Tom,

Part of my plan is to do load testing pushing down mininum of 10GB data down each channels our 6509's are connected via 10GB xenpaks. Also test the optical modules but not sure were to start. Perhaps you can offer me some advice if you have done any type of load or performance testing before on ONS.

cheers

test the optical modules

for testing optical modules you can have simple BERT which can show you that link is free of error or within limits. There is no load testing in SONET/DWDM as these equipemts just take whatever received and send it they are not like router or switches where there are routing table lookup, policing, ACl etc.

But things changed when you map Ethernet i.e data traffic to SONET/DWDM both are working at differnt line rate though both are 10G. So need a network tester who can test you Ethernet over SONET/DWDM traffic. These network tesetr are pretty costly so either you can rent or ask your service provider/equipment provider to test for you.

Link for network tester (there are few more)

http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/563457

Check this link for more info about test in ethernet links

http://www.exfo.com/en/Library/WaveReview/WRArticle.aspx?Id=16

Have you asked your Cisco account team or reseller to see if your needs can be met by Cisco? They have an extensive lab and testbed set up down in Texas to support customer trials and purchase/configuration decisions such as yours. They can configure an installation similar to your production environment and arrange for you to come in and run test and get hands on with your configuration in a testbed environment.

Hope this helps.