Case Study - G3 Nova

As the industry moves forward, fully integrated high availability server platforms are an increasingly significant requirement for customers.

As the market demands greater purchasing efficiencies and long term cost benefits from suppliers, many are experiencing a fundamental shift in business direction towards the provision of fully integrated high availability server platforms and the consequent establishment of new strategic industry partnerships.

Whatever the final application, be it e-mail servers, e-commerce front ends, web servers, client server platforms, virtual private networks, CT platforms etc. - it all starts with a computer. A typical supply chain might involve the industrial-grade platform from Supplier A being sold to Supplier B to integrate a systems board and then may go to Supplier C for loading of application-specific software before being sold to the end user. For these generally critical and costly systems, an alternative single source of supply will present clear financial and efficiency benefits.

In this respect, I-Bus and Sun Microsystems have recently joined forces to develop a new generation of fully integrated, scalable high availability server platforms that can meet price-performance targets across the OEM market. These complete end-to-end solutions incorporate hardware and software components that have been pre-tested, tuned for the Sun environment, and proven in real-world environments. This offers major advantages not only in terms of system performance, flexibility and revision control, but also in terms of ongoing cost savings.

To this end, I-Bus and G3 Nova have come together to provide a total solution for customers seeking fully integrated high availability servers. The following article gives two possible configurations, a Single-End Load Tester and an End-to-End Load Tester.

The diagram below presents the testing configuration of a generic Single-End Load Tester.

In the above diagram, the test component in charge with the test synchronization, automatic SUT locating and configuring, channels mapping and the result analysis. The Test Agent is the test component that executes test scenarios by generating test stimuli, record SUT responses, then reports the results to the Test Manager. The Test Stimulus is the primitive element of the test scenario "translated" into the SUT language. SUT Response represents the direct or indirect effect of the Test Stimulus. For Load Testers, multiple Test Stimuli are applied to the SUT on every channel. In this case, SUT can be a CT Application, a CT Device or a combination of them (e.g. IVRs, VRUs, Fax Servers, Voice Mail Systems, etc).

In the second scenario, the End-to-End Load Tester, the diagram is as follows:

In the generic End-to-End Load Tester, The Test = Test A + Test B, executed simultaneously. The Result = Result A + Result B, analyzed together. For Load Testers, multiple Test Stimuli are applied to the SUT on every channel. In this case, the SUT could be a Switch, a Router, a Gateway or any combination of them.

As the market for high availability platforms matures, the ability to provide a complete integration service such as that provided by I-Bus will be an increasingly important factor in choosing flexible solutions for the long term.

G3 NOVA Technology specializes in mission critical, platform-independent software product development for the Computer Telephony (CT) and Internet industries. G3 NOVA was incorporated in 1999 as a spin-off of Genoa Technology, a world leader in the design and development of test solutions for CT and facsimile manufacturers.

With over 10 years of experience managing multinational teams in the development of complex software products (both on-site and at remote locations), G3 NOVA has a deep understanding of software development cycles. All G3 NOVA engineers have extensive backgrounds in software and protocol testing, insuring the development of robust and reliable software products.