Packet Design's Traffic Explorer 2.0 Helps Users Optimize Service Delivery, Find Hidden Network Problems.

'Path-aware' Analysis Tool Reveals Traffic by Application, CoS

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Packet Design has enhanced its Traffic Explorer IP traffic-analysis system with the ability to monitor and analyze traffic by specific applications and classes of service (CoS) on all links in the network, giving network managers unprecedented detail for troubleshooting problems and engineering their networks for maximum efficiency.

Traffic Explorer 2.0 for the first time combines traffic-flow and CoS data with network-wide "path awareness" to reveal the consequences of routing changes on application and service delivery that are otherwise hidden inside the IP network "cloud."

Traffic Explorer was introduced in March 2006 as the only network management tool able to overlay traffic flows onto a real-time map of the network routes they are traversing. While the original version of the system showed aggregated traffic volumes on this network topology map, Traffic Explorer 2.0 classifies the traffic to reveal its composition - by application, class of service or other user-defined category such as location or department.

Enterprises can now tie application performance problems to their network-specific causes, such as a poorly performing SAP application stemming from a misconfigured router or degraded VoIP call quality resulting from a failed link or router that has shifted traffic onto an already heavily loaded route. Service providers can get the highly detailed network visibility that ensures they are meeting user service-level agreements (SLAs), while letting them predict traffic trends and plan for unanticipated "organic" traffic growth.

Making Path-aware Traffic Analysis Even More Useful

Jeff Raice, Packet Design executive vice president of marketing and business development, said, "Almost a year after its introduction, Traffic Explorer remains the only traffic-analysis tool that is path-aware, able to show actual traffic as it moves over every link in the network. Other solutions are still limited to analyzing traffic link-by-link - an approach that provides no awareness of the traffic's path beyond the link being monitored. Lacking such awareness, enterprises see productivity losses due to application degradation, while service providers find it much more difficult to ensure they are meeting SLAs.

"Traffic Explorer 2.0 takes a major step forward in path-aware traffic analysis by letting users monitor and analyze their traffic using custom-defined traffic groups based on key organizational criteria. As a result, they can track network-wide usage by entities such as application, enterprise department or ISP customer, and find out which of those entities was associated with a congested link or affected by a routing change or outage. They can avoid CoS 'hot spots' by ensuring there is enough bandwidth for critical services. They can also project future capacity requirements for existing applications and know in advance the potential impact of launching new applications or changing network routes."

How Traffic Explorer Works

The new Traffic Explorer 2.0 software lets users track traffic by applications, departments, CoS and other traffic groupings defined using one or more flow-data attributes (e.g., server IP address, department prefix). Each of those groups can be named and monitored separately from other traffic. The system collects flow data at key network locations, computes traffic flows across the entire network topology, and displays application groups, classes of service and link utilization information for every link.

While Traffic Explorer 1.0 revealed aggregate traffic behavior based on a subset of flow attributes, the new version leverages all flow data: source and/or destination address or prefix, transport protocol, port number or range, and CoS metrics such as DSCP (Diff-Serv Code Point) and ToS (Type of Service). It is this breadth of information that lets users define customized traffic groups based on any combination of these parameters.

The ability to model network changes or potential failures based on the user's as-running network - rather than on an outdated network model loaded with an approximation of the actual traffic - becomes even more useful with the ability to understand the impact of such changes on critical customer-defined traffic groups. This is particularly valuable to service providers, where accurate network engineering may mean the difference between meeting SLAs and upsetting customers. With network-wide CoS traffic data at their disposal, providers can model changes to determine in advance any potentially negative service consequences or CoS "hot spots" resulting from changes to their network, the addition of new customers, or increased traffic loads. Similarly, enterprise network managers - the internal "service providers" of their organizations - can use Traffic Explorer's modeling capability to understand the impact on network performance (and thus productivity) of launching a new mission-critical application, assimilating an acquired company, or implementing a data-center migration.

Traffic Explorer maintains a complete forensic history that lets users "replay" past routing events to examine traffic patterns and identify root causes of problems after the fact. Even when a routing issue did not directly cause the application or service problem, knowing the precise path and state of the traffic when the problem occurred gives users an invaluable starting point for rapid troubleshooting.

Components of the Traffic Explorer Architecture

Traffic Explorer 2.0 is deployed as a set of three types of appliances. Flow Recorders gather flow data entering the network at key traffic source points (e.g., data center or peering point) and aggregate them by user-specified criteria (e.g., source, destination, port number, protocol, CoS metric). A Flow Analyzer correlates and processes data from the Flow Recorders along with routing information, generates and updates traffic reports, and issues alerts. A Modeling Engine lets users interact with the network model to monitor, analyze, troubleshoot and perform what-if analyses.

Operation also requires Packet Design's Route Explorer route-analytics system, which monitors network routing protocols and maintains the real-time and historical network topology.

Traffic Explorer 2.0 currently supports Cisco's NetFlow data. Future plans call for the system to support standard traffic flow types such as sFlow and the IETF's IP Flow Information Export (Ipfix).

Pricing and Availability

Traffic Explorer 2.0 is available immediately. An example configuration, including one Flow Analyzer, one Modeling Engine and two Flow Recorders, is priced at $190,000 (U.S. list). The Route Explorer is priced separately, from $20,000 to $100,000, depending on network size.

About Packet Design, Inc.

Packet Design, Inc., pioneered the field of route analytics and is the leading supplier of network appliances that provide routing-layer visibility into IP networks. The company's flagship products are Route Explorer, which creates an accurate layer 3 topology map and analyzes routing events to let network engineers quickly pinpoint and resolve routing and other network problems; and Traffic Explorer, which integrates traffic-flow information with real-time routing data to provide the first end-to-end, "topology-aware" view of network traffic. Packet Design products today help manage networks in global enterprises - including financial, retail and pharmaceutical firms - as well as educational institutions, government agencies, and the world's largest service providers.

Packet Design, Inc., was spun out in March 2003 from Packet Design, LLC, the fourth networking company started by entrepreneurs Judy Estrin and Bill Carrico, who previously founded Bridge Communications, Network Computing Devices and Precept Software. For more information, visit http://www.packetdesign.com.