Intelligent Distributed Taps VSS

Further product information.

Aggregation TAPs

Aggregation TAPs are designed to tap either a single full-duplex network or multiple full-duplex networks and combine the cumulative traffic onto a single stream for output to one or multiple monitoring tools. Aggregation of network traffic reduces the number of interfaces required to monitor any given network. Different models are available with a wide range of port densities for both the network and monitor ports, speeds from 10Mbps up to 10Gbps. User can choose also from different options like media variants - Copper of Fiber or plugable modules SFP or XPF.

All Aggregation Taps are passive (failsafe) hardware devices that provide complete traffic visibility while keeping the network unaffected by the monitoring infrastructure. The tap is invisible to the network and shields monitoring tools from detection and the possibility of polluting network data.

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Regeneration TAPs

Regeneration Taps are designed to tap one or multiple networks and replicate the traffic across multiple monitor ports. Replication of network traffic increases the number of monitor tools that can access any given network. This product series is available in a number of port densities, speed and media.

 

 

 

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Inteligent / Distributed TAPs

Distributed Taps are intelligent traffic capture tools designed to passively tap or receive unidirectional inputs from multiple networks and forward the traffic as selected by the user to multiple independent monitor ports. Distributed Taps feature Selective Aggregation, Hardware-Based Filtering, Session-Aware Load Balancing, remote management, intelligent stacking and complete configuration flexibility.

Main advantage and features of Distributed TAPs are the following:

• Selective aggregation - With selective aggregation, available in all Distributed Taps, users can decide how each network input port is directed to each monitor output port which allows each monitor port an independent, completely selectable view of network inputs. Input to output mapping can be directed in the following ways: 1-to-1, 1-to-Many, Many-to-1, Many-to-Many.
• Hardware-based Filtering - allows the user to determine what type of traffic is copied from the network ports to the monitor ports based on Layer 2-7 criteria such as: MAC (source, destination), MAC (source, destination), IP (source, destination, range), UDP/TCP/ICMP (port, range), VLAN, QoS, IP Service Type, Even /Odd Ports for RTP/RTCP, Custom offset / masking filter.
  The benefits of filtering include improved aggregation, reduced traffic load to each monitor interface, more efficient operation of each monitor tool (as it receives only relevant traffic / traffic of interest) and greater monitor tool ROI.
• Session-Aware Load Balancing is a session-aware method of distributing traffic across multiple logically grouped monitor ports, effectively summing the bandwidth of the load balanced ports. Output from the load balanced group is designed to maintain packet order within any given conversation (any single session stream between point A and point B), as well as to guarantee a consistent output port for any single conversation This ensures that a monitor tool will see every packet of a given conversation. The benefits of Session-Aware Load Balancing include: Preventing oversubscription/packet loss (ex. monitoring 10 GigE traffic with Gigabit tools), Maintaining session delivery consistency across multiple monitor ports andEnsuring an even traffic distribution across a group of monitor ports based on session criteria.
• Remote management - Distributed Taps can be managed in several ways, both locally and remotely, including by Graphical User Interface, Command Line Interface and SNMP manager. The GUI offers an exceptionally simple and intuitive method of managing port settings, complex filtering, as well as input to output aggregation mapping and Session-Aware Load Balancing. Network statistics are also viewable through this user-friendly interface. Management options include: HTTP/HTTPS, SNMPv3, RMON, Telnet, RADIUS / TACACS+ (AAA), User levels / unique screen views.
• Flexibillity and scalability - based on VSS Monitoring vStack+™ function bringing fault-tolerance to network monitoring by allowing traffic capture devices to be deployed in a fully distributed mesh configuration. This eliminates a single point of failure in traffic capture and ensures optimum routing of the traffic captured to a central location for analysis. With vStack+™ users can direct copied traffic captured on any network input to a monitor output on another capture tool anywhere in the Distributed Traffic Capture System. Any / all of the capture tools within the system (connected through vStack+™) can then be managed seamlessly from each individual tool.

Next advanced features:

vSlice extends the capability of packet slicing manyfold by allowing users to perform packet slicing at the traffic capture layer, anywhere in a network. Unlike competitive technologies, vSlice performs conditional packet slicing, which enables users to set slice points at different offsets for each packet as well as specify the types of traffic to be sliced, such as HTTP and the VoIP protocols RTP and RTCP.

vAssure™ is VSS Monitoring proprietary technology for tapping Gigabit copper links so that the failover/switchover of the network connection from a tapped state to a directly-connected state (in the event of tap power-on, power-off or link state change) registers under 100ms (typically 30-60ms). This feature is critical to the operation of outage-sensitive networks. Without vAssure, the normal time to establish a link (in standard auto-negotiation mode) is between 1-3 seconds, where anything over 200ms will cause the link to drop.

Time Stamping™ is part of VSS Monitoring's Packet Optimization™ feature set. It allows users to append a time stamp to each packet as it enters a network ingress port. The time stamp is inserted as an 8-byte stamp after the payload and before the CRC. The first 4 bytes indicate seconds, the second 4 bytes indicate nanoseconds. After applying the stamp, the CRC is recalculated and forwarded to the monitor ports as a standard Ethernet frame. Time Stamping only affects monitor traffic-inline network traffic is always unaffected. Application of the time stamp can be enabled or disabled by the user at any time. Time Stamping is ideal for latency-sensitive monitoring applications.

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