Mu Dynamics, Inc., the leader in
testing next-generation network services, today announced the
availability of a significant addition to its award-winning product
portfolio with the introduction of the Mu Test Suite for IPv6. Designed
for network equipment manufacturers, government agencies and wired and
wireless service providers that need to ensure they can effectively
support IPv6 (the next-generation of the Internet Protocol), the Mu Test
Suite for IPv6 enables customers to significantly reduce their time to
test, and accelerate their IPv6 migration efforts.
Mu accomplishes this by taking a unique adaptive approach to testing
NGN services, thus giving these organizations the ability to meet the
looming deadlines for IPv6 migration in significantly less time than
with traditional tools. Initial customers include Tier-1 global service
providers, government agencies, leading network equipment manufacturers
and others. Government agencies, in particular, have a set deadline of
July 1, 2010, by which time all networking infrastructure procurements
must be in compliance with the requirements of the USGv6 Test Program,
which mandates conformance, interoperability and network protection
testing.
"As an accredited laboratory in delivering IPv6 testing for the USGv6
Test Program, and leveraging our extensive experience in managing the
IPv6 Ready Logo program, the University of New Hampshire
InterOperability Lab is using Mu’s Test Suite to deliver automated
testing for network protection devices," said Erica Johnson, director of
the UNH InterOperability Lab. "With an impending deadline of July 1
that requires all government agencies to acquire networking equipment
that is USGv6 certified, the Mu Test Suite helps us automate tests that
otherwise would have needed to be performed manually, saving us precious
time."
Since IPv6 introduces a completely new way of addressing end points
in a network, IPv6 migration has ramifications from the network layer
all the way up to the application layer. Applications using protocols
that embed IP addresses such as HTTP and SIP must be thoroughly tested
since they will be affected with IPv6. Networking infrastructure such as
security gateways and application-aware systems must also be tested for
security and resilience to ensure attacks over IPv6 are prevented.
Internally developed test cases and static tests tools are limiting due
to extensive time and labor requirements – something that most
organizations do not have.
The Mu Solution
The Mu Test Suite for IPv6 makes it easy for organizations to create
automated test cases:
— The Mu solution takes traffic from a unique IPv4 environment, and then auto-generates a comprehensive IPv6 test suite consisting of custom-tailored tests based on these packet captures
— Mu’s realistic, stateful recreation of IPv4 and IPv6 flows enables it to accurately emulate different components in both native and "dual-stack" (transitional) environments
— Automated regression testing minimizes manual setup of third-party client devices and versions. With its multi-host simulation ability, the Mu Test Suite can act as client, client and server, or even multiple clients and servers testing intermediate devices
— Mu’s adaptive approach and its data-driven testing helps to rapidly generate thousands of test cases for the complex interactions unique to each specific system configuration
— Mu automatically generates thousands of malformed fuzz tests. This greatly increases test coverage, helping testers and developers find and fix bugs earlier
— Mu offers pcapr, a crowd-sourced packet capture repository – now the largest in the world with more than 59 million packets and over 400 protocols – which includes various tools and utilities such as an IPv4 to IPv6 packet converter
A Tier-1 global service provider is today using the Mu Test Suite for
IPv6 to help migrate its internal network to IPv6. Its transition team
will be performing feature and resilience tests on over 200 service
elements of the network over the coming months in order to find and fix
high-severity issues.
"If Y2K was technology’s ticking time bomb, then IPv6 is a slow,
deadly gas leak," said Simon Berman, Mu vice president of products.
"Service providers, government agencies and businesses everywhere are
running out of time and IP addresses. If they do not support IPv6 in
time, they risk being faced with critical applications that simply do
not work, as well as a host of security loopholes, literally freezing
their businesses in its tracks."
Mu Dynamics and the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Lab
are offering a complimentary webinar entitled "Innovative Testing
Solutions to Ease Your IPv6 Migration" on May 12, at 10 a.m. (PST).
