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	Network Testing and Emulation Solutions

CT521-at7 Economy LANforge WiFIRE WiFi-7 3 radio WiFi Traffic Generator Supporting 57 Virtual STA Interfaces

The CT521-at7 wireless traffic generator is an excellent choice for testing Access Points and other WiFi networks. The 4x4 MTK7996 WiFi-7 (a/b/g/n/ac/AX/BE) chipset NICs can support 19 virtual stations per radio. They are packaged as three single-band radios (tri-band, tri-concurrent). Each of the Virtual Stations has its own IP address, IP port space, MAC address and routing table. The Virtual Stations can be assigned to communicate to a particular Access Point, use a particular SSID, and Open or WPA/WPA2 authentication assigned. More advanced 802.1X authentication is also included. Each radio can be configured independently of the other. Transmit power and channel/frequency is configured on a per-radio basis. Most other settings are configurable per virtual station.

There are three single-band MTK7996 WiFi-7 4x4 2.4/5/6GHz WiFi radios per CT521-at7 and multiple LANforge systems can be clustered together for even more realistic radio interference patterns and increased traffic generation capability.

All virtual stations on the same radio must be on the same frequency, but as long as the protocol supports that frequency, the multiple protocols can be used concurrently. For instance, if the radio is configured for a 2.4Ghz channel, the stations can be /b, /g, /n, or /ax. If the radio is on a 5Ghz channel, the stations can be /a, /n, ac, or ax. The bandwidth can be configured for all protocols.

The Virtual Stations may be configured with all of the virtual interfaces on the same subnet, or different subnets, depending on the testing requirements. When used with something like VoIP, it allows all of the VoIP calls to use the standard IP ports (with one call per virtual interface).

The CT521-at7 is a small system with 9 antenna. It will fit into a small travel bag or briefcase for easy portability. The system should be managed with the LANforge-GUI software installed on a laptop or PC, or over vnc or remote-desktop. The CT521-at7 can also be managed over a serial console in text mode. Maximum throughput for the CT521-at7 is about 1.4Gbps and is bound by the relatively weak CPU. For faster systems, consider the CT523c chassis.

Larger Images: front back

NOTE: This product may have a different hardware configuration than the system pictured above. Refer to your official quote for details.

Larger Images: front top

NOTE: This product may have a different hardware configuration than the system pictured above. Refer to your official quote for details.

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Candela Technologies Inc., 2417 Main Street, Suite 201, P.O. Box 3285, Ferndale, WA 98248, USA
www.candelatech.com | sales@candelatech.com | +1 360 380 1618

Example Network Diagram

Quick Start Guide

1. Connect Management Ethernet port to Management network or management PC. If connecting directly to a PC, an Ethernet cross-over cable should be used.
2. Connect eth1 wired Ethernet interface to wired Ethernet interface on the AP or network under test. This usually is considered the 'server' side of the network.
3. The Client side of the network will be the Virtual Stations configured on the CT521-at7 WiFi NIC(s).
4. Connect power to standard US or European AC power source. If using external battery pack, then connect to that instead. Click button to power on the unit.
5. The CT521-at7 should now boot. If DHCP is enabled on the Management network, the CT521-at7 will automatically acquire an IP address. If DHCP is not available, the IP address will be set to 192.168.1.101.
6. Install the LANforge-GUI on a separate management PC or Laptop, or use VNC or remote-desktop programs to access the LANforge system directly. Windows, MAC-OS and Linux GUIs are supported: Select the correct one from the web page served from the LANforge system and install it.
7. Start the LANforge-GUI on the management PC and click the 'Discover' button. It should find the CT521-at7 appliance and add the IP address to the drop-down box in the Connect widget. Press 'Connect' and you will be connected to the CT521-at7.
8. Select the Port Mgr tab in the GUI. Double-click on the device called 'wiphy0'. This is the Radio device, and should be configured for the correct, channel, country-code, etc. Next, select one or more of the Virtual Station interfaces and click 'Modify'. Enter the correct IP address information, SSID and WPA/WPA2 password (if Enabled). After applying these changes, the Virtual Station interface should associate with the AP and be ready to send traffic. You may create up to 57 Virtual Station interfaces per CT521-at7 with the 'Create' button.
9. Once the interfaces are configured correctly, you can click on the Layer 3, VOIP/RTP and other LANforge-FIRE related GUI tabs and configure/modify/start/stop particular traffic patterns that utilize the virtual stations and wired Ethernet interface. In most cases, you will want one of the FIRE endpoints to be on the wired interface and the other to be on the WiFi Virtual Station interface. It is also valid to generate traffic between two Virtual Station interfaces. The GUI Chamber View window provides some automated test suites. Contact support if you have suggestions for improvements.
10. Any GUI modifications take place immediately after you click 'Submit' or 'OK'.

LANforge WiFIRE Related Images

Software Features

1. Supports real-world protocols:
   1. Layer 2: Raw-Ethernet.
   2. 802.1Q VLANs.
   3. PPPoE: Integrated PPPoE support.
   4. Layer 3: IPv4, IPv6, UDP/IP, IGMP Multicast UDP, TCP/IP.
   5. Layer 4-7: FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, TFTP, SFTP, SCP
   6. WiFi-7 Wireless Station (up to 57 per machine).
   7. Layer 4-7: TELNET, PING, DNS, SMTP, NMAP (via add-on script).
   8. File-IO: NFSv3, NFSv4, CIFS, iSCSI.
2. Supports up to 1000 concurrent TCP connections with base license package.
3. The CT521-at7 is able to push up to about 1.4Gbps throughput, depending on the protocols mix, wireless mode and environment, and speed of the network under test. This system is CPU limitted, but the affordable price makes it easier to afford multiple units to spread around the network-under-test for greater combined throughput and/or feature testing. Consider the CT523c for more powerful systems.
4. Supports real-world compliance with ARP protocol.
5. Supports ToS (QoS) settings for TCP/IP and UDP/IP connections.
6. Uses publicly available Linux and Windows network stacks for increased standards compliance.
7. Utilizes libcurl for FTP, HTTP and HTTPS (SSL), TFTP and SCP protocols.
8. Supports file system test endpoints (NFS, CIFS, and iSCSI file systems, too!). File system mounts can use the virtual interface feature for advanced testing of file server applications.
9. Supports custom command-line programs, such as telnet, SMTP, and ping.
10. Comprehensive traffic reports include: Packet Transmit Rate, Packet Receive Rate, Packet Drop %, Transmit Bytes, Receive Bytes, Latency, Jitter, various Ethernet driver level counters, and much more.
11. Supports generation of reports that are ready to be imported into your favorite spread-sheet.
12. Allows packet sniffing and network protocol decoding with the integrated Wireshark protocol sniffer.
13. GUI runs as Java application on Linux, MAC and Microsoft Operating Systems (among others).
14. GUI can run remotely, even over low-bandwidth links to accommodate the needs of the users.
15. Central management application can manage multiple units, tests, and testers simultaneously.
16. Includes easy built-in scripting for iterating through rates and packet sizes, with automated reporting. Also supports scriptable command line interface (telnet) which can be used to automate test scenarios. Perl libraries and example scripts are provided!
17. Automatic discovery of LANforge data generators simplifies configuration of LANforge test equipment.
18. LANforge traffic generation/management software is supported on Linux and MS Windows.

Hardware Specification

1. Affordable Appliance with silent fan.
2. Operating System: Debian Linux with customized 64-bit Linux kernel.
3. Two 10Gbps, three 1Gbps Ethernet ports.
4. Integrated tri-band tri-concurrent MTK7996 4x4 WiFi-7 Radios.
5. Internal Antennas.
6. ARM quad-core 1.9Ghz processor.
7. USB Serial console (115200 8 N 1) for console management & initial configuration.
8. 2 GB RAM.
9. 60+ GB USB storage drive.
10. Larger storage drives available.
11. USB-C external power supply (brick).
12. Weight: 2 lbs
13. Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 5 inches   Metric: 200 x 130 x 130 mm.
14. Operating Temperature: -20 ~ 45°C.
15. Certification: CE Emission, FCC Class A, RoHS

List Price: $12,000     List Price with 1 Year support (17%): $14,040

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Additional Feature Upgrades

Unless otherwise noted in the product description, these features usually cost extra:

• WanPaths (LANforge-ICE feature set)
• Virtual Interfaces: MAC-VLANs, 802.1Q VLANs, WiFi stations, etc
• FIRE Connections: Base FIRE license includes 1000 active connections.
• WiFi RF Attenuator: Adjust WiFi signal strength in a controllable manner.
• RF Noise generator: Generate modulated WiFi RF noise.
• RF Noise / Radar Simulator: Simulate RADAR pulses and other non-modulated RF noise.
• SMA RF Cable Bundle: Used to cable LANforge WiFIRE radios to device-under-test.
• LANforge-ICE Network Emulation.
• VOIP: Each concurrent call over the included package requires a license.
• VoIP-Mobile Audio Quality Testing using POLQA/PESQ.
• Mobile-Mobile Audio Quality Testing using POLQA/PESQ.
• Armageddon: Each pair of ports requires a license if not already included.
• RF Chambers for WiFi testing.
• External battery pack: 12+ hours for CT520, CT523, CT92X and other platforms.