Sifos Technologies PhyView PVA-3000, Reference Manual

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PVA-3000 Reference Manual
December 2, 2019 Sifos Technologies Page
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A useful application of the THRU port would be to aid with impaired receiver testing using an external packet
analyzer. While the PVA offers internal packet generation and counting ability, more sophisticated generator/analyzers
may be required to enable testing with routers (layer 3 devices) or to overcome the multi-port restriction described
earlier in Section 1.3.12 by using ping protocol (ICMP packets) to evaluate receiver performance on a stand-alone
Ethernet port.
2.2. Test Port Resources
Figure 2.1 outlines all of the key test port resources in each PhyView Analyzer test port. At the heart of each test port
is the
TEST PHY . The TEST PHY is an essential element in each of the PhyView metrologies described earlier in
Section 1.3. The TEST PHY is managed by a Micro-Controller that is also dedicated per test port – this too is an
essential element to all of the above referenced metrologies.
Each test port also offers an array of passive and active impairments that may be used to enhance receiver testing ( see
Section 1.3.13 ). These include IEEE 802.3 worst-case line loss impairment, ingress alien crosstalk impairment, line
mismatch impairment, transmit timing offsets, and transmit jitter impairment. The Micro-Controller is also
instrumental in managing these impairments.
2.2.1. The PVA-3000 TEST PHY
The TEST PHY is a commercially available 10/100/1000BaseT PHY device that is essential to each of the following
PhyView Analyzer metrologies:

Power Spectral Distortion (PSD)

Tx Level (Wideband Power)

SNR

Echo (Bulk Return Loss)

Bulk Crosstalk

Timing Skew

Link Monitor

Link Partner Capabilities
Through a cooperative arrangement between the TEST PHY device supplier and Sifos Technologies, the PVA is able
to access and manipulate numerous proprietary features within these devices in order to access, configure, and process
DSP data streams. These raw data sources are then post-processed using Sifos proprietary methods within the
Micro-
Controller and PVA software into the meters introduced earlier in Section 1.3.
The TEST PHY also enables a wide range of forced link configurations that are critical to testing 10/100/1000BaseT
ports. These configurations include:

Link Rate (AUTO, 10, 100, 1000, 10/100)

Link Duplex (AUTO, Simplex, Duplex)

Link Connection “Polarity” (AUTO, MDI, MDI-X)

Gigabit Timing Mode (AUTO, MASTER, SLAVE)
Another feature of the TEST PHY is the ability to activate transmitter test modes for 100BaseTx and 1000BaseT. Test
Modes supported are:

Gigabit Test Signal 1 (all 4 pairs)

Gigabit Test Signal 2 (all 4 pairs)

Gigabit Test Signal 3 (all 4 pairs)

Gigabit Test Signal 4 (all 4 pairs)

100BaseT MLT-3 Signal (Pair 2)
The TEST PHY also includes capability to synthesize, transmit, receive, and count layer 2 (MAC) packets and traffic
with user-specified packet sizes, packet gaps (or rates), and payload patterns. This resource can be used to assess
packet flow through any bridging devices.
Each of these features is fully accessible from PVA Interactive and PowerShell PSA software, the topics of Sections 3
and 0 of this reference manual.