Ixia, a company that provides converged network testing services, has conducted a test of mobile backhaul packet synchronization in conjunction with Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert). The results of the test were positive, indicating that, even in conditions of extreme packet congestion and network failovers, Alcatel-Lucent’s Mobile Backhaul Solution could maintain both quality of service guarantees and phase synchronization.

"Using Ixia's (News - Alert) test products and expertise, we demonstrated that our timing synchronization and traffic forwarding performance meet strict requirements for carrying and scaling real-time mobile broadband services over packet-based backhaul networks," said Manish Gulyani, Alcatel-Lucent’s vice president of Networks Product Marketing.

To perform the text, Ixia used its IxNetwork application with full IEEE (News - Alert) 1588v2 protocol emulation. The company also deployed multiple devices for the test, including the 7705 Service Aggregation Router, 7210 Service Access Switches, 9500 Microwave Packet Radio and 7750 Service Router. The parameters of the test, including management and automation of the test, were conducted by Test Composer, which is part of Ixia’s IxNetwork application.

Test events for the network included traffic generation, link failures, slave clock emulation and clock measurements. User GUI actions were translated and recorded using the IxNetwork’s Macro Recorder, which converted the actions into Test Composer commands. Ixia and Alcatel will provide details about the test results at the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. The conference will run from February 27 to March 1.

Alcatel-Lucent provides telecommunications solutions in 130 countries for governments, enterprises and service providers around the world. In the United States, Alcatel-Lucent handles the preparation and upgrading of Verizon’s (News - Alert) backhaul systems to handle the voice and data backhaul for its 4G LTE network. Most recently, the telecommunications company signed a $700 million deal with Globe Telecom (News - Alert) to update networks in the Philippines, and the company is reportedly engaged in performing similar upgrades in Australia.