Agilent Technologies N2X multiservices test solution first to validate IPTV Quality of Experience under realistic, scalable triple-play network conditions

CHICAGO, GLOBALCOMM 2006, Booth 42057, June 5, 2006

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) today announced that its N2X multiservices test solution is the industry's first test solution for validating Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) service quality for thousands of subscribers under real-world video, VoIP and data-traffic conditions. Network equipment manufacturers and service providers can now use the N2X solution to characterize the ability of individual network elements or entire networks to meet IPTV Quality of Experience (QoE) expectations prior to deployment.

The Agilent N2X is the only triple-play test solution that simultaneously combines channel changing (zapping), hundreds of IPTV channels, and hundreds of thousands of VoIP and data-traffic streams to identify the true service quality experienced by every IPTV subscriber.

Carriers and service providers are completing their triple-play service bundle with IPTV services to compete with cable multiservice operators, and increase their average revenue per user (ARPU). A critical success factor for increasing IPTV service adoption and subscriber retention is satisfaction with the IPTV service quality.

Furthermore, dynamic subscriber behaviors, such as IPTV channel zapping, combined with a mix of triple-play traffic severely stresses access-network equipment, which can compromise the video quality. Network equipment manufacturers and service providers must ensure IPTV quality expectations can be met for every subscriber under realistic and highly scaled network conditions. Today, this testing is performed with many thousands of set-top boxes and hundreds of video sources, which is complex, expensive, labor-intensive and time-consuming, and offers only partial test coverage.

Agilent's N2X IPTV QoE test solution addresses these issues and characterizes the service-quality aspects on a per-subscriber basis. Each N2X port can emulate thousands of IPTV subscribers with simulated dynamic behaviors, as well as generate and receive highly scalable combinations of video, data and voice traffic. N2X can uniquely test the scalability limits of each network device, as defined by RFC 4445, by measuring Media Delivery Index (MDI) delay factor and loss metrics on a per-subscriber basis.

MDI is gaining widespread industry acceptance for testing network elements in a video-delivery infrastructure. It overcomes the scalability limitations of other video-quality measurements that are dependent on decoding the video, which provides little insight into the network's effect on the video. Agilent's N2X also replaces the need to test with a lab full of devices, providing engineers with significant time and cost savings, and greater flexibility and control over subscriber and traffic parameters.

"Only by generating thousands of subscribers with dynamic triple-play traffic patterns can engineers be truly confident that the networks they are building will be able to deliver the IPTV service quality levels that end-users demand," said Dave Bass, vice president and general manager of Agilent's Data Networks Division. "The N2X's new capabilities provide the most complete and scalable environment to cost-effectively help manufacturers and providers validate their network's ability to deliver quality IPTV services."

"The real-time requirements for video content delivery place significant demands on network infrastructure equipment," said Gary Southwell, leader of Juniper Network's IPTV Solutions group. "Agilent's IPTV QoE Test Solution allows us to simulate realistic network conditions around our Broadband Service Router so we can assure its ability to meet IPTV quality expectations in the presence of dynamic triple-play services. The fact that N2X can generate video traffic to thousands of simulated subscribers lets us scale our test configurations to reflect IPTV subscriber growth projections."

The Agilent N2X N5570A IPTV Quality of Experience solution can:

• validate IPTV infrastructure scalability limits by emulating and measuring thousands of subscribers and 500 channels per port of actual video clips per port;
• quantify IPTV QoE degradation due to the impact of other triple-play services, such as time-sensitive voice and bursty data traffic;
• create a real-world test environment, helping to ensure IPTV quality isn't compromised by network instabilities, by emulating dynamic subscriber behavior such as channel zapping, new Internet connection requests and DHCP session-flapping;
• validate IPTV service quality for every subscriber through per-subscriber MDI video quality measurements; and
• view actual video quality by replaying captured video, providing faster "time to insight."

Agilent is delivering a worldwide seminar series covering the challenges of deploying networks to deliver triple-play services with specific focus on testing IPTV service quality.

U.S. Pricing and Availability

The Agilent N2X multiservice test solution is available now at a starting price of $20,000. More information is available at www.agilent.com/find/n2x.

Product photos are available at www.agilent.com/find/N2X_image.

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 19,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenue of $5.1 billion in fiscal 2005. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

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Contact:

Janet Smith, Agilent
+1 970 679 5397
janet_smith@agilent.com

Johanna Vallecillo
Weber Shandwick, for Agilent
+1 408 530 8400, ext. 2232
jvallecillo@webershandwick.com