SierraNet M328

Ethernet, the most ubiquitous networking technology in the computer industry, has been used for a myriad of communications solutions over the past 20+ years and is the backbone of the Internet, corporate datacenter and enterprise applications, modern telephony infrastructures, and all the associated devices.

The “original” serial communication interface, newer high-speed Ethernet deployments provides a bi-directional, physical or logical, lower latency connection between the user/client and their device(s).  Serial transmissions enable much longer connection distances as compared to parallel transmission methods, because far fewer signal lines are required, thereby reducing noise created by multiple signal lines all switching at the same time (cross talk).

Ethernet has long been the data-communications choice for the corporate network as a reliable interconnectivity solution.  The evolution of speeds as well as multi-vendor networks requires adherence to the IEEE standards for Ethernet and an industry commitment to interoperability testing for standards conformance.

Advancements in storage protocols support and physical transport speeds, and improvements in reduced latency is elevating Ethernet to rival Fibre Channel for support of block oriented storage traffic in SAN (Storage Area Network) applications.

Ethernet relies on direct attached copper (DAC) cabling. However, to enable longer distance communications, it is designed to work with either optical fiber physical medium or copper cables in many connector and cable type configurations.  Copper cables are relatively inexpensive, but they are useable only for shorter distances, in the range of 5-meters at 10GbE and ~3-meters at 25GbE. In general, the higher the transmission speed, the shorter the distance that can be reliably supported by copper cable technology.  A variety of copper solutions are available, the most commonly used being DAC cabling in both SFP (Small Form-factor Pluggable) and QSFP (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable) configurations. SFP and QSFP optical cabling solutions are also available, supporting reliable transmission distances greater than 10 meters, up to about 10 kilometers.

• 1U form-factor with rack mount kits
• Eight SFP+ FlexPorts, supporting 10/25/40/50/100Gbps Ethernet, and up to 32G Fibre Channel over optical or copper connections
• Advanced, multi-state triggering & filtering
• Digital Phy, re-timed capture
• Standard 32GB, 64GB or 128G recording buffers
• Dynamic memory allocation
• Extensive Ethernet protocols supported, including FCoE, NVMe/oF, RoCE and iSCSI
• Multiple trace view formats
• Seamless WireShark integration
• USB 3.0 & Gigabit Ethernet Host Interfaces for fast upload and easy management

The SierraNet M328 is the most cost effective, advanced and fully integrated Ethernet and Fibre Channel data capture, protocol verification, and frame/data modification systems available for developers and protocol test engineers. The M328 protocol analysis systems provide engineers with 100% recording of all Fibre Channel and Ethernet related traffic at full line rates on all ports while maintaining the link integrity through the digital probe technology.

The SierraNet M328 hardware platform and Net Protocol Suite™ user interface provides the highest level of performance and flexibility available in the market. SierraNet offers developers, test and support engineers with a compact, extremely flexible, multi-function protocol analyzer and traffic impairment platform.

The SierraNet M328 employs Teledyne LeCroy’s leading FlexPort™ technology providing ultimate flexibility in analysis of traditional or converged Ethernet and Fibre Channel products in a single platform and the flexibility to add protocol specific features, functionality, and speed support at the time of purchase or later by simply adding optional license keys.  

Each SierraNet FlexPort pair can probe both Ethernet – up to 25GbE – and Fibre Channel – up to 32GFC – links over DAC, AOC or optical transceiver and cabling and eliminates the need for separate “single function” blades, pods, or adapters found in some competitive products.  The pairs may be aggregated to support higher density links, 50GbE (25GbE x 2 links) up to 100Gbps Ethernet (25GbE x 4 links)

In addition to FlexPort technology, the SierraNet M328’s sophisticated analysis software, the Net Protocol Suite™, provides unmatched flexibility with customized data displays that easily and quickly navigate users to specific events of interest.  Decoding in the Net Protocol Suite’s multiple trace views provide superior visibility for troubleshooting low level to application layer issues, decoding traffic per the supported specifications and their associated encoding schemes, and the zero-time search and filter capabilities easily find Ethernet and Fibre Channel events in a contextual and intuitive way.  In a multi-protocol environment, Teledyne LeCroy’s CrossSync™ can synchronize and correlate traces with our other leading protocol analysis tools, such as the PCI Express Gen3 and Gen4 Summit analyzers, to understand how traffic, stimulus, and/or errors propagate across bridges or adapters.

The SierraNet M328 platform is Compact, Portable, and Light Weight. The SierraNet is currently the Smallest (1U) and lightest (9.5lbs) Fibre Channel and Ethernet protocol analyzer and traffic modification platform in the market, saving valuable real estate and rack space in customer labs and is the best portable solution for engineers on the move.  SierraNet provides users the lowest cost of ownership per engineer, and the lack of maintenance or support fees for subsequent years of operation means strained budgets are not tapped just to keep up with evolving specifications and advancements.

The SierraNet M328 offers the fastest and most convenient access to the data that engineers need with either a USB3.0 or GE interface.  As USB is Plug and Play, this is particularly useful when capturing large amounts of data is necessary, but a quick connection to the analyzer is required, such as at a customer site.  In addition to the performance and ease-of-use of the USB3.0 interface, a Gigabit Ethernet Host Interface is also standard on the SierraNet platforms, and the IP Address set-up menus on the front panel eliminate the time and complexity required to configure an analyzer via a null-modem cable and hyper-terminal interface used on competitive products.

The SierraNet M328 also offers the best Time-Stamp Resolution in the market. The SierraNet family has been enhanced with a 1ns time-stamp resolution/accuracy, setting a new industry standard for trace analysis and for timing measurements required for testing high performance SAN products, particularly where latency is a key metric of success.

Additionally, the SierraNet family’s Advanced State Machines are easy to use and help Engineers Trigger, Filter, and Inject errors with surgical precision with up to 4 sequencers and up to 24 states per sequencer to concisely target areas of interest and save precious time. When the user can not accurately define the conditions associated with a problem and needs to capture a broad swath of traffic to identify a cause of an issue, the SierraNet will dynamically assign the largest and most flexible recording memory in the industry to one port or spread the memory use across all eight ports based on the traffic profile.