Microburst

Overview

Microburst is a phenomenon where data packets are transmitted in rapid burst. It can lead to periods of full line-rate transmission that overflow packet buffers of the network stack. Traffic flows and applications often show bursty behavior when transported across IP networks or in data centers. Microbursts, though short-lived, are difficult to detect and monitor and can cause network and application performance degradation, i.e. increased latency, jitter, and packet loss.

Given that microbursts are difficult to detect and have great negative impact on network and application performance and can result in business loss, enterprises networks, data centers, and network elements should test their ability to handle microbursts on different layers.

With its Valkyrie and Vulcan test platforms, Xena provides advanced microburst test solutions from stateless Layer 2-3 to stateful Layer 4-7 with different burst profiles at different link speeds, bandwidth utilizations, etc. Different burst profiles, i.e. burst size, packet size, and burst density, have different impacts and should therefore all be tested.

Submit your information above to download the full white paper.