Spirent's Smartbits, IXIA's equivalent & Agilent's Routertester - Anyone ?

[mtevans]

I am looking at purchasing test equipment that will test throughput, latency and also stress test our Cisco network components and end to end "circuit" connectivity.

I have come across only three manufacturers of such test equipment - IXIA, Spirent and Agilent. These three seem to be the ones that are used in Network Equipment Testing shootouts in all of the magazines.

Has anyone out there evaluated network test equipment ?

Has anyone out there gone through an RFP process with any/all of these?

If you have any information I would really appreciate it.

[j-lau]

I have, and my team currently uses SmartBits which works pretty well - if you keep in mind what it can and can not do.

I think one the biggest pieces of advice I give is that it's important to start with business requirements and move from there - rather then start with technical requirements and identify test equipment...

[mtevans]

j-lau,

You say that you have - does this mean that you have evaluated each manufacturers offering and/or that you have gone through an RFP process ?

I was beginning to think that no one out there actually tests thier equipment/circuits, I have been posting this same message for the past month on multiple discussion boards and this is the first time I have gotten a response.

So..if you have any info that you can share/email to me regarding RFP content I would appreciate it.

Thanks in advance - Mike