Finisar

Finisar provides professional network testing and analysis solutions designed to help engineers evaluate, troubleshoot, and optimize high-performance communication infrastructures.

Its testing platforms support a wide range of networking and storage technologies, including Ethernet, VoIP, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet. These solutions provide detailed visibility into network traffic, protocol behavior, performance, errors, and quality of service, helping organizations validate network equipment and maintain reliable connectivity.

Ethernet Full-Line Rate Network Testing

Finisar Ethernet testing solutions are designed to analyze network traffic across 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, and 1000 Mbps Ethernet environments.

The Surveyor platform, together with Finisar THG-series analyzer hardware, supports full-line-rate monitoring and analysis of 10/100/1000 Ethernet traffic. Engineers can capture and analyze network traffic while monitoring counters, protocols, errors, and network conditions.

Key Ethernet Testing Capabilities

• 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet analysis
• Full-line-rate traffic monitoring
• Packet capture and analysis
• Network protocol decoding
• Traffic utilization monitoring
• Error and alarm detection
• Network performance analysis
• Traffic generation and transmission
• Real-time monitoring
• Troubleshooting and fault isolation

VoIP QoS Testing

Finisar provides specialized analysis capabilities for Voice over IP environments, enabling engineers to monitor and evaluate the quality of voice services carried over Ethernet networks.

The Multi-QoS capabilities of Surveyor can analyze major VoIP signaling protocols including H.323, SIP, and Cisco SCCP. It also provides analysis of important quality metrics such as jitter, dropped packets, call setup time, and R-factor measurements.

VoIP QoS Analysis

• VoIP call monitoring
• SIP and H.323 analysis
• Cisco SCCP analysis
• Jitter measurement
• Packet loss analysis
• Call setup time measurement
• Network R-factor analysis
• Call detail analysis
• Channel-level monitoring
• QoS alarms and thresholds

These capabilities allow network engineers to identify conditions that can negatively affect voice quality and determine whether problems originate from network congestion, packet loss, excessive jitter, or other network conditions.

Fibre Channel Test Instruments

Finisar's Xgig platform provides specialized testing and analysis capabilities for high-speed storage networking environments.

Xgig was developed as a multi-function, multi-protocol test platform for Fibre Channel and other high-speed storage technologies. Its capabilities include protocol analysis, traffic generation, error injection, and performance testing, helping engineers validate storage systems and networking equipment.

Fibre Channel Applications

• Fibre Channel protocol analysis
• Storage network monitoring
• Traffic generation
• Performance validation
• Error injection and recovery testing
• Device interoperability testing
• SAN troubleshooting
• High-speed storage network validation
• Protocol compliance testing

The platform has supported Fibre Channel testing across multiple generations of technology, allowing engineers to test both current and legacy storage networking environments.

InfiniBand and High-Speed Network Testing

High-speed data center and computing environments require specialized test equipment capable of handling demanding traffic conditions and high-bandwidth protocols.

Finisar's testing technologies can be applied to high-speed networking environments where detailed traffic analysis, performance validation, and troubleshooting are required. The company's optical connectivity portfolio also supports InfiniBand applications across multiple generations, reflecting its focus on high-speed data communication infrastructure.

Multi-Protocol Network Analysis

One of the key advantages of Finisar's testing platforms is their ability to analyze different network technologies using specialized hardware and software within an integrated testing environment.

Engineers can use these solutions to:

• Monitor live network traffic
• Capture packets and protocol transactions
• Generate controlled network traffic
• Analyze protocol behavior
• Detect network errors
• Measure performance and utilization
• Investigate QoS problems
• Validate network equipment
• Perform interoperability testing
• Troubleshoot complex network environments

Fibre Channel over Ethernet Testing

Finisar also developed Xgig-based solutions for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), combining Ethernet networking with Fibre Channel storage traffic.

The Xgig 10GE/FCoE test suite included an analyzer for network visibility, a load tester for generating traffic and stressing network equipment, and a jammer for testing robustness, priority traffic handling, and error recovery.

Typical Applications

Network Equipment Testing

Validate switches, routers, gateways, storage devices, network interfaces, and other communication equipment under realistic traffic conditions.

Network Troubleshooting

Capture and analyze traffic to identify protocol errors, abnormal network behavior, congestion, packet loss, and performance problems.

Performance Testing

Generate controlled traffic and measure throughput, utilization, latency-related conditions, and other network performance characteristics.

VoIP Service Validation

Evaluate voice traffic and QoS parameters to identify network conditions that may impact call quality.

Storage Network Testing

Analyze Fibre Channel traffic and validate the performance and interoperability of SAN equipment and storage infrastructure.

Data Center Network Testing

Support high-speed Ethernet, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand, and converged network environments used in modern data centers.

Benefits

Full-Line-Rate Network Visibility

Analyze Ethernet traffic at 10, 100, and 1000 Mbps with hardware designed for full-line-rate monitoring.

Detailed Protocol Analysis

Obtain deeper visibility into network protocols, traffic behavior, and communication sessions.

Comprehensive QoS Monitoring

Evaluate VoIP quality using multiple call and network performance metrics.

High-Speed Storage Testing

Test Fibre Channel and other high-speed storage networking technologies using specialized Xgig platforms.

Advanced Troubleshooting

Capture network conditions and analyze errors and protocol behavior to accelerate fault isolation.

Flexible Testing

Use analysis, traffic generation, and error-injection capabilities according to the requirements of the testing environment.

Typical Users

Finisar network testing solutions are suitable for:

• Telecommunications operators
• Network service providers
• Data center operators
• Network equipment manufacturers
• Storage system manufacturers
• Network engineers
• SAN engineers
• VoIP engineers
• R&D laboratories
• Field service and network maintenance teams

Comprehensive Testing for Modern Network Infrastructure

From Ethernet traffic analysis and VoIP QoS monitoring to Fibre Channel, FCoE, and high-speed network testing, Finisar provides specialized tools for validating complex communication and storage infrastructures.

With powerful traffic analysis, protocol decoding, performance monitoring, traffic generation, and troubleshooting capabilities, Finisar testing platforms help engineers verify network behavior, identify performance issues, and build more reliable high-speed communication environments.