Keysight Technologies expanded its product portfolio this week with a new network testing technology that aims to make it easier to test networks.

The new Keysight Elastic Network Generator (KENG) is intended to accelerate automation and facilitate collaborative testing between vendors. A core component of KENG is support for the open-source Open Traffic Generator (OTG) API project, which was started by Keysight in 2020. According to Keysight, the KENG software is the first platform of its kind based on an open, vendor-neutral API. Keysight says it represents a significant shift away from closed, proprietary legacy testing approaches.

The KENG enables the following key capabilities:

• Containerized operation for flexible continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) integration
• Vendor-neutral API for cross-platform collaboration
• Reuse of test cases across development and field environments
• Reduced time-to-test through emulated network topologies
• BGP and traffic generator testing

"The main promise that KENG brings is the promise of ‘write once, run anywhere’ for the end user," Alex Bortok, Sr. product manager at Keysight Technologies, told SDxCentral.com. "Once the test case is written in OTG API, any underlying traffic generator — commercial or open source — which is OTG compliant, can run it."

Keysight founded the OTG API project to enable better interoperability in network infrastructure testing. The OTG API allows for joint development of test suites across open-source networking projects.

"We applied it first to our contributions to SONiC and got a lot of positive feedback," Bortok said. "And then the OpenConfig project noticed our effort."

SONiC is an open-source network operating system, while OpenConfig is an open-source network configuration and policy project. Bartok explained that in OpenConfig, the OTG is an integral part of the compliance-as-a-code test suite called FeatureProfiles. OpenConfig members and suppliers all use this test suite to validate if a particular network operating system complies with OpenConfig specifications and, importantly, expected behavior.

OTG usage for SONiC is multifaceted, helping to enable high-performance testing. The open-source DENT network operating system has also adopted OTG as part of its testing regime.

The KENG release supports OTG and integrates with Keysight’s own network emulation products. This allows for running network tests across various environments, from local developer laptops to public cloud pipelines.

According to Keysight, KENG’s open design has already been field-tested successfully in facilitating multivendor testing. The company claims the software can accelerate network validation by up to four times compared to traditional solutions.

The promise of being able to run the same network traffic sets across different vendors and hardware is a capability that Bortok emphasizes. For example, he noted that tests can be developed using the Ixia-c containerized traffic generator or a developer laptop, executed in a cloud CI/CD pipeline, and then seamlessly run on other form factors like Keysight's latest off-the-shelf switch-based UHD400T, AresONE or Novus hardware traffic generators.

"KENG has a very different user experience than its predecessors; it is very lightweight and fast," Bortok said. "To deliver that, we developed brand-new controller software."

Overall, Bartok noted that KENG plays a significant role in the Open Testing Platform (OTP) that is being developed at Keysight.

"The OTP extends the KENG approach into dynamic, modular testbeds, creating a continuum between simulation, emulation and real testbeds," he said.