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The UNH-IOL Bridge Functions Consortium is a world-class test house for standards-based Bridging (Ethernet switching) technologies.

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A list of current Bridge Functions Consortium member companies is available on our Members page. Some member companies are unlisted at the request of the member company.

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Many benefits exist for member companies of the Bridge Functions Consortium. In addition to having access to one of the most diverse test beds in the world dedicated to interoperability testing, member companies also receive comprehensive conformance testing, industry-accepted UNH-IOL test reports, and many marketing and PR opportunities.

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Detailed Membership requirements are outlined in the Bridge Functions Consortium Charter. In general, Bridge Functions Consortium member companies agree to: 1. Abide by the terms and conditions set forth in the UNH-IOL Usage Agreement and the Bridge Functions Consortium Charter. 2. Full payment of the annual membership fee for the Bridge Functions Consortium. 3. Provide at least one representative platform to the Bridge Functions Consortium test bed for at least 18 months, so that it is available for use in interoperability testing by other member companies.

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Security of the equipment and intellectual property housed at the UNH-IOL is one of our highest priorities. The UNH-IOL facility is physically accessible only by UNH-IOL personnel and visitors escorted by UNH-IOL personnel. Access to other member(s) device(s) or component(s) is allowed only via a specific network interface(s) for gathering Bridge interoperability information. Information that can be obtained via such network interface(s) is deemed interoperability information. All other access are available only to equipment owner and UNH-IOL personnel. In addition, member companies agree to the terms and conditions set forth in UNH-IOL Usage Agreement Section 5.0 Confidentiality.

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Prospective members must read and agree to the UNH-IOL Usage Agreement and Bridge Functions Consortium Charter, then complete, sign and send us the Membership Application along with payment or purchase order for the Membership fee.

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Member companies schedule a slot of testing per membership at a time. During that slot members get three weeks of testing during which they can select three test suites from our Test Suites page. Test results are provided at the end of the week.

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No. Attendance is not required in order for us to perform scheduled testing. However, members who attend often find it easier to troubleshoot issues as they are discovered. In addition, members who attend are not limited to our Test Suites; they are welcome and encouraged to perform their own testing utilizing our test bed as an extension of their own in-house test lab.

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There are no limits set. Test slots are reserved on a first-come, first served basis. Member companies may reserve one slot per membership at once, and are allowed to reserve another slot per membership when the previous reservation expires. For example, you would like to request the slot starting on the week of November 20, 2012 for testing, this week is reserved for you if it is available. On Friday November 24, 2012, you may then request another week for testing. This allows for fair access to all consortium member companies.

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Yes. Member companies can request X week(s) per X membership(s). In other words, if you have two memberships you may reserve two weeks at once. At the end of the two weeks, you may reserve another two weeks. The first-come, first served basis still applies.

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We offer Overtime Testing to member companies for urgent testing requests. Overtime Testing is usually available immediately, as testing is conducted outside normal business hours (i.e., night shift or weekend). Please contact the Bridge Functions Manager for further information.

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Sample reports for all of our test suites are available for download on our Test Suites page. Custom reports can be generated on a limited basis by request. Please contact us for details.

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Confidentiality of results is the utmost importance to us. All test results are documented in formal UNH-IOL test reports which are provided solely to the member company whose device(s) are tested, and no others. Report recipients are free to distribute copies of their test reports at their discretion, provided they adhere to the guidelines described in Section 6.2.1 of the UNH-IOL Usage Agreement.

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Bridge Functions Consortium offers conformance testing, interoperability testing, and feature verification testing of Bridging (Ethernet switching) technologies. A list of test suites is available on our Test Suites page.

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Conformance testing refers to test services (i.e., test suites), whose tests are based on specific clauses of the reference standard on which the technology is based. In general, for every "shall" statement found in the given clause, the test suite will contain a test (or sequence of tests) to verify that the Device Under Test (DUT) conforms to the requirements of that particular statement. Interoperability testing is a slightly different class of testing, whereby a DUT is tested against a set of reference devices that make up the interoperability Test Bed. This is a system-level test in which an attempt is made to verify that the DUT can successfully interoperate with each of the selected link partners to achieve some minimum predetermined metric, for example an operational Spanning Tree topology. This type of testing verifies the basic operation of the system as a whole, with a variety of link partners and configurations typical of what would be expected in the real world. A report is generated that shows the various link partners and configurations that were tested, and any issues that may have been observed. When interoperability issues are encountered, our conformance test tools and procedures can often be used to isolate and troubleshoot various issues that are discovered during the course of interoperability testing, thus helping to identify the root cause of the interoperability problem. Feature verification testing is similar to conformance testing in nature, the difference is that there may not be a standard available which specifies implementation guidelines or conformance requirements, but is a feature that is widely supported. For example, Rate Limiting.

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Yes.

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Yes. Please contact us.

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Yes, provided that the terms and conditions set forth in Section 6.2.1 of the UNH-IOL Usage Agreement are not violated.

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Yes. However, all public literatures such as press release and white paper that mentions UNH-IOL must be approved by UNH-IOL. Please contact us.

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Yes. The general UNH-IOL marketing kit can be found on our marketing page.