Netflow Monitoring and Analysis using Infosim StableNet®

Netflow Management Overview

NetFlow is a Cisco-developed flow technology that allows flow-monitoring for a given network. StableNet® is a unified network management system available in two options; namely, ‘Telco’ version for CSP/ISP/MSP customers, and ‘Enterprise’ for Corporations, Service Integrators, and Managed Services Operators. The StableNet® NetFlow Analyzer is a functional capability of the unified management system that receives and processes the flow-data being sent from the configured flow devices in the network. The flow-data is then subjected to deep-flow-analysis that results in a series of statistical and graphical real-time reporting. The reporting can be manipulated to detail-specific date/time ranges to be displayed in order to assist with troubleshooting-specific events that may have caused performance degradation or service loss.

This document will provide insight into the StableNet® Netflow capability and detail when Netflow is appropriate to be used and in what context it should be deployed.

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Mobilicity bidding deadline extended by a week

Indebted Canadian cellco Mobilicity has extended the bidding deadline for a court-sanctioned sale of all or some of its assets until midday 16 December 2013, from the previous date of 9 December, local website MobileSyrup reports, citing court documents. Potential bidders had been given until 2 December to express their interest. The only potential suitor to have publicly announced its interest so far has been rival Wind Mobile, while the country’s three nationwide cellular incumbents are banned from participating by federal policy. As previously reported by CommsUpdate, Mobilicity’s court-sanctioned creditor protection expires on 20 December.

Thanks to TeleGeography for the article.

Ensuring VoIP Success with GigaStor™ Portable

Avoiding The Perfect VoIP Storm

Although now a mainstream technology, managing VoIP remains a challenge for even the most seasoned IT pro. The application’s sensitivity to packet loss and delay and users intolerance for anything less than audio perfection can create a troubleshooting nightmare.

1. Understand and measure call quality

There are a variety of metrics and variables you can use to assess VoIP call quality, including jitter, MOS, R-Factor, gap density, burst density, Quality of Service prioritization, and compression techniques. Ensure accurate analysis by learning how to measure these attributes.

2. Make QoS a priority

Incorrectly set QoS precedence for VoIP traffic leads to delays in packet delivery and reduced call quality.

3. Deploy analysis tools strategically

Placing analysis consoles and probes on your network requires a clear understanding of VoIP traffic patterns. Are you concerned with monitoring VoIP traffic locally, over WAN links, or both? Depending on your objectives, place your analysis tools to ensure optimal visibility of VoIP communications.

4. Compare jitter to overall bandwidth utilization

When jitter becomes a problem, look at the big picture. A correlation between jitter and bandwidth usage means the problem is overall network usage. If there is no direct correlation, excessive jitter might be caused by isolated network factors that require further investigation.

5. Proactively monitor VoIP activity

Utilize monitoring and notification tools to speed problem resolution. Determine “normal” or “acceptable” levels of activity for your network and its users. Then set up thresholds within your analyzer to alert you when performance degrades.

6. Baseline network traffic

To truly understand VoIP traffic, capture and store long-term network data. Only with critical trending data can you accurately perform baselining activities. Baselining validates VoIP performance, helps future capacity planning efforts, and provides long-term understanding of VoIP health.

Visit our online resources for in-depth info on VoIP and other unified communication applications.

Can’t See Call Details?

According to NI University instructor Mike Motta, one of the most common problems users encounter monitoring VoIP is determining which voice stream goes with which call.

You’ll want to know the call signaling protocol your VoIP application uses, and be sure to capture all call-setup information.

There are four common call signaling protocols: H323, Cisco Skinny, SIP, and MGCP. This is helpful to know when applying filters and running reports in Observer®.

The most common problem with VoIP monitoring is failing to capture all the call-set up information. When this happens, Observer’s Expert Analysis can’t match up the RTP stream to the correct call, and won’t provide details on a per-call basis.

With complete setup info captured, go to VoIP Events under Expert Data, where Observer displays a summary of call metrics including jitter, packet loss, R-Factor and MOS scores. Clicking on the VoIP Events Call tab lists individual calls in a browsable tree. By clicking on the calls listed on the left side of the display, you can break each one down by direction and stream of RTP/RTCP packets.

Thanks to Network Instruments for the article.

Catalyst Capital withdraws from 700MHz auction

An update to Industry Canada’s website yesterday (4 December 2013) showed that there are eleven remaining qualified bidders for Canada’s January auction of 700MHz 4G mobile broadband licences, after the Catalyst Capital Group was listed as ‘withdrawn’, despite reportedly having paid a full pre-auction deposit. Catalyst Capital Group is a private equity firm which owns roughly 30% of struggling cellco Mobilicity’s senior secured debt. The eleven remaining bidders include nine companies already active in the cellular network operating market: Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS, SaskTel, Videotron, Globalive Wireless (Wind Mobile), Bragg Communications (Eastlink) and TBayTel. The other two are Feenix Wireless (a 100%-owned company of Mobilicity chairman John Bitove, whose Obelysk investment firm owns a majority voting share and minority equity share in the financially stricken cellco) and Novus Wireless (which TeleGeography notes was a winner in the 2008 auction of 1700MHz ‘I Band’/1900MHz ‘G-band’ spectrum sold alongside Canada’s 2100MHz AWS spectrum). Novus is associated with Novus Entertainment, a provider of fibre internet, TV and digital phone services in Vancouver and surrounding areas of British Columbia.

Thanks to TeleGeography for the article.

Net Optics- Inside the Outbreaks

A MONITORING-CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE IS VITAL TO SUCCESS — AND SURVIVAL

Protecting the network demands robust monitoring that is actually built into the network architecture. Ongoing network vulnerability invites attack and intrusion, putting data at constant risk, wasting resources and endangering the social fabric. Shocking revelations of governmental spying on private citizens and businesses open yet another front in the fight for data integrity. The overriding truth is that the technology for stealing data and eavesdropping is not only bounding ahead—it is already so widespread and available that practically anyone can obtain and use it.

The security industry has armed the network until it practically bristles, but mapping and managing these solutions is itself complex, which creates a new set of risks. A snapshot of recent attacks underscores the need for scalable, unbreakable network and applications.

Learn more. Download White Paper from Net Optics here.

Canadian mobile users now have more rights

Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) marked the coming into force of the regulator’s consumer ‘wireless code’ on 2 December with an announcement heralding ‘the beginning of a more dynamic marketplace for wireless services.’ The new rules enable individuals and small business owners to terminate mobile contracts with no cancellation fee after a maximum of two years, applicable to all new contracts signed as from 2 December and existing contracts that are renewed or extended, or where the key terms are amended, as of that same date, while the code will apply to all wireless contracts from 3 June 2015 regardless of when they were signed. The code also enforces guidelines to make contracts for cellphones and other mobile devices simpler to understand, as well as setting out end users’ basic rights. Under the code operators must now: limit data charges in excess of the usage defined in a package at CAD50 (USD47) per month; limit national and international data roaming charges in excess of the usage defined in a package at USD100 per month; allow cellphones to be unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if they are paid for upfront; and allow a user to return a cellphone within 15 days and specific usage limits if unhappy with a service. Furthermore, the code gives a user the right to accept or decline changes made by an operator to the key terms of a fixed-term (i.e. two-year) contract. The CRTC says the code addresses the main frustrations that Canadians shared during its public consultation, including the length of wireless contracts, cancellation fees and ‘bill shock’.

Thanks to TeleGeography for the article.

Deploying Probes and Analyzers in an Enterprise Environment

As an IT manager, you need visibility into every corner of the network, from the edge to the core. A distributed analysis solution can provide the coverage you need, but where should you deploy probes for maximum visibility at minimum cost? This paper describes by example how to plan and implement a monitoring/analysis infrastructure based on distributed probes. Because every network is different, the examples shown may not look like your network, but the concepts demonstrated will be applicable to most situations.

Background Concepts

Successfully deploying a distributed analysis solution on your network requires that you understand some basic concepts about distributed analyzers and network technologies. Here is a brief overview of some issues that you should understand when purchasing and deploying probe-based distributed analyzers.

Distributed Analysis: What is it?

Most commercial packet analyzers are distributed: Packet captures and some analysis are performed by distributed agents called probes, which in turn send the packets (or the analysis results—e.g., bandwidth utilization statistics, most active stations, etc.) to consoles for further processing and display. Distributed analysis is the only practical way to make different parts of a switched or wireless network visible and therefore manageable. From a single console, an IT administrator can monitor and view traffic from anywhere on the network where a probe has been deployed, from any type of media or topology (Ethernet, wireless,WAN, etc.) Before you decide where (and what type of) probes should be deployed on your network, there are a few topological issues you should understand.

Learn more. Download white paper here.

Telus deploys Ericsson IMS

Canadian full-service telco Telus has contracted Swedish vendor Ericsson to deploy an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), for the purpose of offering convergent services in voice, data and video calling over both wireline and wireless networks. Based on the IMS platform, Telus customers will have the ability to access a variety of multimedia functions and applications including High Definition (HD) voice, management across multiple devices, and video calling over LTE. Eros Spadotto, executive vice-president of technology strategy and operations at Telus, said that IMS technology will enable next-generation solutions that ‘transform the way customers live, work, and play’, while the IMS represents a cost-efficient system enabling Telus to generate new revenue streams through differentiated services based on Rich Communication Services (RCS) and voice-over-LTE (VoLTE).

Thanks to TeleGeography for the article.

xFilter 3.0.2-1 is available

Customers with active software subscription can upgrade.

This new release has the following enhancements:

• Added support for multiple (up to 8) egress GRE tunnels.
• The number of egress interfaces per rule increased from 4 to 8.
• One of the egress GRE tunnels gre1-gre8 can be specified as default egress interface.

Changes from previous release:

• The interface gre0 is no longer supported as egress interface. If gre0 was configured that configuration will be lost.
• During ‘commit’ xFilter checks for existence of GRE tunnels used in matching rules and in ‘default-egress’. In case of matching rules, if the tunnel(s) does not exist it is removed from the rule. In case of ‘default-egress’, if the tunnel does not exist default egress is set to ‘next’. In both cases ‘commit’ displays warnings to the user.
• The interface gre0 is still used as ingress GRE interface.

Thanks to Net Optics for the article.