Item: Spirent TestCenter
Rating: 8
Author: Guillaume Lopes

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Spirent TestCenter in order to validate network and Wan links through various tests. This is very useful to qualify a project or a Télécom link according to what has been ordered and what is delivered. Theses various tests allowed us to control the quality but also to detect configuration problems, that can be from what has been configured on Télécom or lan side.

Pros and Cons

Bandwidth test
QoS and traffic type generation
Software platform availability
Technical Support

QA
Various bugs to fix on software installation
Technical documentation
No Spirent classes available
Lack to fix major issues such as ntp for latency calculation

Most Important Features

Traffic generation
Bandwidth capacity that match our links bandwidth
Customization of QoS and traffic parameters
Easy remote deployment on remote sites

Return on Investment

Allows to qualify a link or a project to validate end of this one
Allowed to detect various configuration issues that were fixed right after
Allow to use virtual machines for easy remote deploykents
Neharive: upgrade can depreciate products and newer products have sometimes better bandwidth capacity but less features

Alternatives Considered

I wasn't able to specifically test other big products but I did use other free products in the past such as iperf, but free softwares don't allow the same level of support ans ease to use than Spirent

Key Insights

Do you think Spirent TestCenter delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Spirent TestCenter's feature set?

Did Spirent TestCenter live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Spirent TestCenter go as expected?

Would you buy Spirent TestCenter again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (npm), SecureCRT, Sublime Text

Likelihood to Recommend

Spirent solution is well suited to qualify a Lan infrastructure bandwidth capacity or a device itself capacity such as a router or a firewall for example. But this solution in our case is also well suited to test a complex and numbered mpls environment.
I would not recommend it to a small business as the solution is very expensive: châssis and card cost are expensive and the solution requires to be an advanced user in system, not only on network devices

Bandwidth capacity tests on wan links
Validate QoS a cross multiple links type
Allow to go up to 1p or even 100gbps

Innovative Uses

Télécom access loop test as we didn't have Spirent remote machine in the other side

Future Planned Uses

Don't. Know

Likelihood to Renew

7 because they lack to improve some major bugs we have exchanged about with them

A good traffic generator but be careful to the features you need

Overall Satisfaction with Spirent TestCenter