SierraNet M648

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.

• 2U form-factor with rack mount kits
• Analyze PAM4 Native Ethernet and Fibre Channel fabrics
  • 50/100/200GbE PAM4
  • 64GFC PAM4
• Fall-Back support for NRZ based links/speeds
  • 10/25/50/100GbE NRZ
  • 16/32GFC NRZ
• Layer 1 analysis support for link layer negotiation analysis
  • New 400GbE PAM4 AN/LT Only option
• Complete bi-directional capture of line rate traffic
• API for automation of test routines
  • Python scripts for popular Linux OS environments
  • Post capture, comprehensive analysis capabilities with Verification Script Engine™
• Deep memory buffers and pre-capture filtering for extended analysis needs
• Advanced, multi-state triggering & filtering
• Comprehensive, multi-condition Error Injection and Traffic Jamming capabilities
• Standard 64GB recording buffers
• Dynamic memory allocation
• Extensive Ethernet and Fibre Channel protocols supported, including FCoE, NVMe-oF, ORAN, PTP 1588, 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 M648 family offers the most cost effective, advanced and fully integrated Ethernet and Fibre Channel data capture and protocol verification systems available for developers and protocol test engineers. The M648 protocol analysis systems provide engineers with 100% recording of all Fibre Channel and Ethernet related traffic at full line rates on all ports and offers the addition of error injection and traffic corruption with our InFusion™ tools for advanced validation and verification testing.

The SierraNet M648 hardware platform and graphical user interface provides the highest level of performance and flexibility available in the market for legacy and todays’ emerging high-speed network and fabric deployments.

The SierraNet M648 provides ultimate flexibility in analysis and verification 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 the addition of license keys.

Each FlexPort SFP28 pair can probe both Ethernet and Fibre Channel links of speeds up to 50Gbps/link for Ethernet and/or 64G FC/link on copper or optical cabling and eliminates the need for separate "single function" blades, pods, or adapters found in some competitive products providing a highly compact, extremely flexible, multi-function protocol analyzer.

The SFP28 pairs may be aggregated to support 100Gbps Ethernet links, and the integrated QSFP-DD connections support all Ethernet rates – 50GbE, 100GbE and 200GbE link traffic – for both analysis and jamming applications. Additionally, the QSFP-DD connections support the Auto-Negotiation and Link Training analysis of 400GbE ISL links.

In addition to FlexPort technology, the SierraNet M648's sophisticated analysis and jamming software, the Net Protocol Suite, provides unmatched flexibility with customized data displays that easily identify and navigate to specific events of interest quickly. Decoding in the Net Protocol Suite's multiple trace views provide superior visibility for troubleshooting low level to application layer issues, decode 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 Summit analyzers, to understand how traffic, stimulus, and/or errors propagate across bridges or adapters.