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NTS

Networking Testbench Suite

Overview

NTS is a combination of tools that allows the user to execute automatically a bunch of VHDL testbenches (system-level simulation) for an IP Core networking DUT (Device Under Test). Each testbench generates automatically the stimuli for testing a specific feature of the device.

In addition, testbenches also have the ability of analysing the results provided by the device in order to determine if these results are correct or not. This tool is executed by running a script, which automatically starts and finishes each testbench and logs test results in a log file.

In order to achieve this, NTS architecture consists of a series of RTL blocks (traffic generator, traffic checker, AXI configurator, test configurator, etc…).

It is specifically designed to be used as a complement of SOC-E Ethernet networking IP Cores and sold as an optional package. This product is not meant to be sold separately.

Key Features

  1. Pre-defined Test Plan Available

    Hundreds of test cases available that serve to simulate multiple behaviours & traffic scenarios of SOC-E networking IP Cores, including Time-Sensitive Networking.

  2. User-defined Tests

    By modifying the configuration packages it is possible to apply different configurations into SOC-E IP Cores as well as modify the stimulus, leading to new, customised test cases.

  3. Source Code Available

    Allowing to modify the RTL and adapt the existing testbenches for cases where configuration changes are not enough.

  4. Extended Tool Compatibility

    NTS is designed to be compatible with any standard tool that support hardware description languages such as VHDL or Verilog. AMD Vivado™ Design Suite and Aldec Riviera-PRO™ are internally verified to be compatible with NTS and the provided scripts.

  5. Automated & Pipelined Test Execution

    Save hours of simulation test execution by running scripting based test in background, allowing to run hours of high performance simulations without any human interaction.

Technical Specifications

  • Key Components

    • Traffic generation: frame generator injects traffic to the UUT according to the input files
    • Traffic checker: it is the module that analyses the traffic egressed by the UUT, including different fields of ethernet frame and autogenerated payload in order to extract statistics and detect the existence of errors
    • AXI configuration: this module allows to configure UUT registers through its AXI4-Lite interface according to the input files
    • Test configuration: this module allows to modify constants defined in the configuration packages
      • Port configuration package: defines the number of ports and their interfaces (gmii, sgmii, AXI-Stream, etc…)
      • Simulation configuration package: defines traffic characteristics (number of frames, size, MAC addresses, etc…)
      • Extended ports configuration package: this file is an extension of the previous one, whenever the number of ports is above the default one (above 4 ports)
    • Statistics Analyser:  this module allows to check automatically if the value of different statistic counters is correct according to the values specified in the golden file

  • Compatibility

    • NTS is compatible with the following SOC-E IP Core list:
      • HSR/PRP Switch (HPS) IP Core
      • Managed Ethernet Switch (MES) IP Core
      • Managed Redundant Switch (MRS) IP Core
      • Multiport TSN Switch (MTSN) IP Core
      • Ten Gigabit Ethernet Switch (TGES) IP Core
      • TSN Endpoint (ETSN) IP core

Technical Support, Verification & Deliverables

Technical Support

IP Licenses are provided along with a technical support package that ensures a direct communication channel with our highly experienced support engineers. This is vastly valued during customer product development & integration phases.

Verification

All our IP Cores are rigorously tested, hardware-validated and verified in real-life environments. A 3-phase based IP product verification is applied:

  • Entity / Block-oriented simulation
  • Global-oriented simulation
  • In-hardware validation

Deliverables

  • Encrypted / Source RTL code
  • Documentation
    • NTS user guide
    • Simulation test plan (according to the specific compatible SOC-E IP Core license purchased)
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HPS

  • Functionality HSR/PRP redundancy

  • Communication Interfaces RMII, MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 10M/100M/1G

  • Synchronization Stateless Transparent Clock (SLTC) with P2P delay mechanism

  • Redundancy HSR and PRP in multiple operation modes

  • Other FeaturesQoS, QuadBox-ready, cut-through in ring ports (HSR), MAC filtering

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MES

  • Functionality Managed Ethernet Switch

  • Communication Interfaces RMII, MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 10M/100M/1G

  • Synchronization IEEE 802.1AS, IEEE1588 (PTPv2)

  • Redundancy Device Level Ring (DLR), Media Redundancy Protocol (MRP)

  • Other FeaturesQoS, IEEE 802.1Q tag-based and Port-based VLANs, Spanning-Tree protocol, IEEE802.1X

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MRS

  • Functionality HSR/PRP redundancy + Legacy ethernet ports

  • Communication Interfaces RMII, MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 10M/100M/1G

  • Synchronization Stateless Transparent Clock (SLTC) with P2P delay mechanism

  • Redundancy HSR, PRP, DLR and MRP

  • Other FeaturesQoS, IEEE 802.1Q tag-based and Port-based VLANs, Spanning-Tree protocol, IEEE802.1X, cut-through in ring ports (HSR)

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MTSN

  • Functionality TSN Ethernet Switch

  • Communication Interfaces RMII, MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 10M/100M/1G

  • Synchronization IEEE 802.1AS, IEEE1588 (PTPv2)

  • Time-Sensitive Networking IEEE 802.1Qav, IEEE 802.1Qbv, IEEE 802.1Qci, IEEE 802.1CB, IEEE 802.1Qbu / IEEE 802.3br, IEEE 802.1Qcc

  • Other FeaturesQoS, IEEE 802.1Q tag-based and Port-based VLANs, Spanning-Tree protocol, IEEE802.1X

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TGES

  • Functionality TSN Ethernet Switch

  • Communication Interfaces RMII, MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 10M/100M/1G

  • Synchronization IEEE 802.1AS, IEEE1588 (PTPv2)

  • Time-Sensitive Networking IEEE 802.1Qav, IEEE 802.1Qbv, IEEE 802.1Qci, IEEE 802.1CB, IEEE 802.1Qbu / IEEE 802.3br, IEEE 802.1Qcc

  • Other FeaturesQoS, IEEE 802.1Q tag-based and Port-based VLANs, Spanning-Tree protocol, IEEE802.1X

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ETSN

  • Functionality TSN EndPoint

  • Communication Interfaces MII, GMII, RGMII or *Serialized (SGMII, QSGMII, etc…)

  • Port Speed 100M/1G/10G

  • Synchronization IEEE 802.1AS, IEEE1588 (PTPv2)

  • Time-Sensitive Networking IEEE 802.1Qav, IEEE 802.1Qbv, IEEE 802.1Qci, IEEE 802.1CB, IEEE 802.1Qcc

  • Other FeaturesQoS, IEEE 802.1Q tag-based and Port-based VLANs

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