NinjaProbe 40G1: High Speed Packet Capture and Storage

From datacenters to core network infrastructures, the rapid adoption of distributed storage and processing applications along with bandwidth intensive services is driving the demand for 40Gig. While transport mechanisms and extremely expensive, customized, switching and routing hardware are setting the pace, analytical systems must also evolve to meet the demand for flexible and cost-effective real-time passive analysis of data transported on these high speed interconnects.

The Need For Speed

With the NinjaProbe 40G1 solution, Endace is aiding large carriers as they upgrade backbones to deliver their customers a new range of product offerings, such as residential broadcast IPTV and video-on-demand. Built on a foundation of proven Endace DAG® technology, the NinjaProbe 40G1 system is architected to deliver full line-rate acquisition and storage of data on heavily-loaded 40Gbps OC-768/STM-256 multiprotocol label switched (MPLS), packet over SONET (PoS) network segments.

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Aquire, Store and Analyze

Leveraging high-speed optical-optical (O-O) and optical-electrical (O-E) components, such as Erbium-Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) and transponders, the NinjaProbe 40G1 head-end unit efficiently monitors 1550nm optical MPLS/PoS router interconnects between dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) equipment without affecting the operation of these low-tolerance networks. This monitoring activity includes guaranteed packet capture, time stamping and the ability to simultaneously feed open-source, commercial grade and proprietary analytical toolsets.

Once acquired, individual packets are parsed, classified, marked and time stamped by the 40G1 head-end. Hash-based load balancing techniques are employed to partition the 40Gbps traffic stream into four 10Gbps payloads, while maintaining session continuity throughout.

These individual traffic streams are sent to the 40G1’s four 10Gb/Ethernet output interfaces where they are forwarded to NinjaProbe collector systems. The NinjaProbe platforms write the incoming data to disk at wire-rate speeds, enabling stored files to be mined individually or, where sessions may traverse traffic streams and therefore collectors, combined using the original timestamp information prior to forensic analysis.

Ongoing Ingenuity

Network capacity and utilization will constantly increase to meet today’s incessant demand for information, transaction processing and entertainment. Local and wide area networks, along with high performance computing cluster (HPC) interconnects, through technologies such as SONET/DWDM, Ethernet and InfiniBand, will continue to rapidly evolve through the 40Gbps mark towards 100Gbps and beyond.

Though continued innovation, Endace remains at the forefront of this bandwidth revolution, delivering network monitoring and analysis solutions which are fundamental to deployment and growth of these next generation core network infrastructures.

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