Packet Design's Traffic Explorer Delivers First Topology-Aware View of Network Traffic; Integrating Traffic and Routing Data, System Shines 'Floodlight' On Network-Wide Traffic Flows

Business Wire, March 27, 2006

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Packet Design has introduced the first IP network management system to integrate real-time routing information with traffic-flow data, providing an end-to-end, "topology-aware" view of network traffic that delivers significant improvements in monitoring, troubleshooting, planning and optimization to operators of enterprise and service provider networks.

Packet Design's Traffic Explorer(TM) maps traffic flows directly onto the network routes they are traversing, showing traffic as it moves in real time over the entire routed network topology. The system in essence shines a "floodlight" on the network, providing far greater knowledge than the discrete "spotlight" views of traditional traffic-analysis tools.

Traffic Explorer combines knowledge of real-time, network-wide routing paths with actual traffic loads, monitoring traffic at selected entry points and then projecting it onto every link on the network. This gives network engineers the unprecedented ability to:

--see how routing changes impact traffic, so they can understand problems - and take preventive or remedial action - much faster;

--gain more options for addressing problems while maximizing use of network assets: instead of automatically making a costly link upgrade, for example, they can see how traffic can be rerouted around congestion points;

--work on the "as running" network, rather than an outdated model; this boosts the accuracy of planning and optimization efforts such as capacity forecasting, failure impact analysis, peering analysis and other "what if" scenarios.

Traffic Explorer consists of a small suite of network appliances and, unlike conventional traffic-monitoring tools, requires no bandwidth-intensive device polling or widespread deployment of hardware probes. Traffic Explorer initially supports Cisco's NetFlow data, and later will support standard traffic types such as sFlow and the IETF's IP Flow Information Export (ipfix).

Building on the Route Analytics Foundation

Traffic Explorer builds on the core route-analytics expertise behind Packet Design's industry-leading Route Explorer, introduced in 2003. Route analytics computes the real-time network topology, or "road map," enabling network engineers to pinpoint logical routing (layer 3) problems not detectable by traditional, device-oriented network management tools. Traffic Explorer adds traffic information to this road map, giving engineers the power to do accurate network-wide traffic monitoring, analysis and planning. This overcomes the limits of previous traffic-analysis technologies, which gathered traffic data only on a link-by-link basis, providing no awareness of the traffic's path beyond the link being viewed, or the impact on traffic of routing changes elsewhere in the network.

"Before the advent of route analytics and its creation of an end-to-end topology map, there was no basis for viewing traffic information network-wide or understanding how routing changes could affect traffic," said Jeff Raice, Packet Design's executive vice president of marketing and business development. "Traditional NetFlow analysis products merely shine a spotlight on selected network links by deploying flow collectors and reporting on traffic at those monitored links. Even if this were done at every single link, which is impractical, you would still end up with only a collection of discrete views.

"Traffic Explorer shines a floodlight on the network, projecting traffic information beyond individual interfaces and across the network-wide routes. Users see the bigger picture and immediately grasp the impact of routing changes or failures on traffic, even traffic located many hops away from the change. At a glance they can identify an over-utilized link causing a congestion 'hot spot,' or an under-utilized link adding unnecessary expense, anywhere in the network, without polling or installing probes at the culprit link. They can access historical information, 'replaying' past routing events and traffic patterns to identify the root causes of problems. And, with the ability to determine the potential impact of traffic increases or routing changes on the as-running network, they can perform more accurate network planning and optimization than ever before."

The Traffic Explorer Architecture

The Traffic Explorer solution includes a set of appliances that work with Route Explorer to collect flow data at key points where traffic enters the network, aggregate and compute those flows across the topology, and monitor how traffic changes as routing changes. Historical traffic and routing data are stored in a data base for analysis, diagnosis and planning.

Components of the Traffic Explorer architecture are:

--Route Explorer, which monitors network routing protocols and maintains real-time and historical end-to-end topology;

--Flow Recorders, topology-aware traffic-flow collectors which take flow data entering the network at key traffic source points (e.g., an enterprise's data centers and Internet gateways, a service provider's major peering points and customer POPs) and aggregate them by source/destination address;