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Industry’s Highest Density FlexE 100GBASE-R PHY Solution

Introducing the industry’s highest density Flex Ethernet (FlexE) test solution with the ability to test both standard and Flex Ethernet traffic for maximum value to meet today’s complex testing needs.

Industry's First ITU-T G.mtn-ready Test Solution

Spirent FlexE-100 test solution is the industry’s most feature rich FlexE-based network slicing test solution, designed to meet the most demanding 5G requirements for network slicing, ultra-low latency and high availability.

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High Density FlexE and Traditional Ethernet Testing

스파이런트의 새 pX3 유연 이더넷 솔루션은 차세대 유연 이더넷 지원 라우터 및 데이터 센터 패브릭의 유효성 검사를 위해 설계된 세계 최고 밀도의 FlexE 100GBASE-R PHY 테스터입니다.

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What is Flex Ethernet?

FlexE is a key technology used in various industries for high density requirements to deliver faster network speeds vs emerging Ethernet solutions. It provides a generic mechanism for supporting a variety of Ethernet MAC rates that may or may not correspond to any existing Ethernet PHY rate. This includes MAC rates that are both greater than (through bonding) and less than (through sub-rate and channelization) Ethernet PHY rates used to carry FlexE.

FlexE dissociates Ethernet rate on the client end from the actual physical interface by introducing a new shim through IEEE defined MAC and PCS layers.

What is FlexE

FlexE Capabilities

Bonding of Ethernet PHYs

  • Combine a group interface to create higher rate clients
  • Support higher bandwidth service

FlexE Bonding 


Sub-rating of Ethernet PHYs

  • Ability to under-fill an interface
  • Ability to match the client or service rate to transport network

FlexE Sub Rating


Channelization within a PHY or a group of bonded PHYs

  • Aggregate lower rate clients onto an interface
  • Scalable alternative to VLANs
Channelization

What is 5G Transport? Why is Network Slicing needed?

  • 5G enables new applications such as AR, IoT, industrial automation, and autonomous vehicles (they drive diverse bandwidth, latency, security and time synchronization requirements for transport network)
  • Network slicing is needed to meet these diverse requirements for different customers and applications
  • 5G transport network consists of fronthaul, midhaul and backhaul
  • New fronthaul protocols such as eCPRI and NGFI are designed to allow BBU to scale, to increase bandwidth and reduce latency by transporting radio traffic more efficiently over Ethernet
  • FlexE provides a hard pipe network slicing solution with calendar-based channelization
  • Segment routing transport with EVPN service plane reduces the network complexity and enables SDN with full network programmability

What is ITU-T G.mtn Standard?

ITU-T G.mtn (interfaces for a metro transport network) is an emerging international standard that defines two new layers (path and section) for metro networks to transport 5G radio access network (RAN) traffic, both centralized (C‑RAN) and distributed (D‑RAN) over standard Ethernet and FlexE.

G.mtn provides an end to end transport network architecture with the ability to meet the most demanding 5G requirements for network slicing, ultra-low latency and high availability.



Resources

First Successful Carrier Flex Ethernet Test

Read press release about the first successful carrier Flex Ethernet line test completed, promoting FlexE applications in MAN and 5G networks, and accelerating commercialization of FlexE technology.

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Spirent FlexE Test Solution

Orchestrate large scale FlexE and traditional Ethernet testing with the industry’s highest density FlexE test solution from Spirent.

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FlexE Performance Demo

Read about FlexE demonstration conducted at OFC 2018 with our Partner Precise ITC, an important step towards deployment of next generation network slicing services.

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