R.C.A. Lab
Reliability, Certification and Assurance

When it has to be done right the first time!

Purpose
Reliability - Assuring performance of end user configurations
Certification - Certify a solution will work
Assurance - Ensure everything works as promised (ex. Especially before
a wide scale deployment in an enterprise IT environment)

Levels of Operation - 4 levels of testing or performance measurement:

• Level 1: Protocol Level Testing – equipment is tested to see that it meets
  industry standards

• Level 2: Hardware connectivity and qualification of equipment:
  test against the other equipment the product or app. will interface with
  test between other vendors products or apps. to ensure
  everything works reliably together
  test between users who want to guarantee they are getting what
  they need

• Level 3: Performance and throughput measurement – this is a integral part of lab work. Equipment or apps are tested to ensure they can provide the performance needed by the customer, tested against peak loads and heavy traffic. A key part of performance
  measurement is ensuring equipment can handle the expected
  demand and required throughput on a given network environment.
  Testing is key for end users who not only need the hardware to
  work, but must ensure their apps will perform.

• Level 4: Performance Impediment Replication (negative testing) –
  deliberately insert errors into the network components or apps (ex.
  Corrupted frames or spurious signals). Using specific traffic
  generators, these tests generally check the limits of a vendor’s
  (manufacturer’s) error correction and data integrity circuits and
  simulate worst case situations for the equipment.
  
  RCA Lab Configuration and Components
  Components of lab include a mixture of routers, switches, Hubs and WAN simulators as well as a mixture of systems with different operating systems (Unix, Linux, NT/W2K) and software applications (protocol analyzers, user simulation scripting and bit rate testing).