As artificial intelligence workloads continue to grow in complexity and scale, network infrastructure must evolve to support faster data movement and higher capacity. Addressing this demand, Keysight Technologies, Inc. has introduced the AresONE 1600GE, a scalable 1.6T Ethernet AI workload emulation platform designed to validate next-generation AI fabrics operating on emerging 224G SerDes electrical lanes. The new platform helps network equipment providers, silicon chip manufacturers, hyperscalers, and AI data center operators emulate large-scale AI compute environments and validate AI fabrics both before and after deployment.
As organizations rapidly expand AI workloads, networking architectures must scale both vertically and horizontally. Consequently, the industry is transitioning toward higher data rates and larger AI switch radix essentially increasing the number of ports on a switch. By using fan-out configurations of 800GE and 1600GE ports, companies can improve AI fabric efficiency while simultaneously reducing the number of networking tiers required. However, validating infrastructure at these extremely high speeds introduces new technical challenges. For instance, engineers must ensure link integrity across 224G lanes, manage congestion behavior during microburst traffic, and accurately simulate AI collective communication patterns used in distributed AI training.
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To tackle these challenges, Keysight designed the AresONE 1600GE platform specifically for next-generation AI networking validation. The solution combines a high-density 1.6T architecture with Keysight’s AI Data Center Builder (KAI DC Builder) software. Together, these technologies enable realistic AI workload emulation, which is critical for evaluating modern AI fabrics. Using the KAI DC Builder software, engineers can replicate real-world AI workloads, including multiple full-stack RoCEv2 connections and a wide variety of collective communication patterns commonly used in large AI clusters. As a result, teams can measure key fabric performance indicators in environments that closely resemble production deployments. In addition, built-in data collection and analytics improve operational visibility, allowing engineers to fine-tune performance and quickly identify bottlenecks.
Furthermore, the AresONE 1600GE platform unifies AI workload emulation, physical layer validation, traffic testing, and protocol analysis within a single system. This integrated approach simplifies complex validation workflows while improving testing efficiency across the AI infrastructure lifecycle.
Among its key capabilities, the platform enables AI data center and network validation at scale by emulating GPU clusters and running realistic AI workloads at extremely high speeds. Engineers can test GPUs, AI network interface cards, and accelerators both before and after deployment while also measuring how network performance impacts AI job completion time. Additionally, the system evaluates performance isolation, load balancing strategies, and congestion control mechanisms to optimize AI training operations.
The platform also features a high-density OSFP 1600 hardware architecture. Delivered as a rack-mount system, it includes four OSFP 1600 ports capable of flexible fan-out configurations, including 1 × 1600GE, 2 × 800GE, 4 × 400GE, or 8 × 200GE over 224G SerDes lanes. This design enables engineers to perform link bring-up and large-scale traffic validation within a single scalable system.
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Moreover, the platform supports full-stack validation from the physical layer through AI-driven data and control planes. It enables optical and electrical link validation, analyzes forward error correction (FEC) behavior, and provides Layer 2/3 protocol testing and traffic analysis. By correlating signal integrity with protocol behavior and application performance, engineers gain deeper insights into overall network reliability.
The AresONE 1600GE system also incorporates a scalable data center-ready design with high-performance processing and memory. This allows automated and repeatable testing while ensuring seamless integration with both lab and production data center environments. Additionally, integration with Keysight IxNetwork enables high-scale Layer 2/3 protocol and traffic emulation at lane speed, helping engineers detect issues earlier in the development cycle 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.”
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