Keysight Debuts Purpose-Built 1.6T Ethernet AI Workload Emulation Platform to Validate Next-Generation AI Fabrics

Key Terms

serdes technical

SerDes (short for serializer/deserializer) is an electronic function that converts parallel streams of data into a single fast serial stream and then converts it back, like packing many lanes of traffic into one high-speed highway and unpacking them at the other end. Investors care because SerDes chips and blocks determine how quickly and efficiently devices, data centers and networks can move information; improvements or bottlenecks affect product performance, production costs, and demand across the semiconductor and communications supply chain.

forward error correction (fec) technical

Forward error correction (FEC) is a method of adding extra, predictable information to digital signals so receivers can detect and fix transmission mistakes without asking the sender to resend data. Think of it like sending a letter with a simple cheat-sheet that lets the reader reconstruct a smudged word. For investors, FEC matters because it improves reliability, lowers latency and reduces network costs for services such as telecom, cloud, streaming and high‑frequency trading, which can affect revenue and operational risk.

gpus technical

GPUs are specialized computer chips originally designed to draw images on screens but now widely used to speed up tasks like artificial intelligence, scientific calculations, and data analysis. For investors, GPU demand is a signal about where computing power is being deployed — rising GPU sales can boost makers of chips and the datacenters that use them, influence supply chains and prices, and indicate which companies have a performance edge, much like a restaurant gaining an advantage by hiring many fast, skilled cooks.

Platform reduces risk, cost, and development time with real-world AI workload emulation and data-center-ready scalability across emerging 224G lanes

SANTA ROSA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Keysight Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: KEYS) announces AresONE 1600GE, a scalable 1.6T Ethernet AI workload emulation platform designed to validate next‑generation AI fabrics operating over emerging 224G SerDes (electrical lanes). The solution enables network equipment and silicon chip manufacturers, hyperscalers, and AI data center operators to emulate large‑scale AI compute nodes and validate AI fabrics before and after deployment.

The rack-mount AresONE 1600GE unifies physical layer validation, AI workload emulation, and traffic and protocol testing all on one platform.

As AI workloads drive rapid growth in scale-up and scale-out networking, the industry is transitioning to higher data rates and increased AI switch radix (number of ports on a switch) via fan-out of 800GE and 1600GE ports, improving AI fabric efficiency and reducing network tiers. However, validating new designs at these speeds presents significant challenges, including link integrity over 224G lanes, congestion behavior under microbursts, and realistically emulating AI collective communications.

To address these challenges, the purpose-built AresONE 1600GE platform combines high-density 1.6T architecture with Keysight AI Data Center Builder (KAI DC Builder) software, delivering realistic AI workload emulation required to validate next-generation AI fabrics. With KAI DC Builder, the platform emulates real‑world AI workloads, including multiple full‑stack RoCEv2 connections and a broad range of collective communication patterns. Teams can assess key fabric KPIs under conditions that closely mirror production environments, while integrated data collection and analytics improve visibility, helping engineers fine‑tune fabric performance.

Unifying AI workload emulation, physical layer validation, and traffic and protocol testing into a single platform, the AresONE 1600GE delivers:

• AI data center and network validation at scale: Enables AI fabric deployment assessment using real AI workloads and GPU cluster emulation at high speeds. Tests GPUs, AI NICs, and accelerators pre- and post-deployment, measures network impact on job completion time, and evaluates performance isolation, load balancing, and congestion control to optimize AI training performance.
• High-density OSFP 1600 hardware architecture: The rack-mount platform delivers four OSFP 1600 ports supporting flexible fan out configurations of 1 × 1600GE, 2 × 800GE, 4 × 400GE, or 8 × 200GE over 224G SerDes electrical lanes, enabling link bring-up and large-scale traffic validation in a single scalable system.
• Full-stack validation from physical layer through AI-driven data and control plane: Supports optical and electrical link validation, forward error correction (FEC) and physical coding behavior, and full Layer 2/3 protocol and traffic analysis within one platform — correlating signal integrity, protocol behavior, and application performance.
• Scalable data center-ready system design: High-performance processing and memory enable automated, repeatable testing, seamless lab and data center integration, and reliable day-to-day operation across development and validation cycles.
• Integrates with Keysight IxNetwork: Emulates high-scale Layer 2/3 protocols and traffic at lane speed, providing engineers with greater visibility to identify issues earlier and accelerate product readiness.

Alan Weckel, Founder and Technology Analyst, 650 Group, said: “The market is rapidly shifting from foundational training to inference and agentic models. The AI interconnect market (scale-up, scale-out, scale-across, and front-end) networks will approach $200B by 2030 led by record growth in 800G and 1.6T Ethernet. The move to 1.6T will be the largest and fastest cycle ever in the industry. Keysight’s additional AI validation software features along with AresONE 1600GE hardware will help customers scale in this new market opportunity.”

Ram Periakaruppan, Vice President and General Manager, Keysight's Network Test and Security Solutions, said: “As AI workloads continue to scale, data centers are pushing speeds and complexity the industry has never seen before. With AresONE 1600GE, Keysight provides hyperscalers and other AI innovators a practical, proven way to validate next-generation network devices and infrastructure under real-world conditions, enabling faster deployment with greater confidence and significantly less risk.”

Keysight will demonstrate the AresONE 1600GE and KAI Data Center Builder, along with additional test solutions, in South Hall, booth #1300, March 17-19, 2026, at the OFC Conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA

Resources

• Product Page: AresONE 1600GE
• Data Sheet: AresONE 1600GE Data Sheet

About Keysight Technologies

At Keysight (NYSE: KEYS), we inspire and empower innovators to bring world-changing technologies to life. As an S&P 500 company, we’re delivering market-leading design, emulation, and test solutions to help engineers develop and deploy faster, with less risk, throughout the entire product lifecycle. We’re a global innovation partner enabling customers in communications, industrial automation, aerospace and defense, automotive, semiconductor, and general electronics markets to accelerate innovation to connect and secure the world. Learn more at Keysight Newsroom and www.keysight.com.

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Source: Keysight Technologies, Inc.