iSCSI over Data Center Bridging (DCB) interoperability testing verifies the functionality of the DCB protocol when integrated with iSCSI traffic among a set of devices from a variety of vendors. Throughout the testing process, several device topologies are incorporated to observe behavior in a collection of scenarios. Since the technology is still in a relatively early stage, the protocols defining its implementation are subject to change. As a result, this creates a small set of complications that must be addressed in order to successfully carry out the testing procedure.
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has recently been discussing the possibility of using the M and O flags in Router Advertisements to control the CE Router's DHCP client. After hosting our third IPv6 Customer Edge (CE) Router Interoperability Test Event, held November 7-11, 2011, the UNH-IOL documented the findings below.
The UNH-IOL has a dual mission to provide a neutral environment to foster multivendor interoperability, conformance to standards and improvement of data networking, while educating students and preparing them for future employment in the industry. As a full-scale, non-profit test lab, the UNH-IOL employs approximately 150 personnel, over 100 of which are undergraduate and graduate students. Student employees (or technicians as they are sometimes referred to at the lab) often emerge from the academic fields of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and continue to attend classes at UNH while working at our facility.
While the IEEE 1588v2 specification can no longer be considered a new standard, its presence is still felt in new application areas. The scope of the standard is expanding into emerging and existing markets such as Smart Grid, telecommunications, industrial manufacturing, audio/video bridging, and data centers, and as a result, many companies are developing products that implement the standard. As implementation of IEEE 1588v2 continues to expand across various industries, the presence of interoperability issues also increases. This scenario has been illustrated in the past by other standards that experienced a similar uptake in broad market adoption.
One of the most frequent questions we receive about Ethernet lately is, "I see you have a 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet Consortium, but do you actually have any devices to test?" The answer is a qualified yes; while our test bed is small, it's growing every day and test reports are going out. However, it turns out that the most aggravating problems with 40 and 100 Gigabit devices are not related to conformance to the 40 and 100 Gigabit Ethernet standard, but to the availability of components such as optical modules and PHY silicon.
Did you notice any problems accessing your favorite websites last Wednesday? On Wednesday, June 8, the Internet Society coordinated World IPv6 Day, a 24-hour IPv6 "test flight." For most Internet users, June 8 was no different than any other day. There was no ticker on news programs or front page headlines stating that the Internet had melted down. In fact, there were no major issues encountered on World IPv6 Day at all, which is good news for the future of IPv6 technology.