fidelity to ensure playback that is truly representative of challenging real world conditions. Other record and playback solutions either lack the required level of fidelity or require huge data storage and complex expensive equipment. The GSS6400 unit is appropriate for a wide range of test applications, from optimization of GNSS chipset performance in difficult environments through to testing mapping applications and location enabled services.

This self-contained solution is ready to use out of the box and is designed specifically to accurately capture signal conditions to ensure meaningful test results, even in high sensitivity and complex situations. The captured data includes real world fades, multipath and in-band interference as well as direct signals from GNSS satellites.

The GSS6400 complements Spirent’s established range of navigation and positioning simulation systems which generate the specific controlled signals that are needed to develop and test the performance of navigation and positioning systems.

Learn more about the GSS6400 Record and Playback System, download the RPS e-book, and register for the upcoming RPS webinar visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/GSS6400.aspx.

Spirent Receives 2010 4GWE LTE Visionary Award

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent eAirAccess recognized for its role in advancing the development of LTE technologies

Sunnyvale, Calif.- December 14, 2010 – Spirent Communications, the leader in testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services today announced that Spirent’s eAirAccess wireless network emulator was presented the 2010 LTE Visionary Award. The award was presented by Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) in conjunction with Crossfire Media.

eAirAccess is a true multi-radio access technology (RAT) network emulator used for testing mobile devices. Its real-time state machine emulates an entire post-deployment environment including LTE, WCDMA, GSM, HSPA, CDMA, EV-DO and Evolved High-Rate Packet Data (eHRPD) services, with multiple cells available per technology.

“Spirent’s eAirAccess is uniquely designed to address the complexity around handovers between radio access technologies, especially since LTE deployment will need to coexist with legacy networks such as CDMA/EV-DO or UMTS/HSPA for many years,” said Hesham ElHamahmy, vice-president at Spirent’s wireless division. “The eAirAccess solution has already found commercial success and it’s an honor to now be recognized by the industry.”

“Spirent’s achievement in advancing 4G through LTE development is worthy of being selected as recipient of the 4GWE LTE Visionary Award,” said Carl Ford, co-founder and community developer, Crossfire Media. “Spirent is an innovator and one to watch for the next evolution of solutions.”

“It is an honor to bestow Spirent with this award. Their contribution toward the future of mobile broadband is commendable,” stated Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. “I look forward to more innovation from Spirent in the future.”

For more information on LTE device testing and I-RAT handover testing visit http://www.spirent.com/Wireless/LTE_Testing.aspx.

Spirent Solution Identifies Smartphone Performance Issues from Voice, Data and Location Service Interaction

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT

New Test Capability Helps Ensure a Positive End User Experience of Smartphones in the Presence of Multiple Simultaneous Services

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (December 13, 2010) — Spirent Communications, a leading provider of testing solutions for wireless devices, networks and services, today announced the availability of the industry’s first automated R&D solution for testing smartphone performance in the presence of simultaneous voice, data and location-based services (LBS). Built on Spirent’s 8100 Development Library solution, this new service interaction test capability is the latest innovative Spirent tool designed specifically to test 3G UMTS device performance.

Although today’s smartphones are running an ever-increasing number of applications, these applications must share the device’s limited resources, and this can lead to performance challenges. For example, the use of A-GPS location on smartphones for navigation or other location-based applications can disrupt the reception of business e-mail, reduce data download speeds and can also cause important calls to drop, even threatening the reliability of emergency calls.

Spirent’s new service interaction testing capability was used to carry out tests on a number of commercial smartphones, which ran multiple simultaneous services in the lab under real-world conditions. The results, documented in a recent Spirent white paper, highlight some of the significant performance threats to key elements of smartphone functionality. The findings, along with the innovative test methodology used to obtain them, are also the subject of a recent Spirent webinar, available now for on-demand viewing.

“Today’s savvy consumers continue to drive smartphone adoption, demanding ever more services and applications,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst, Mobile Devices at Infonetics Research. “But device manufacturers and network operators have only a short window to get it right, as we’ve seen from the negative headlines around some high-profile device issues. Spirent’s white paper highlights some important smartphone performance challenges that vendors and operators face. Going forward, the requirement for smartphones to support more and more applications and services, as well as new technologies like LTE, can only add to these challenges. One thing is certain - consumers will become less tolerant of a poor user experience and the market will punish devices that are unable to deliver.”

With its industry-leading integrated network emulation that includes channel fading and noise, Spirent’s 8100 Development Library helps accelerate functional, integration, and inter-operability testing of UMTS devices, including a full test automation capability. As a key part of the 8100 Mobile Device test system, 8100 Development Library also provides a scalable, multipurpose solution that is expandable beyond initial testing needs.

“In the tight race for mindshare and revenue, wireless operators and their device and chipset vendors are increasingly trying to differentiate around performance in the presence of combined services to offer a great anytime, anywhere end-user experience.” said Hesham ElHamahmy, vice president of Spirent’s wireless business. “Testing for service interaction issues earlier in the device development cycle can help to greatly reduce unwanted performance issues before they negatively impact the end user experience.”

To view the on-demand webinar visit, http://www.spirent.com/events/service_interaction_webinar

Spirent Demonstrates Interoperability with NTAF Test Automation Framework

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent helps NTAF achieve major milestone towards open automation specification

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 16, 2010 – As a part of the ongoing effort to advance test automation techniques, Spirent Communications today successfully demonstrated interoperability of its solutions with the Network Test Automation Forum (NTAF) framework. This interoperability test underscores Spirent’s commitment to work with industry leaders to define and implement standardized automation interfaces.

NTAF, which is tasked with establishing a standard for the way in which network test solutions communicate with each other, is expected to deliver the first set of finalized specifications by the end of Q1 2011. The plug fest served to validate the draft NTAF specification, identifying and resolving differences in how each participant implemented the NTAF protocol, and demonstrating acceptance from multiple NTAF members.

“This event tangibly demonstrates the progress NTAF has made since its formation less than one year ago,” said Keith Kidd, President, NTAF. “The demonstrations shown this week are the result of contributions from all NTAF members, both in defining the specification and in overcoming technical obstacles in real-world NTAF implementations. This plug fest is an exciting milestone on the path to a finalized specification.”

An integrated and collaborative test automation approach is critical for today’s engineers to effectively validate performance of the complex, multi-technology, multi-protocol and multi-vendor networks.

“Spirent has always supported a customer-centric and device-agnostic framework that meets the automation needs of our customers and the industry as a whole,” said Andrew Armstrong, senior product manager at Spirent, and vice-president of NTAF. “The NTAF plug fest demonstrates Spirent's leadership and commitment to solving the very real interoperability problems faced by our customers when trying to implement automation.”

Spirent demonstrated prototype software implementations of both an NTAF “requestor”, and an NTAF “provider”, which in turn controlled the industry-leading Spirent TestCenter platform. The Spirent implementation also successfully interoperated with test solutions from multiple other vendors and customers. To learn more about the demonstration, download the latest white paper http://www.ntaforum.org/resources/index.html.

For more information on Spirent’s test automation solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/broadband/lab_and_test_automation.aspx

Spirent Helps Advance Ethernet Technologies in High Performance Computing Environments

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Spirent Participates in Ethernet Alliance Multi-Vendor Interoperability Demo, Speaks on High Performance Cloud Computing at SC10

New Orleans – November 16, 2010 — Spirent Communications, a leader in data center and cloud computing testing, has joined the Ethernet Alliance in a live multi-vendor interoperability event that demonstrates the performance of next generation data center technologies during SC10 in New Orleans, November 15 - 18. Spirent’s involvement in this event underscores the company’s commitment to advancing Ethernet technologies within the high power computing (HPC) industry, through comprehensive testing.

As data centers get larger, faster and more complex, new technologies such as virtualization, FCoE and 40/100G Ethernet aim to help organizations move terabits of diverse traffic types onto a single, converged network. Validation and performance assessment are vital first steps in implementing these new technologies. In a data center context, that means testing each technology, not just by itself but also in concert with many other data center components, old and new.

“To expand a data center’s ability to support next-generation technologies and subscriber services, it’s critical to understand how it performs in a multi-technology environment and to know if network components work together as a coherent whole,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “Spirent has long advocated an end-to-end testing approach to help organizations develop confidence in new technologies, and allow data centers to grow larger and more cost-effective over time.”

The demonstration, which highlights technologies such as FCoE, 10GBASE-T, iSCSI, iWARP and RDMA over Converged Ethernet, uses several modules from Spirent’s award-winning layer 1-7 integrated performance test system, Spirent TestCenter™. The Spirent HyperMetrics™ 40/100 GigE module showcases the performance of the industry’s best-in-class high-speed Ethernet data center solutions. The Spirent HyperMetrics CV module stresses the multi-vendor network at 10GigE speeds. In addition, the seamless interworking of Ethernet to Fibre Channel is proven using the Spirent HyperMertics FC module.

Also at SC10, Spirent’s senior product marketing manager, Jurrie van den Breekel is moderating and speaking in a session titled “Enabling High Performance Cloud Computing Environment”. The session, at 12:15 pm on Thursday, November 18 in room #399, will explore and explain how key network attributes of performance, availability, security and scalability impact the quality of cloud computing environments.

For more information on how Spirent is advancing Ethernet technologies visit Ethernet Alliance booth #4513 during SC10 or visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Enterprise_networks.aspx

New Spirent MIMO Test Solution Configuration Helps the Industry Deliver on the Promise of TD-LTE

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Leading network equipment manufacturer selects Spirent SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator for testing advanced TD-LTE base stations

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (November 9, 2010) — Spirent Communications, a leading provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services, today announced that a major network equipment manufacturer has installed the Spirent SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator for testing beamforming capabilities of Time Domain-Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) base stations at its laboratories in Shanghai, China. Performance testing of network equipment is critical for the successful deployment of TD-LTE, a technology which is expected to find widespread adoption in China, India and several other countries in Asia.

“Between ongoing work in China and probable deployment in India’s Broadband Wireless Access bands, TD-LTE may well be the wireless technology of choice for hundreds of millions of subscribers,” said Rob VanBrunt, vice president of Spirent’s Wireless business. “While the complexities of advanced antenna techniques require careful design and testing, the reward is very high data throughput capability. We look forward to seeing the results of the industry’s hard work, and are delighted to be a part of enabling it.”

Unlike the Frequency-Domain implementation of LTE currently being deployed in North America and Europe, TD-LTE uses a single shared frequency band for both uplink and downlink. Beamforming is an adaptive antenna technique used to maximize the performance of wireless systems. It typically makes use of eight antennas on the base station and two on the mobile device (8x2).

Spirent’s SR5500 is used to simplify and accelerate the testing associated with complex beamforming implementations. The SR5500 is a modular system which creates realistic synchronized radio paths by affecting a transmitted radio signal in the same way as a live environment (i.e. noise, radio-wave reflections, etc.). For this application, Spirent has developed a fully-integrated 8x2 bi-directional (downlink and uplink) SR5500 configuration controlled by a single software user interface.

For more information on Spirent’s channel emulator and TD-LTE testing visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/SR5500.aspx

Interim Management Statement (Unaudited)

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 04:00:00 GMT

London, UK – 4 November 2010: Spirent Communications plc (“Spirent”, the “Company” or the “Group”) (LSE: SPT), a leading communications technology company, announces the following unaudited Interim Management Statement for the period since 4 July 2010.

Trading to date

Trading performance for the period since 4 July 2010 to date has exceeded the Board’s expectations. We are pleased to report strong growth in order intake of 27% year-on-year for the first nine months of 2010. Revenue has increased by 13% and operating profit has grown by 35% year-on-year. The return on sales for the Group has increased to 22% up from 19% for the first nine months last year. Our strategy to focus on growing and emerging technology markets is delivering profitable growth.

Highlights - third quarter 2010
Financial

Order intake growth of 33% to $128.3 million.
Group book to bill ratio of 104 compared to 94 in the third quarter 2009.
Revenue up by 20% to $123.3 million.
Operating profit increased by 33% to $29.0 million.
Basic earnings per share rose 8% to 2.92 cents. Adjusted basic earnings per share up 33% after eliminating the impact of the change in tax rate.
Return on sales increased to 24% from 21%.

Operational

Demand for test solutions across all lines of business continues to be strong.
New test solutions and customer endorsements announced since 4 July include:
High speed Ethernet 100GbE award at the Internet Tokyo 2010 show;
Nokia Siemens Networks uses Spirent to validate performance of its wireless packet gateway;
Chunghwa Telecom select Spirent’s cloud computing performance test solution;
Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest cable operator, selects Spirent to monitor network performance;
Huawei select Spirent’s high speed packet access test solution for mobile data.

Outlook

We expect to see continued growth in the fourth quarter of 2010 and we will further increase our investment in product development to address customer needs for 2011 and beyond.

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

“The market demand for data connectivity is driving the pace of innovation creating the need for new test solutions which Spirent is well placed to serve. The momentum that we gained in the first half year has continued through the third quarter and we look forward to a positive finish for the full year.”

Third quarter 2010

The results for the third quarter of 2010 are set out below:

$ million	3^rd quarter 2010	3^rd quarter 2009
Revenue	123.3	102.7
Operating profit	29.0	21.8
Basic earnings per share (cents)	2.92	2.71
Adjusted basic earnings per share¹ (cents)	2.92	2.20

Note
1. Adjusted basic earnings per share is based on an effective tax rate of 32%, being the rate applicable for 2010.

Group operating profit grew by $7.2 million to $29.0 million, resulting in a return on sales of 24% compared to 21% for the third quarter 2009.

Performance Analysis

Performance Analysis saw order intake rise 35% over the third quarter of 2009, the last period of the recessionary cycle. Sales were up 24% at $94.2 million. Operating profit increased by 34% to $25.8 million from $19.2 million in the same period of 2009. Order book increased by $7.7 million in the quarter.

Demand for all lines of business was strong, with test requirements for data center switching, virtualization, cloud computing and mobile backhaul increasing. The expenditure by our customers on LTE development picked up, resulting in growth in business levels for our test solutions. Demand continued for UMTS and CDMA device test and the market for positioning test products remained strong.

Service Assurance

Service Assurance enjoyed revenue growth of 13% to $13.9 million. This generated operating profit of $2.6 million. Sales were strong across major product lines and business expanded in Europe.

Systems

Systems’ sales grew 3% to $15.2 million, delivering operating profit growth of 35% to $2.3 million. The trends in healthcare mobility continued to be relatively flat with recovery coming from sales of industrial products.

Cash

Free cash flow for the quarter was $14.8 million (3rd quarter 2009: $20.0 million). The cash generation compared with the third quarter of 2009 has been reduced by higher tax payments as expected ($5.3 million compared with $1.6 million in 3rd quarter 2009) as well as increases in working capital resulting from higher trading activity. Cash and cash equivalents closed at $195.9 million (4 July 2010: $183.3 million) after paying the interim dividend for 2010 of $7.3 million. As at the end of the period approximately 50% of the cash balance is held in US dollars.

Enquiries

Bill Burns, Chief Executive Officer	Spirent Communications plc	+44 (0)1293 767676
Eric Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer

James Melville-Ross/Juliet Clarke	Financial Dynamics	+44 (0)20 7831 3113

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent Communications plc is a global leader in test and measurement inspiring innovation within development labs, communication networks and IT organisations. We enable today’s communication ecosystem as well as tomorrow’s emerging enterprises to deploy life-enriching communications networks, devices, services and applications. The Systems group develops power control systems for electrical vehicles in the mobility and industrial markets. Further information about Spirent Communications plc can be found at www.spirent.com.

Spirent 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.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements
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.

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Spirent Verifies Global Carrier Ethernet Network Interconnectivity and Service Performance across Multiple Service

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Results of Carrier Ethernet Interconnect Demonstration Shows Significant Progress in ENNI Implementations and Highlights Challenges of Service Provisioning

New York – November 2, 2010 – In an effort to validate the Metro Ethernet Forum’s External Network-to-Network Interface (ENNI) inter-working across network operators worldwide, the Carrier Ethernet Global Interconnect demonstration conducted by EANTC and co-organized by ancotel used Spirent solutions to test interconnectivity, interoperability and service provisioning. Showcased this week at Light Reading’s Ethernet Expo Americas 2010 conference in New York, the demonstration validates Carrier Ethernet services across different continents from a variety of service providers including Beeline, BICS, Equinix, Expereo International, Kazakh Telecom, TeraGate, Tinet, Ucomline and XO Communications.

Earlier this year the MEF ratified interconnect standards that enable service providers to understand how to expand their service coverage by seamlessly interconnecting with other providers to deliver an end-to-end service while maintaining global service level agreements (SLAs). The results of the Global Interconnect test event show that, while significant progress has been made in ENNI implementations, interoperability and provisioning challenges continue to exist.

“As Carrier Ethernet networks and services mature, it’s critical to move beyond basic, manual service interconnection,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, managing director of EANTC AG. “As we have seen in our series of tests, the ability to quickly and seamlessly provision services to monitor network performance and rapidly troubleshoot issues is critical across multiple carriers. By working with Spirent, we were able to deploy and test multiple production network services simultaneously across continents.”

Building on the previous phases of the Global Carrier Ethernet Interconnect demonstrations that were kicked off in January, this event focuses on validating Ethernet Service OAM and on verifying service performance across exchange points in New York and Frankfurt, Germany and networks spanning service providers in seven countries. This effort builds on the validation of MEF’s ENNI specification and multi-provider Class of Service (CoS) implementation options.

“Carrier Ethernet validation has been a focus of Spirent from the very beginning,” said John Cunningham, vice president of Service Assurance at Spirent. “Our ability to test the performance of live networks is central to advancing successful implementations of Carrier Ethernet across service provider networks.”

Spirent’s market leading performance monitoring and test and diagnostics solution, Spirent TestCenter Live™, was used to generate traffic, analyze how the traffic was mapped at the interconnect switch, and verify compliance with Ethernet OAM standards. The solution provided the critical visibility needed to validate EOAM traffic as it traversed the network. In addition, Spirent TestCenter Live™ was used to validate provisioning as the Ethernet Virtual Circuits (EVCs) were provisioned, allowing EANTC to rapidly address any network configuration issues. EANTC also used Spirent TestCenter ™ for additional bandwidth profile testing.

Spirent enables service providers to quickly validate the performance of Carrier Ethernet services delivery by offering test suites compliant with MEF specifications. In addition to supporting MEF standards on Spirent TestCenter, Spirent offers Spirent TestCenter Live, the only integrated test and diagnostic and performance monitoring solution that is fully compliant with standards such as ITU Y.1731 and IEEE 802.1ag.

Additional Resource:
• For more information on how Spirent help test the Carrier Ethernet Global Interconnect demonstrations visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/EthernetSvcsOnLiveNetworks.aspx
• To download a white paper which outlines the test set-up and results of the demonstration, visit http://www.eantc.de/public-reports.html

Students and Industry to Benefit From Spirent Expertise at the University of Ljubljana

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent solutions selected for world-class telecommunications test lab

Ljubljana, Slovenia and Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 1, 2010 — Slovenia’s University of Ljubljana now boasts a newly acquired world-class test and measurement facility, providing a vital resource for local industry as well as learning support for its students. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering’s Laboratory for Telecommunications (www.ltfe.org) chose Spirent Communications to equip the facility based on the strength of the technical excellence of its equipment, the company’s reputation for forward thinking ,and its spirit of academic co-operation in advancing test methodologies for an increasingly complex and stressed communications environment.

“The laboratory set out to establish a certified industrial and R&D regional test center” explains Janez Sterle from the Laboratory for Telecommunications. “We chose to create a highly competitive test environment to support current and future R&D partnerships and to strengthen our cooperation with partners from industrial and other academic environments.”

In addition to the direct benefits of providing a recognized test center, the aim of the laboratory is to establish a long-term test and measurement community in the region, available to interested partners, companies, universities and other individuals who require professional operator and vendor grade test and measurement infrastructure and services, or are interested in scientific research or training in the respective fields. Within the university, it provides real-world hands-on research and training for undergraduate and postgraduate studies as well as professional training purposes. For students, no amount of theoretical analysis can provide as much understanding of fundamental network behavior as can time spent stressing and tuning the network using Spirent’s simple, powerful Graphical User Interface.

Top-end equipment was a prerequisite to ensure a suitably impressive infrastructure to attract high-level professional, industrial and academic co-operation. The Faculty selected Spirent from a number of competitors for several reasons – notably for their strong interest in cooperation with the academic environment and fostering a clear long-term R&D vision on both sides. In addition, the Faculty was pleased with Spirent’s businesslike offer and professional approach, combined with unusual willingness to co-operate and fully support their long term objectives.

Since purchasing the Spirent equipment in June this year, the Laboratory has already established its test center and has completed several R&D projects with established partners, as well as forging their first long-term strategic industrial partnership. In addition the Laboratory has also initiated important new scientific and R&D studies. Funding for the project was from the Slovenian Research Agency in support of the Laboratory members participation in the research programme “Algorithms and optimization procedures in telecommunications”

“It is a privilege to work with people who appreciate the fundamental role of testing in optimizing business efficiency and reinforcing a culture of quality and customer satisfaction” commented David Hill, vice president, EMEA at Spirent Communications.

New Tool from Spirent Helps to Reduce Drive Testing Costs

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Virtual Drive Test-Conversion Tool enables replication of real-world drive
testing conditions in the lab .

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (October 27, 2010) — Spirent Communications, a leading provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, services and devices, today announced the release of its newest Virtual Drive Test (VDT)-Conversion Tool, adding CDMA to the list of supported radio technologies, which already includes W-CDMA and GSM. The VDT-Conversion Tool is used by the wireless industry to reduce the need for drive testing by capturing RF conditions in the field and bringing them into the laboratory.
“Using a live network as a test lab is both expensive and time consuming, but that’s effectively what drive testing is,” said Will Stofega, program director, Mobile Device Technology and Trends at IDC. “You have teams of people traveling for weeks at a time. So reducing that time and cost by enabling more of the testing to be done the lab is an important innovation.”

New wireless technologies bring new challenges, such as the Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna techniques used in LTE. Unless realistic field conditions can be reproduced in the laboratory, this new complexity dramatically increases the amount of drive testing required.

“Last year we introduced the Virtual Drive Test feature for our SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator,” said Spirent’s vice president of wireless, Rob VanBrunt. “This allowed network operators and device manufacturers to capture drive-test parameters in the field, convert the captured data and use it to reliably reproduce real-world RF conditions in the lab. The new VDT-Conversion Tool enhances this offering by greatly simplifying and automating the conversion process, saving additional time and money.”

The payback on the investment in this tool can be quick. VanBrunt explains, “Identifying and fixing a problem in the field can take several weeks, but when the problem is reproduced in a laboratory, the process can often be reduced to a few days.”

Spirent’s VDT-Conversion Tool is shipping now. More information is available at
http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/virtual_drive_testing.aspx.

For more information on the concept and implementation of Virtual Drive Testing, Spirent will present a webinar on November 18. For free webinar registration, please visit For free webinar registration, please visit http://www.spirent.com/events/virtual_drive_testing.aspx.

Spirent Helps Nokia Siemens Networks Verify Its Evolved Packet Core Solution Is Best-in-Class

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Nokia Siemens Networks validates performance, scalability and reliability of its Flexi NG evolved packet core gateway with Spirent Landslide

Espoo, Finland and Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 26, 2010 — Nokia Siemens Networks has selected Spirent Communications to validate the performance of its Evolved Packet Core (EPC) gateway Flexi NG, a solution that will play a key role in next-generation wireless network deployments. With the market leading Spirent Landslide, Nokia Siemens Networks is able to verify the performance of its EPC solutions, while reducing the cost and time associated with bringing them to the market.

“Spirent’s test equipment has helped us verify our EPC solutions to deliver on our promise of profitable, high-performance and reliable networks to our customers,” said Petri Pöyhönen, head of Converged Internet Connectivity business line at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We evaluate IP-based end-to-end networking solutions in our ResIP Center, and trust Spirent’s testing solutions for efficient verification of multiple mobile technologies simultaneously. Spirent’s integrated test methodologies and intelligent results allow our engineers to validate the performance of Nokia Siemens Networks’ EPC solution in high-scale mobility scenarios.”

Nokia Siemens Networks is using Spirent Landslide to assess the scale and data performance of its EPC gateway against complex mobility and real-world traffic scenarios to ensure successful live network operations. Spirent Landslide is a comprehensive end-to-end platform that emulates millions of 2G, 3G and LTE mobile data subscribers, simultaneously accessing the wireless network, using various access models. It emulates all key wireless network elements and combines highly scalable control plane and application data to provide a real-world emulation of millions of mobile nodes in various stages of activation, deactivation, and hand-off between cells.

“We have been working closely with Nokia Siemens Networks and have successfully verified Flexi NG’s 120 Gbps throughput capacity,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent Communications. “As a provider of EPC test equipment to Nokia Siemens Networks, Spirent is proud to play a critical role in helping the company overcome the complexity of network performance and interoperability issues.”

Flexi NG is a carrier-class gateway for mobile broadband networks and is designed to play a key role in next-generation wireless system deployments. Flexi NG can be deployed as the Gateway GPRS Support Node (GGSN) for HSPA networks, and serves as the Serving and PDN Gateway for LTE networks. Flexi NG provides unique flexibility with 4D scaling capabilities that help operators prepare for mobile broadband growth in four dimensions: data throughput handling to accommodate data traffic explosion, signaling capacity to deal with smart devices, large number of data sessions for multiple data connections per subscriber and service intelligence for operators’ revenue and resource optimization.

For more information on mobile packet core testing and to learn how Spirent delivers the only test platform that simulates real-world traffic models to evaluate wireless core packet data networks visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Mobile_packet_core.aspx

Netherlands’ Largest Cable Operator Selects Spirent to Validate Service Availability and Backbone Performance

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent’s Performance and Diagnostic Test Solution Enables Ziggo to Address Operational Service Availability, Quality Issues

New Orleans, LA. – October 20, 2010 – Ziggo, The Netherlands’ largest cable operator, selected Spirent Communications to help monitor network performance and SLA conformance. Spirent’s comprehensive solution for active and passive testing enables Ziggo to validate service availability and Ethernet backbone performance.

Ziggo is using Spirent TestCenter Live for simultaneous on-demand testing and proactive, continuous performance monitoring through a single probe. Other solutions require multiple probes, multiple vendors or multiple operations support systems to achieve the same visibility Spirent TestCenter Live delivers. With Spirent’s approach, service providers benefit from a reduction in the total cost of ownership, and continued operational efficiency over the service lifecycle.

“As operators continue to seek ways to meet the demand for services supported by an Ethernet network, Spirent remains the choice worldwide for helping service providers of all sizes address the challenges associated with the rollout and upkeep of such networks,” said John Cunningham, vice president of Service Assurance at Spirent. “Furnishing cable operators as well as telecommunications service providers with the ability to automate testing procedures allow these organizations perform more tests without relying on expensive human intervention, and provide better analysis to succeed in today’s competitive marketplace.”

The probe, with support for test and diagnostics as well as performance monitoring, has been specifically designed to maximize cost efficiencies across multiple user groups and serve the testing and monitoring requirements of cable operators as well as telecommunications service providers. Spirent TestCenter Live reduces technician dispatches and enables the proliferation of Ethernet backhaul circuits without an equivalent increase in staffing.

To learn more about testing Ethernet networks and addressing operational issues and bottlenecks visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/EthernetSvcsOnLiveNetworks.aspx.

About Ziggo

Ziggo is a nationwide provider of media and communications. Ziggo serves approximately 3.1 million households, 1.5 million broadband Internet customers, 1.7 million digital TV customers and 1 million phone subscribers. The retail and wholesale markets make use of our products and services such as telephony, data communication and electronic payment options. Its footprint - with strong regional bases - stretches across the Netherlands. For more information visit www.ziggo.com.

Spirent Enhances Ethernet Test Solution with Integrated IP Video Monitoring Capability

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

MSOs turn to Spirent for Comprehensive Solution that Enables Successful Deployment and Monitoring of Broadband Services

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 20, 2010 – In its continuing effort to help MSOs deliver the most compelling video and enhanced service offerings, Spirent Communications today introduced IP video performance monitoring capabilities to its market-leading Spirent TestCenter Live. With Spirent, MSOs gain a solution that helps evaluate the quality of their network and the customers’ service as well as a single tool that tests both the Ethernet backbone and the IP video streams being delivered over the network.

MSOs have continued to increase their use of IP video technology in their core networks as they prepare to eventually transition some of their traditional video offerings to IP video delivered over DOCSIS. Spirent, through its technology leadership, continues to support its current and future customers, providing solutions that grow as our customers networks continue to transform.

“We’re always examining ways to best address the needs of MSOs as we serve providers worldwide,” said John Cunningham, vice president of Service Assurance at Spirent. “Understanding the challenges they face in maintaining their base of customers while delivering new and enhanced services over evolving networks is critical. IP video performance monitoring plays a key role in today’s MSO networks and Spirent is uniquely positioned since it delivers a single solution for active and passive Ethernet testing of 1GbE and 10GbE networks for test and diagnostics, as well as performance monitoring for IP video.”

With support for IP video at 1GbE and 10GbE speeds, MSOs can monitor the quality of their networks at both head-end and hub offices. If network problems are identified, the source can be quickly isolated to the video feed versus the core Ethernet network. Typically, these two testing applications require different solutions, with two or more probes making the process a more time-consuming and expensive effort.

Round-the-clock monitoring with Spirent TestCenter Live lets MSOs gauge the health of their network and quality of their video service. Additionally, preset thresholds and alarms for video operations can identify service degradation and proactively address these issues before consumers begin to see the effect. This approach reduces customer churn and optimizes operations by avoiding costly reactive dispatches and service orders.

Leading MSOs Assure Performance of In-Home Networks and Triple Play Services with Spirent’s Comprehensive Field Tester

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

1GHz Signal Level Meter and DOCSIS 3.0 Testing Added to Market Leading Spirent Tech-X Flex

New Orleans, LA - (October 20, 2010) — Spirent Communications today announced the introduction of its cable services module with comprehensive 1GHz Signal Level Meter (SLM) and DOCSIS 3.0 testing to Spirent Tech-X Flex™. Already deployed by three of the top five MSOs in North America, the market leading Spirent Tech-X Flex allows field engineers and technicians to confidently assure the quality of the advanced cable broadband services.

In today’s competitive marketplace, DOCSIS 3.0 and 1GHz SLM performance testing is critical to rolling out consumer services such as cloud computing, streaming media, VoIP, streaming media, gaming and other interactive services with the highest quality. The Spirent Tech-X Flex solution is the cable industry’s first modular field test product to combine comprehensive test and measurement features for advanced cable services such as high-speed data and multi-room DVR, delivered over DOCSIS and MoCA home networks.

“The introduction of our cable services test module allows MSOs to greatly enhance the efficiency of their field technicians and engineers,” said Sean Yarborough, director of Strategy and Business Development at Spirent. “Our unique testing capabilities ensure MSOs deliver the highest level of customer satisfaction, and guarantee that DOCSIS and cable TV service installation and maintenance are completed correctly the first time.”

The CableLabs® compliant Spirent Tech-X Flex’s comprehensive and modular form factor significantly increases the field technicians’ test coverage and analysis capabilities as well as productivity. Combined with other Spirent Tech-X Flex features such as MoCA, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, IP Video, and high-speed data testing, it fully equips technicians to meet the challenges of installing and troubleshooting in-home networks, data and cable TV services. Spirent allows MSOs to deploy a single field test platform to measure and assure the quality of their entire multi-play (voice, video, data, and wireless) service offering.

The Spirent Tech-X Flex gives field technicians a tool that simplifies DOCSIS 3.0 testing and diagnostics with easy-to-read displays highlighting downstream and upstream channel quality metrics, an intuitive cable modem initialization analysis and precise IP quality and throughput measurements. Additionally, this module enables field engineers and technicians to perform automated home certification tests, through the push of a single button, which qualify the customer’s cable TV service. As with all Tech-X Flex test features, DOCSIS and 1GHz SLM testing supports customizable test scripts which compare results with pre-defined thresholds and report intuitive pass/fail results that can be sent to back-office systems.

For more information on Spirent’s field and outside plant testing solutions and the market leading Spirent Tech-X Flex visit: http://www.spirent.com/campaign-folder/SCTE_Expo_2010.

Leading e-Commerce Provider, Alibaba, Selects Spirent for Cloud Computing Testing

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Beijing, China – October 12, 2010 – Alibaba Cloud Computing, a major cloud computing service provider in China, selected Spirent Communications for its holistic approach to data center and cloud computing testing. In 2009, Alibaba Group established Alibaba Cloud Computing with the mission of building an advanced data-centric cloud computing service platform.

Alibaba Cloud Computing used Spirent TestCenter™ to conduct a large scale test of its data center and cloud services infrastructure. Specifically, Spirent TestCenter was used to validate the performance of routers and switches in a large-scale cloud environment, as well as conduct Layer 4-7 application testing.

“Cloud services providers are concerned about the user quality of experience,” said Gene Zhang, vice president, Asia at Spirent Communications. “Alibaba’s decision to conduct comprehensive testing before delivering cloud computing services is a sound business decision since it provides the required empirical data to determine the required service levels Alibaba expects of cloud service solutions. By leveraging Spirent’s holistic cloud computing test solution, Alibaba will enable its customers to leverage the business benefits of elastic computing.”

Spirent offers the industry’s first holistic, end-to-end solution to validate tomorrow’s data centers’ and cloud infrastructures’ performance, availability, security and scalability (PASS). The Spirent PASS methodology includes both physical and virtual appliances specifically designed to test services and infrastructure between any points in the cloud environment.

For more information of Spirent cloud computing test system visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Cloud_Computing.aspx

Huawei Selects Spirent to Test HSPA+ User Devices

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent Solutions Help Ensure Huawei Delivers High-Performance HSPA+ Data Cards

Beijing, China – October 11, 2010 — Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions, selected Spirent Communications to help validate the performance of its HSPA+ data cards. With Spirent, the leader in testing solutions for wireless networks, devices and services, Huawei is able ensure its customers’ high-speed HSPA+ data networks offer a superior subscriber quality of experience (QoE) and seamless mobility.

“We are dedicated to delivering the industry’s highest-performing data cards and other technology solutions,” said Yang Feng, testing team leader of Huawei. “Spirent’s easy to use automated test solutions, with their focus on performance and support for the latest HSPA+ technologies and receiver designs, fully support our current test requirements, as well as enable us to develop new technologies and reduce our time to market."

Mobile operators continue to leverage their investment in HSPA/HSPA+ networks as they prepare their networks for LTE/4G. Huawei, a leading supplier of HSPA+ data cards to mobile operators worldwide, is using the Spirent 8100 Mobile Device Test System for performance testing of its latest data cards. Using capabilities such as Spirent’s new Development Library, the Spirent 8100 helps validate critical attributes such as data throughput and mobility performance, as well as Receive Diversity and Interference cancellation algorithm optimization.

“Deploying a high speed HSPA or HSPA+ network does not mean that subscribers can take advantage of it immediately,” said Gene Zhang, vice president of Asia Pacific at Spirent. “The performance of the mobile device, data card or dongle also plays a critical role. By leveraging Spirent’s expertise in testing the performance of 3G/4G mobile devices and chipsets, Huawei is able to ensure its carrier customers can deliver a better service experience.”

Spirent’s 8100 system is the optimal solution for GSM/W-CDMA/HSPA/LTE mobile device and chipset testing. It supports a wide range of application, location and radio access test areas, and its flexible option-based design allows customers to add the capability required. The Spirent 8100 system addresses multiple phases of the mobile device lifecycle, from certification to performance testing and beyond,

For more information about HSPA device testing and the Spirent 8100 system visit http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/8100.aspx

Spirent Recognized for Innovative Technology by Leading Industry Analysts and Media

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent receives two Technology Leadership Awards at NetEvents EMEA Press Summit 2010

Sunnyvale, Calif. – October 7, 2010 – Spirent Communications continues to gain industry recognition for its market-leading approach to advancing cloud computing testing. At the recent 2010 NetEvents EMEA Press Summit in Istanbul, Turkey, Spirent was named the ‘Most Innovative Technology Company of the Year’ and also received the ‘Most Innovative Test & Measurement Product of the Year’ award for its Spirent Avalanche Virtual solution.

An independent panel of industry analysts, senior technology editors and reporters from around the globe confirmed that virtualized data center efficiency and security are critical issues to many organizations. They also recognized that Spirent’s testing solution enables equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises to address these issues with a simple to use, flexible and powerful performance test solution. The judges found Spirent Avalanche Virtual to be an innovative and extremely significant answer to the challenges of determining the security of a virtual environment, while offering the capability to scale to millions of users.

“Many enterprises are increasingly thinking of joining the cloud computing bandwagon for its obvious benefits,” said Zafar Anjum, editor, Computerworld Singapore & Computerworld Malaysia. “Spirent Avalanche Virtual provides an innovative test solution that can help companies emulate real user traffic and much more in cloud environments. This innovation is important as it helps navigate this emerging technology.”

Spirent Avalanche Virtual is the industry’s first solution to test the Performance, Availability, Security and Scalability (PASS) of virtualized network appliances, as well as cloud-based applications across public, private and hybrid cloud environments. With Spirent Avalanche Virtual, enterprises and cloud service providers can validate that a cloud computing architecture is delivering the business benefits of elastic computing without degrading user experience.

“Spirent’s unique test methodology, based on validating the performance, availability, security and scalability attributes of networks and applications, provides our customers with the confidence to leverage a new generation of networking technologies,” said Jeff Schmitz, vice president, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “We’re honored that not only our customers but a group of objective editor and analyst judges have recognized the significant role our solutions play within the industry.”

The NetEvents Technology Leader Award is an annual event, open to all suppliers of networking or telecommunications products or services launched and delivered prior to the NetEvents Press Summit each year. The awards ceremony has become a highlight of the Summit, and is a non-profit activity, with all proceeds going to charity. More than $100,000 has already been generated by the awards, and this year’s proceeds are being donated to The Prostate Project Foundation & KECK School of Medicine at USC.

“Spirent deserves much credit for its work in the cloud and receiving two awards is particularly impressive considering the strong competition,” said Mark Fox, CEO, NetEvents. “With the industry’s best and brightest analyst and media gathered under one roof, these awards have become a coveted badge of excellence.”

Spirent Teams Up with Drexel University to Expand Research into Advanced Wireless Antenna Technologies

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent’s SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator Used by University’s Wireless Systems Laboratory

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (October 6, 2010) — Spirent Communications, the leading provider of testing solutions for wireless networks, services and devices, announced that it is working with Drexel University’s Wireless Systems Laboratory to expand the school’s advanced wireless antenna technology research capabilities. Drexel will use the Spirent SR5500 Wireless Channel Emulator for research into Over-the-Air Multiple-in Multiple-Out (OTA MIMO) technologies, reconfigurable antennas and other forward-looking topics.

Drexel will make use of the Spirent SR5500’s unique features, including its ability to completely and accurately model dynamic wireless channel conditions for highly-realistic MIMO performance testing. The SR5500 is Spirent’s fifth-generation wireless channel emulator and can replicate complex MIMO system configurations.

“We initially reached out to Spirent on the recommendation of one of our industry partners,” said Dr. Kapil R. Dandekar, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Drexel University and the lab’s director. “We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the SR5500 already has the capabilities we need to address some of the more complex research topics.”

“We’re thrilled to be working with Drexel University,” noted Rob VanBrunt, vice president, Spirent. “Drexel’s wireless systems lab is highly respected both for the quality of its people and the significant innovation it brings to our industry. This relationship will form an excellent complement to Spirent’s own well-established leadership in MIMO and over-the-air test methodologies.”

Performance and Operational Challenges of the IP Backhaul can Compromise New Mobile Data Services Delivery

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Mobile data communications growth poses huge technology and operational challenges for the mobile backhaul network and can impact service quality, says Spirent

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (September 30, 2010) — Innovations in mobile user devices and growth in 3G/LTE services is driving network operators to move to an IP/Ethernet backhaul to help deal with the onslaught of new mobile data service. However, if the infrastructure isn’t ready to deal with the technology and operational issues Ethernet brings, both subscriber quality of experience (QoE) and potential revenue streams from new data services can be compromised.

According to Spirent’s vice president of wireless, Nigel Wright, the effort to create a world without wires actually increases the bandwidth requirements of wired networks. Mobile backhaul already accounts for a large portion of operator’s overall operating costs, which drives backhaul migration from dedicated TDM to packet-based Ethernet, a much more cost-effective technology that can significantly lower cost of bandwidth per subscriber. However, Ethernet in the backhaul brings challenges which, if not addressed during network architecture design and later during live operations, can cut into the potential cost saving or new revenue opportunities it presents.

“The target is a converged mobile backhaul that delivers quality of experience on an Any-G network,” Wright said. “Mobile operators face the challenge of achieving TDM-like efficiency from IP/Ethernet transport. Avoiding any hidden surprises comes down to testing, both in equipment vendors’ labs as well as service provider networks, and knowing what to test and how to test it.”

Key areas that are challenging in the mobile backhaul and require specific testing focus are:

Mobile handoff. Can Ethernet timing (IEEE 1588v2 PTP) deliver TDM-like synchronization for voice traffic to avoid dropped calls?
Application quality. Can differentiated Class of Service (CoS) deliver TDM-like guaranteed bandwidth for multiplay traffic to avoid issues such as degraded video?
Failover. Can MPLS-TP deliver TDM-like alarms, performance monitoring and failover to avoid dropped calls or data sessions?
Turn-up. Are operators prepared to provision tens of thousands of new backhaul circuits this year with existing resources?
Troubleshooting. Can operators scale to meet demand while addressing current customer issues, monitor service performance on the backhaul and quickly locate problems without additional dispatches?
Out-of-franchise vendor management. How operators validate third-party providers’ delivery on SLAs? Or validate that their network offers customers said SLA performance levels?

“These issues can delay deployment by affecting the choice of technologies during design and can put a service provider behind the competition for years,” said Michael Howard, co-founder and principal analyst, Carrier and Data Center Networks, Infonetics Research. “Solutions such as those from Spirent help providers clarify their design issues and accelerate their deployments.”

Additional Resources

Learn more about how to overcome challenges in mobile backhaul and the evolved packet core, visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Mobile_backhaul.aspx
Download a white paper and listen to an demand webinar that on how to overcome the operational challenges of mobile backhaul network, visit http://www.spirent.com/campaign-folder/MSO_SpirentTestCenterLive.aspx
Listen to latest webinar that discusses on new operational models to avoid surprises in backhaul network, visit http://www.spirent.com/events/mobile_backhaul_live_webinar.aspx
To speak with a mobile backhaul testing expert contact Sailaja Tennati at sailaja.tennati@spirent.com or call (770) 432-3225

“YES – WE CAN SECURE THE CLOUD” CLAIMS NEW TEST REPORT

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Independent lab test confirms that security in virtualized data center and cloud computing environments is both possible and measurable

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (September 27, 2010) — Independent test lab, Broadband Testing, and test and measurement leader, Spirent Communications, achieved a significant breakthrough in securing virtual environments and allaying user fears about cloud based applications. A new report Secure Virtual Data Center Testing provides a detailed account of how HP TippingPoint’s Secure Virtualization Framework (SVF) solution is able to create a secure virtual data center environment, resisting all recognized attacks. Even more significant is the way security can be rigorously tested under “real world” operating and attack conditions using Spirent’s pioneering cloud computing testing solutions with performance, availability, security and scalability (PASS) methodology.

Can we trust the cloud? The answer now is ‘yes,’” says Steve Broadhead, founder and director, Broadband Testing. “Virtual security works in theory but, until there was a way to test it thoroughly under realistic conditions, solution vendors have had a hard time convincing their customers. Without Spirent we could not have done this – the testing proved not only highly rigorous, but also quite simple to set up and run.”

Testing a complex hard-wired system can be tough, but at least the structure remains static,” added Broadhead. “The Cloud is a good description from a network testers’ perspective of the relative shapelessness of the virtual environment. Until the test process itself could be virtualized, the cloud remained pretty opaque.”

Broadband Testing found the solution to this problem in Spirent Avalanche Virtual – the industry’s first test solution designed specifically for virtual and cloud computing environments. It was used in conjunction with Spirent Avalanche to test internal and external-to-internal traffic under normal operating and extreme conditions plus a wide range of attack scenarios. All the threats in the HP TippingPoint signature base were successfully blocked, the only ones that passed were those not yet added to the then-current database.

As David Hill, Spirent’s vice president for EMEA points out, “The key takeaway was that testing with Spirent stressed the capability of the security solution right to its limits. People assume that security is the final objective, when what is really needed is a precise way to quantify and tailor the level of security in a complex system. ‘Tried and tested’ means more than any amount of theoretical argument in this case.”

The virtual environment under test was truly representative of the next generation IT environment in that it included physical and virtual elements – with the HP TippingPoint IPS and SVF, as well as the test bed itself, consisting of physical and virtual versions of Spirent Avalanche. Hybrid physical/virtual environments are fast becoming the norm, hence the reason to find new test methodologies to prove that these solutions actually deliver performance, security and scalability – all essential requirements of a data centre solution, as tested here.

The economic benefits of cloud computing are overwhelming, but so are the security concerns of network operators and their customers” explains Hill. “This independent report breaks that deadlock, as reliable testing now makes it easy for system vendors to mitigate the risks of migrating to the cloud, while optimizing resource utilization under an exhaustive range of real-world operating and threat scenarios.”

Named the 2010 Best of Interop winner in the Performance Optimization category, Spirent Avalanche Virtual is recognized for its innovative approach for testing the performance, availability, security and scalability of virtualized network appliances as well as cloud-based applications across public, private and hybrid cloud environments. Avalanche Virtual’s emulation of real-world subscriber traffic scales to millions of subscribers.

This independent report builds on Spirent’s first Cloud Computing testing demonstration featured at Interop 2010. Following the success of this study, Spirent plans to add virtual data center testing to its test services portfolio.

For more information on this test and more about security testing of cloud computing and virtualized data centers visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Cloud_Computing.aspx.

u-blox Demonstrates Performance of New Galileo Chipsets with Spirent’s Multi-GNSS Solution

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

GSS6700 Multi-GNSS constellation simulator system used in demonstrations to key Japanese customers

Sunnyvale, Calif. and Thalwil, Switzerland – September 21, 2010 – u-blox, a leading fabless semiconductor provider of embedded positioning and wireless communication solutions has purchased Spirent’s multi-GNSS solution to demonstrate the performance of its new Galileo chipset. Using Spirent’s GSS6700 Multi-Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) constellation simulator system, u-blox showcased the attributes of its latest GPS/Galileo receiver to a number of its Japanese customers.

Leading chipset manufacturers are increasing their investment in developing and testing Galileo technology-based solutions and GNSS simulators play an important role in all aspects of research and development. Simulators also provide the best approach to testing when satellites are not available. u-blox, a Spirent customer since 2004, continues to leverage the test and measurement leader’s GNSS testing experience and position as an official supplier of RF Constellation Simulators (RFCS) for the Galileo program.

According to Tesshu Naka, u-blox’s Japan Country Manager, “The ability to demonstrate u-blox Galileo-ready technology before the satellites are available is a convincing argument in favor of u-blox GPS receivers. We are pleased that Spirent’s industry leading GNSS simulator makes this possible.”

Only simulators can fully test partially deployed GNSS constellations such as Galileo and QZSS, and future signals such as L5 and L2C on GPS. Until recently, most testing focused on GPS but with GLONASS operating at near full strength and Galileo and Compass around the corner, testing multi-GNSS capabilities on chipsets and navigation devices is becoming critical to verify performance and ensure there are no inter-operability issues.

“Spirent is seeing an increasingly positive attitude to Galileo, following several Galileo system procurement announcements made earlier this year,” said John Pottle, marketing director at Spirent’s positioning unit. “The industry is starting to believe in Galileo again and we are seeing that confidence translate into investment decisions in Spirent multi-GNSS solutions.”

Visit Spirent booth #E at ION GNSS 2010 in Portland, OR, Sept 21-24 to learn more about multi-GNSS testing and simulators.

Additional Resources
Galileo is a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) currently being built by the European Union (EU) and European Space Agency (ESA). First implementation of Galileo services is expected in 2014. For more information visit http://www.gsa.europa.eu/
To learn more about Galileo simulators visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_a_Galileo_Simulator.aspx.
For more information on multi-GNSS test solutions visit http://www.spirent.com/Positioning-and-Navigation/What_is_Multi-GNSS_Simulation.aspx

Spirent Advances Deployment of Carrier Ethernet Services by Enabling Comprehensive Interoperability Testing

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Spirent supports EANTC in helping to identify challenges and validating technology progress at live demonstration during Carrier Ethernet World Congress

Warsaw, Poland - (September 20, 2010) — As Ethernet’s role in metro and wide area networks, storage networks, mobile backhaul and smart grids continues to expand rapidly, Spirent is helping to validate performance of Carrier Ethernet offerings for business and consumers. To that end, Spirent is supporting the European Advanced Networking Test Center AG (EANTC) in an interoperability event that tests devices from two dozen leading vendors of Ethernet equipment. The results are being showcased at Carrier Ethernet World Congress 2010, in Warsaw, Poland, September 20-23.

“This year’s Carrier Ethernet interoperability test shows the industry is progressing well with solution evolving to the next level,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, managing director, EANTC AG. “Spirent continues to play an important role in these ongoing endeavors. Without the use of test equipment, most of what we accomplished in our two-week test of more than 100 devices would not have been possible.”

Spirent solutions were used for testing synchronization for LTE mobile backhaul, Managed Ethernet services and Ethernet resiliency mechanisms. The interoperability event used Spirent TestCenter™ and Spirent GEM for traffic generation/user emulation and protocol emulation as well as impairment and analysis of testing scenarios.

Spirent TestCenter is the leading choice for network equipment manufacturers, service providers and enterprises who are leading the next wave of integrated technologies focused on delivering any application over any network. Spirent GEM is a network impairment emulator that accurately creates delays and impairments present in live networks, allowing users to validate and evaluate new products and technologies under realistic conditions.

“Spirent continues to offer the most comprehensive Ethernet testing solutions on the market allowing the industry to understand and address the complex issues associated with interoperability,” said Michael Lynge, marketing communications manager at Spirent. “With the most complete solution for conformance, functional and performance testing of Ethernet devices that highlights the impact of any impairments, Spirent plays a major role in advancing the deployment of carrier grade Ethernet services.”

This most recent Spirent/EANTC
engagement builds on several recent interoperability, interconnect and test events such as the Light Reading/EANTC Advanced Global Interconnect Test, EANTC test of public and private cloud computing environments, and EANTC test of Cisco’s next generation mobile network solution. Spirent is also the exclusive test solution provider at the upcoming phase three of the Advanced Global Interconnect Test at Light Reading’s Ethernet Expo in New York, November 2-3, 2010.

Integration between Spirent and AGI software suites facilitates progressive testing for receivers, systems and applications

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Complementary capabilities enable hardware simulation and 3D visualization

Paignton, United Kingdom and Exton, PA – September, 15 2010 – Spirent Communications plc (LSE: SPT) today announced it has teamed with Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI) to provide an integration between AGI’s STK analysis and visualization software and Spirent’s test manager software suite, SimGEN™.

STK is used for mission modeling, engineering and operations in many areas, including space, aircraft, missile defense and electronic systems. Spirent’s simulation systems, many of which use the SimGEN software, enable hardware testing of GNSS receivers, systems and applications in these areas. Linking the two offerings facilitates a progressive analysis and testing approach in which motion data for mission planning completed in STK can be ported to SimGEN. A hardware simulation, including real receiver and related system components, can then be completed consistent with the original STK motion data.

“Spirent and AGI offer complementary products, and this integration will make progressive testing easier and faster for our customers,” commented John Pottle, marketing director with Spirent’s Positioning division.

“Many of our customers want to start with software simulation but then move on to testing with real hardware,” added Peter Aves, director of Partners and Alliances for AGI.

“Spirent’s systems enable this, and we’re already working with a number of leading mutual Spirent/AGI customers who see the power of this approach.”

See this new capability Sept. 21 - 24 at Spirent’s booth #E at ION GNSS 2010.

EANTC Leverages Spirent Solutions to Validate Performance of Cisco’s Next Generation Mobile Network

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Technologies from Cisco offer performance, intelligence and reliability, verified by Spirent

Sunnyvale, Calif. - (Sept. 14, 2010) — Ensuring performance, capacity and connectivity of the mobile network infrastructure from cell site to evolved packet core is central to mobile operators delivering on the promise of Any-G (2G, 3G, LTE and beyond) wireless services. To that end, the European Advanced Networking Test Center AG (EANTC) conducted the industry’s most complex and complete public test of the Cisco mobile Internet solution using Spirent test solutions to validate critical attributes across all aspects of the mobile network.

The rapid growth in the use of smartphones, tablets, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based video/voice applications over 3G and long term evolution (LTE) networks is not only pushing the limits of mobile networks but has also increased the performance requirements for the wired network as traffic is aggregated through the mobile backhaul.

“As mobile operators transition their wireless networks to support the demands of mobile packet voice and broadband data applications, they are looking for a proven test solution that provides them with an end-to-end view of their network’s performance,” said Carsten Rossenhövel, Managing Director, EANTC AG. “Spirent supported our test extensively to validate Cisco’s capabilities in the mobile backhaul and mobile core.”

Spirent was early to recognize that testing sections of the network in isolation is no longer enough. Rather, service providers and their vendors require a single test environment that can determine throughput and latency in the IP core, ensure that the Ethernet’s clock timing matches TDM in the mobile backhaul, and validate interworking between internal and external networks through the mobile core.

“This test clearly shows that Spirent is the preferred choice for large scale, complex tests when assessing holistic network performance,” said Tim Jefferson, general manager, Networks & Applications group at Spirent. “Helping vendors validate solutions for Any-G wireless technologies with Spirent test equipment means operators are better able to rollout reliable networks and services to their customers.”

Specifically designed to understand and evaluate the capacity, connectivity and performance requirement and concerns of mobile operators, the EANTC test showcased how mobile providers as well as infrastructure vendors depend on Spirent to test performance, scalability and reliability across the entire network from the IP core and mobile backhaul to mobile core.
Cisco is the world’s leading provider of networking technology and for this test EANTC verified the performance, intelligence and reliability of Cisco’s comprehensive mobile Internet network architecture. The test bed included the Cisco® CRS-3 Carrier Routing System, Cisco ASR 5000 Aggregation Services Routers mobile multimedia core, Cisco ASR 9000 Series Aggregation Services Routers, Cisco MWR 2941-DC Mobile Wireless Router, Cisco 7609 Router and other key network components.

The tests included validating the mobile backhaul’s ability to handle edge connections of E1 traffic being aggregated through the 100 Gbps backbone links and the network core’s ability to scale to support the increases in users and data requirements.

To learn more about the test visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/Next-Gen_Mobile_Test.aspx

Avoid Hidden Operational Surprises in the Ethernet Mobile Backhaul

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Free Spirent webinar offers service providers and MSOs tactical insight into operational models for scalability, OPEX reduction, automation & Quality of Experience (QoE)

Sunnyvale, Calif. – August 26, 2010 — Today’s 3G services are already taxing wireless networks and emerging 4G/LTE networks will only add to that pressure. Ironically, subscribers’ desire to be connected wirelessly has resulted in increased bandwidth requirements for wired networks. Nowhere is this more evident than in the evolution of the mobile backhaul and the operations required to support it.

During an upcoming webinar from Spirent Communications, Bill Dentinger, senior director of business development will highlight how the migration to Ethernet-based mobile backhaul networks requires new operational models to meet the challenges of service turn up, maintenance, troubleshooting, and third-party SLA management.

When:
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
1:00 pm US Eastern Time (12:00 pm Central; 11:00 am Mountain; 10:00 am Pacific)

Where:
Registration details available at http://www.spirent.com/events/mobile_backhaul_live_webinar.aspx

Topics Covered

Trends in the mobile backhaul, including a look at key industry data on increased demand and traffic growth
How applications, particularly in the 4G/LTE arena, are driving the backhaul explosion and placing pressure on the operational requirements of the backhaul network
Methods to reduce operational expense through automation as well as to ensure the highest quality of experience for the subscriber

To learn more about performance monitoring, testing and diagnostics of the mobile backhaul network visit http://www.spirent.com/Broadband/EthernetSvcsOnLiveNetworks.aspx

Spirent Press Releases

Crossbeam and Spirent Partner to Define Real-World Security Test Methodology for Mobile Network Operators

Signals Research Group Uses Spirent for Industry’s First Independent Data Performance Benchmark Test of Commercial LTE Chipsets

Frost & Sullivan Names Spirent the Global Leader in Ethernet and Cloud Infrastructure Test Equipment Markets

Spirent Leads the Industry in A-GPS Over-the-Air Testing

Spirent Federal Celebrates 10 Years of Achievement

About Spirent Federal Systems Inc

Spirent Extends Capability of GNSS Simulation Systems to Reduce Costs and Boost Testing Efficiency

Spirent Expands Application QoE, QoS and Security Testing Capabilities to High-Speed Ethernet Module

Leading MSO Selects Spirent’s Service Assurance Solution for Nationwide Ethernet Business Services and Mobile Backhaul Network

Spirent Introduces New Field Management Application Increases Compliance, Efficiency of for In-Home Service Turn-Up and Testing

Spirent Recognized For Helping Network Operators Overcome Critical Challenges in the Ethernet Services Lifecycle

New Agreement Ensures Successful Network Applications Delivery for Enterprise and Cloud Services

Interim Management Statement (Unaudited)

Trading to date

Highlights - third quarter 2011 Financial

Operational

Market conditions and outlook

Third quarter 2011

Performance Analysis

Service Assurance

Systems

Cash

Women on Boards

Enquiries

About Spirent Communications plc

CATR Selects Spirent for Over the Air Testing of Mobile Devices

Spirent Positioning & Navigation Test Solution Now Supports China’s Compass Navigation System

Spirent Announces New Testing Technology Bundles for Mobile Device Designers

Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories Selects Spirent for Mobile Backhaul Network Testing

Spirent Extends Capability of GNSS Record and Playback Test System

Spirent Ensures Performance and Scalability of 4G/LTE Networks

Spirent Advances MPLS-TP and Mobile Backhaul Testing Through Isocore Interoperability Effort

Spirent Adds QZSS support to its Multi-GNSS Simulation Platform

CONNEXUS Ecosystem Unveils Architecture that Highlights New Possibilities for Monetizing OTT Video Traffic

Spirent Testing Solutions Play Key Role In EANTC’s Carrier Etherent Interoperability Demonstration

Spirent Test Solution Validates Network Elements and Architecture In Juniper Networks’ Cloud Virtualization Environment

Spirent Communications Salutes the UK’s Unsung Network Heroes

Women on Boards

ARCOM, Spirent Partner to Offer Test Solutions to Cable and Telecom Providers, and Enterprises in the Canadian Market

Alcatel-Lucent Tests World's First 400G Network Processor With Spirent’s High Speed Ethernet Test Solution

u-blox selects Spirent simulator to evaluate performance of its new GPS + GLONASS multi-GNSS receiver components

Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Huawei, Solana and Spirent Showcase Shortest Path Bridging Interoperability

SGS Chooses Spirent for LTE Device Performance Testing

Corero Selects Spirent to Validate Performance and Reliability of Security Solutions

Spirent Selected to Test IT Infrastructure of South Korea’s Sejong City

Mobile Internet and Location Based Services Drive Demand for Spirent Wireless Testing Solutions

Half-Year Results for the six months ended 3 July 2011

Financial highlights

Operational highlights

Outlook

Results summary

Enquiries

About Spirent Communications plc

Spirent and Symmetricom to Address Critical Timing, Synchronization Issues Associated with Ethernet Mobile Backhaul

Japan’s Largest Internet Exchange Provider Leverages Spirent Solutions for 100G Ethernet Testing

Chunghwa Telecom Laboratories Selects Spirent for Cloud Security Testing

Spirent Receives Best of Interop Tokyo Award for High Speed Ethernet Solution

Spirent Helps Service Providers Overcome Operational Challenges of Ethernet Mobile Backhaul Migration

Spirent Achieves ‘Ready for IBM Rational’ Software Validation

Spirent Salutes the UK’s Unsung Network Heroes

Spirent Solutions Receive 2011 NGN Leadership Award

Sandvine Chooses Spirent for Mobile Core Testing of Network Policy Control

Spirent Showcases Successful LTE/UMTS Mobility Testing with Icera

Alcatel-Lucent and Spirent Demonstrate Highest Scalability and Performance of LTE Mobile Gateways Supporting Millions of Subscribers

Spirent Wins Test & Measurement World’s 2011 Best in Test Award

Spirent Recognized for Accomplishments in LTE Wireless Device Testing

Spirent, Extreme Networks Team to Demonstrate Performance of Industry’s Open Fabric Data Center Solutions

Spirent Brings Efficient Troubleshooting Test Solutions to Enterprises with cPacket Networks Real-Time Monitoring Switches

Spirent Demonstrates Industry’s First NTAF Specification-Based Testing Product at Interop 2011

Spirent Puts the Reality of Cloud Infrastructure and Application Performance to the Test

Spirent Advances Testing for Ethernet in the Mobile Backhaul

About Anue Systems

Icera Selects Spirent for Testing of Advanced Receivers in UMTS/HSPA+ Devices

University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory Partners with Spirent to Test Network Protection Devices

Spirent Showcases the Reality of Cloud and Data Center Network Performance at Interop 2011

Interim Management Statement (Unaudited)

Highlights – First quarter 2011

Results Summary

Performance Analysis

Highlights - third quarter 2011
Financial

Highlights - third quarter 2010
Financial