GL Communications Announces New Ethernet and IP Network Performance Testing Capabilities in PacketCheck™

GAITHERSBURG, Md., Sept. 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GL Communications Inc. announces enhanced capabilities for its PacketCheck™ – Software Ethernet/IP Tester, a PC-based solution for testing Ethernet and IP networks across Layer 1 through Layer 4 in LAN and WAN environments. Using the PC’s Network Interface Card (NIC), PacketCheck™ generates controlled traffic, evaluates network performance, and identifies packet-delivery and delay issues.

The latest PacketCheck™ release adds Frame Size Buckets with configurable frame-size ranges and probability distributions, enhanced packet loss and out-of-order detection, One-Way Delay measurement, expanded reporting capabilities, controlled traffic impairments, and TCP and ICMP traffic generation and analysis.

Ethernet and IP networks must reliably transport traffic while maintaining throughput, packet delivery and low latency. Packet errors, dropped or out-of-sequence frames, network congestion, overloaded switches and routers, and deteriorating physical connections can affect network performance. Engineers therefore require controlled and repeatable testing to evaluate network behavior, identify performance issues and validate network infrastructure.

To address these requirements, the enhanced PacketCheck™ solution provides a common test environment for physical connections, Ethernet switches, routers and end-to-end IP networks, supporting direct Ethernet, switched LAN, routed IP, VLAN and MPLS configurations.

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PacketCheck™ supports testing across multiple network layers, including Layer 1 Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT) using PRBS and fixed patterns, Layer 2 Ethernet with configurable MAC parameters and Stacked VLAN, Layer 2.5 Stacked MPLS with up to three MPLS stacks, Layer 3 IP, and Layer 4 UDP, TCP and ICMP traffic generation and analysis.

Vikram Kulkarni, Sales Director of GL Communications, states, “The enhanced PacketCheck™ capabilities provide greater flexibility to generate realistic multi-stream traffic and evaluate Ethernet and IP network performance across multiple protocol layers. With measurements for bit errors, throughput, packet loss, delay and out-of-sequence traffic, along with impairment, capture, replay and reporting capabilities, PacketCheck™ enables controlled and repeatable testing across LAN and WAN environments.”

PacketCheck™ generates multiple full-duplex traffic streams with independently configurable MAC, VLAN, MPLS, IP, UDP, TCP and ICMP parameters. Streams can operate as Transmit Only, Receive Only, or Transmit and Receive. Traffic can be generated using fixed, random and statistical frame sizes, while the new Frame Size Buckets capability provides configurable frame-size ranges and probability distributions. Burst Mode, Inter Frame Gap Mode, PRBS and user-defined BERT payloads, Jumbo frames, zero-padding and file-based traffic generation provide additional flexibility for creating different traffic conditions.

PacketCheck™ provides stream-wise and common statistics for Bit Error Rate, Bit Error Count, Tx/Rx throughput, packet counts, Packet Loss, Out-of-Sequence Frames, Errored Frames, Sync Loss, Round Trip Delay and One-Way Delay. Enhanced packet loss and out-of-order detection use configurable Out-of-Order Detection Window and Loss Declaration Timeout settings, together with sequence-number tracking, to help distinguish delayed or out-of-order frames from frames that are lost.

For delay testing, Smart Loopback swaps source and destination MAC, IP and UDP information in incoming traffic and retransmits the traffic through the same Interface , supporting Round Trip Delay measurements. PacketCheck™ also supports ARP and IP-to-MAC address resolution. Streams can be resolved before testing to populate MAC/routing tables and help avoid unnecessary flooding during Layer 3 testing.

PacketCheck™ can introduce controlled impairments into outgoing traffic, allowing users to evaluate how a network or Device Under Test responds under controlled error conditions. Supported impairment operations include Delete Bytes, Insert Bytes, Replace Bits, Toggle Bits, and logical AND, OR and XOR operations. Offsets, masks, values, intervals and durations can be configured to control where and how impairments are introduced.

Expanded reporting capabilities support both completed and long-duration tests. Users can generate a PDF report for the complete test and configure periodic CSV reports to capture stream Tx/Rx statistics at user-defined intervals. Flush and Split settings help manage reports during extended tests, while Combined Periodic Reports allow statistics from multiple streams to be combined into a single CSV report.

For traffic analysis and repeatable testing, PacketCheck™ can capture test and non-test traffic in PCAP/PCAPNG or GL proprietary HDL format, replay previously recorded traffic, record received payload into binary files for diagnosis, generate BERT diagnostic logs, and capture unidentified traffic through the Default Stream. Captured traffic can be analyzed using Wireshark^® or GL’s PacketScan™.

With these capabilities, PacketCheck™ supports network performance testing, validation and troubleshooting across LAN and WAN environments, including bandwidth assessment, BER and throughput measurement, packet loss and delay analysis, switch and router testing, Stacked VLAN and MPLS validation, Layer 3 and Layer 4 IP network testing, controlled impairment testing, and traffic capture and replay. MFR-IP-PacketCheck™ additionally supports generating and receiving IP traffic over Frame Relay links with multiple Virtual Channels.

About GL Communications Inc.,

GL Communications is a global provider of voice testing and network testing solutions. GL’s solutions verify the quality and reliability of all telecom networks.

Warm Regards,
Vikram Kulkarni, PhD
Sales Director
Phone: 301-670-4784 x114
Email: info@gl.com
Website: www.gl.com