Packet Design’s
Route Explorer, an IP routing (Layer 3) visualization, diagnostic
and analysis appliance, is the industry's first solution
in the emerging field of Route Analytics. Route Explorer enables
network engineers to easily verify, monitor and optimize
network
operations, as well as detect, diagnose and resolve IP network
problems faster than has been possible till now.
Key capabilities:
- IP routing
(Layer 3) visualization, monitoring and routing event data
collection
- Real-time
and after-the-fact problem detection and diagnosis
- Network
impact analysis and scenario planning
- Proactive
alerts to an NMS on IP layer changes, anomalies or outages
- Detailed
reports for network routing analysis and long-term trending
Key benefits:
- Maximizes
network availability and customer satisfaction by rapidly
identifying and diagnosing IP routing faults
- Boosts
network performance by isolating the root cause of layer
3 instabilities
- Averts
router misconfigurations that cause 1/3 of all network problems
- Lets network
engineers predict routing-path problems and take action before
they occur
- Verifies
network routing is operating as intended including levels
of redundancy
- Reduces
total operating cost by improving productivity of both network
resources and network operations staff
Route Explorer
works by passively monitoring the routing protocol exchanges
(e.g. OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS, BGP) between all routers on the network,
then computing and displaying a routing topology map. This
map is updated whenever the routing topology changes, providing
the most accurate, real-time view of how the network is directing
traffic. Unstable routes and other anomalies – undetectable
by SNMP-based management tools because they are not device-specific
problems – are immediately visible.
As the topology
map is created and updated, Route Explorer logs every routing
event in a local database. An animated historical playback
feature lets the operator diagnose inconsistent and hard-to-detect
problems by "rewinding" the network to any point
in time since data logging began. Histograms displaying past
routing activity allow the network engineer to quickly go back
to the time when a specific problem was detected, while letting
them step through individual routing events to see what led
up to the problem. Route Explorer also provides the ability
to import external time-based information, such as application
performance or traffic data, and correlate it with routing
events enabling the operator to quickly and easily determine
the root cause of network or service related problems.
Route Explorer
is an effective scenario impact analysis tool. Users can select
specific links or routers to hypothetically bring up or down
or even adjust link metrics, immediately observing the effect
of the change on the network map. They can better understand
of the impact of possible network failures, avoid misconfigurations,
ensure appropriate levels of redundancy and verify that the
routed network is operating as intended – a particularly
valuable capability after maintenance activities.
Route Explorer
allows users to set up proactive alerts that signal critical
routing events as they happen. These alerts are sent as SNMP
traps directly to the user's network management platform (e.g.,
OpenView, Spectrum) or recorded in syslog. "Watch lists" can
be set up to trigger alerts when changes occur on important
or known problem routes. In addition, pre-defined HTML reports
analyze routing events over user-specified time periods, helping
network managers spot trends or other potential problems (e.g.
list of prefixes advertised by more than one router).
Route Explorer
appears to the network as just another router, though it forwards
no traffic and is neither a bottleneck or failure point. Since
it works by monitoring the routing control plane, it does not
poll any devices and adds no overhead to the network. A single
appliance can support any size IP network, no matter how large
or highly subdivided into separate areas. Route Explorer is
easily installed in under an hour, providing an extremely rapid
time-to-value.
