Flexible Network Test Apparatus

A network card configurable in a first mode or a second mode, comprising four 10 GHz transmit engines to generate packets at a data rate of 10 GHz four 10 GHz receive engines to receive and process packets at a data rate of 10 GHz when configured in the first mode, further comprising:

• four 10 GHz network interface units coupled to respective ones of the four 10 GHz transmit engines and the four 10 GHz receive engines, each 10 GHz network interface unit adapted to transmit packets generated by the respective 10 GHz transmit engine to a network under test and to direct packets received from the network under test to the respective 10 GHz receive engine.
• when configured in the second mode, further comprising:
• a coherent multiplexer to combine packets generated by the four 10 GHz transmit engines into test traffic at a 40 GHz data rate
• a packet distribution engine to accept packets at a 40 GHz data rate and distribute the accepted packets between the four 10 GHz receive engines
• a 40 GHz network interface unit coupled to the coherent multiplexer and the packet distribution engine, the 40 GHz network interface unit adapted to transmit the test traffic formed by the coherent multiplexer to a network under test and to direct traffic received from the network to the packet distribution engine.