Technology White Papers

All White Papers are in PDF format.

TAPs:
Optical Signal Attenuation and Network Performance Attenuation—the rate at which light dissipates over a network—is caused by a number of factors and can affect both network performance and your ability to analyze the network.

Analyzing Full-Duplex Networks Through SPANs, Port Aggregators, and TAPs There are several ways to access full-duplex network traffic for analysis: SPAN or mirror ports, port aggregators, and TAPs are the most common. It is important to understand the relevant issues before choosing a technology to deploy on your network.

WAN:
Benefits of WAN-Level Visibility in Monitoring and Maintaining your Network A WAN Analyzer offers insight into your WAN links through WAN frame visibility, performance metrics, and problem resolution capabilities. However, there are several items to consider when reviewing WAN analysis options.

Gigabit:

Analyzing Trunked Gigabit Ports Monitoring Traffic in a Load-balanced Environment

GigaStor:

Retrospective Network Analysis Now more than ever, network administrators require versatile monitoring and analysis tools to quickly troubleshoot business-critical operations and monitor security and compliance. Retrospective Network Analysis offers a unique solution.

Security Forensics Network Security Forensics plays a key role in helping network engineers investigate security breaches and document a network incident for compliance.

General:

Application and Network Performance Monitoring in a Virtualized Environment Accessing and analyzing network traffic to, from, and between virtual
machines—even within a single host.

Managing Application Delivery Understand emerging issues that can impede application delivery including managing virtual and multi-tiered environments and develop a coherent strategy for overcoming delivery issues and ensuring application uptime.

ROI for Network Performance Management Making a business case for critical performance management technology investments. From Enterprise Management Associates.

Extending Network Visibility by Leveraging NetFlow and sFlow Technologies Learn how to provide extended visibility into enterprise networks without added investment, via a network analyzer that can leverage NetFlow and sFlow® technologies.

Monitoring Service Delivery in an MPLS Environment Many organizations now use MPLS routing to ensure critical applications have the bandwidth they need. Sophisticated MPLS-enabled analyzers help you understand and troubleshoot your MPLS network to guarantee it operates to its full potential.

Monitoring and Managing Network Application Performance Effectively managing application performance means measuring how well key components of the IT infrastructure are performing over time, and identifying and correcting deficiencies before they affect your business.

SNMP Monitoring: One Critical Component to Network Management SNMP remains a critical part of a complete network analysis solution. For truly comprehensive analysis of network issues, a network analyzer with packet capture capabilities should be employed.

Network Instruments’ Observer and Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Observer can help IT Professionals comply with the data practices components of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Network Instruments’ Observer and VLAN Analysis IT departments continue to implement Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) to contain broadcast traffic, load-balance, and enhance data security. A VLAN-ready network analyzer provides several benefits in managing VLAN configurations.

Using a Network Analyzer as a Security Tool A network analyzer can enhance network security and should be a part of any IT professional's security incident response plan.

Probes:
Deploying Probes and Analyzers in an Enterprise Environment Here are two approaches to using Observer products in a distributed environment.

Advanced vs. RMON Probes Here are two approaches to using Observer products in a distributed environment.

VoIP/Unified Communications:
Monitoring and Managing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) What you need to know about VoIP traffic and the quality metrics provided by VoIP monitoring tools to help keep your VoIP network running smoothly.

Implementing Unified Communications Before deploying unified communications applications on your network, explore these best practices for avoiding performance problems.