White Rabbit Testing
The project gathers test reports, the methodology and methods for testing White Rabbit gear.
WR Switch Release tests
- Forwarding functions and performance (gateware) tests using Xena
- Protocol compliance (software) tests using Veryx
- Synchronization performance tests (manual)
- described in sections 4-5 of the White Rabbit Switch pre-release tests
Test reports
- WRS Temperature Test Report , YiMeng Ye, Guanghua Gong, January 2018
-
White Rabbit RFC 2889 Benchmarking Methodology for LAN Switching
Devices
Cesar Prados and Jiaoni Bai, Timing Group, CSCO, GSI, August 2016
-
White Rabbit Switch performance in Grandmaster
mode
Mattia Rizzi, May 2016
-
Scalability Analysis of the White-Rabbit Technology for
Cascade-Chain
Networks
F Torres-González et al, September 2016.
-
SyncE Characteristics of a White Rabbit
Switch
Maciej Lipinski, February 2015
-
White Rabbit clock
characterization
Maciej Lipinski, March 2014
-
Measurement of synchronization performance in a cascade of 10 WR
switches
Maciej Lipinski, September 2013
-
White Rabbit Switch stress
tests
Benoit RAT, Seven Solutions, December 2012
-
Torture
Report
Maciej Lipinski, July 2012
-
Temperature Effect and Correction Method of White Rabbit Timing
Link
Hongming Li, Guanghua Gong, Weibin Pan, Qiang Du, Jianmin Li, IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, arXiv:1406.4223, 2014
-
Results from the WhiteRabbit sub-nsec time synchronization setup at
HiSCORE-Tunka
Martin Bruckner, Ralf Wischnewski et al., ICRC2013, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2013
-
Performance results of the first White Rabbit installation for CNGS
time
transfer
Maciej Lipinski, Tomasz Wlostowski, Javier Serrano, Pablo Alvarez, Juan David Gonzalez Cobas, Alessandro Rubini and Pedro Moreira, ISPCS2012, San Francisco, USA, 2012
Production Tests
It is the framework to check the WR Switches produced in a factory. It ensures that external companies follow a minimum quality in matters of soldering, fabrication process of the PCB and mounting of the components.
Production Test
The Production Test defines a protocol for the following procedures:
- Visual Inspection
- Electrical Inspection
- Testing of the main components of the Switch (FPGA, CPU, memories etc...)
Visual & Electrical Inspection
- Checklist template (for SPEC board, courtesy of Seven Solutions)
Production Test Suite (PTS)
The PTS procedure needs specific, modified, loopback SFPs to be inserted
in the switch.
They are modified to be able to detect the SFP properly when it is
inserted.
Low Level Functional & High Level Functional Test (outdated - June 2017)
LFF:*
Testing of the components involved in the of the CPU Operating System,
Linux
- Booting and loading of Linux OS
- Testing of the SRAM
- Testing of the DDR
HLF:*
Testing of high level protocols and components
- Loading of a test gateware in the FPGA
- Loading files from TFTP
- CPU-FPGA bus
- USB bus
- NAND Memory Test
Benchmark and Compliance Tests
It is the framework for testing the features of WR Switches and the compliance of PTP/"WRPTP"and IEEE 1588. Benchmark methodology
So far the following tests have been carried out:
Temperature tests
- Torture Report (Maciej Lipinski July, 2012)
802.1Q Test Functionality
- WR.v2 802.1Q Functional Test Cases Report (Integrasys July, 2012)
Reliability data
The experience of users can give a good idea of the reliability and of the weakest parts in a switch.
- Users experience
-
Reliability studies for the White Rabbit Switch in KM3NeT: FIDES and Highly Accelerated Life Tests, D.Real et al, published 27 February 2020
- tests of SCB switch board and FIDES analysis showing MTBF improvements by changing certain components.
Framework Test
The framework test hosts and manages the tests, as well as the presentation and collection of the test's results. So far the Framework candidates are Production Test Suite and Unittest. Alessandro Rubini has compared them, see the doc.
4 March 2020