New Methods for Integrated Cross-layer Network Health Testing November 2008 Harshang Pandya Product Planner Broadband Deployment Testing Agilent Technologies Singapore +65-6215-8041 Harshang_pandya@agilent.com Page 1 November 2008
Agenda Page 2 November 2008
Agenda Page 3 November 2008
Driving Forces and Trends in Premise Network Systems Page 4
Networking Tasks and Testing Requirements Page 5
Testing and Trouble-shooting Challenges in Converged Businesses and Data Centers Increasing complexity of testing at all levels cabling, network equipment, network link performance, network applications and services Low work-force skill level (high attrition, unskilled low-cost staff) Insufficient budget to cater for technician training needs Finger-pointing instead of focused troubleshooting (network guys thinks its cabling issue, cable guy thinks network is broken) Increasingly impatient customer who has high dependency on IT infrastructure Does this sound familiar? Page 6
How Cross Layer Testing Helps Testing Challenge Increasing complexity of testing Low work-force skill level Low budgets Difficulty of root-cause finding Cross-layer Handheld Tester Integrated testing of cabling, network connectivity, network link performance, server performance, VoIP Easy user interface no need to do PhD to solve problems Consistent look-and-feel across test applications (cabling, network testing) Minimizes cost of ownership -Replace many test instruments with one -Scalability: pay for it when you need it Automated troubleshooting steps (network Autotest) Problem can be anywhere, you need only one instrument to find Page 7
Agenda Page 8
Factors Determining Cost of Ownership of Testing Tools Page 9
Factors Determining Cost of Ownership of Testing Tools Cross-layer Testing Advantage One Tester does job of two Combined network testing and cable testing Cost is almost half that of two or more independent testers Page 10
Factors Determining Cost of Ownership of Testing Tools Cross-layer Integrated tester One technician can solve many problems Provides opportunity to enhance skill levels Reduces training cost Improved productivity through uniform look-and-feel Ease of use is productivity enhancer Page 11
Factors Determining Cost of Ownership of Testing Tools Integrated Cross-layer tester helps fix things quickly Multi-layer trouble-shooting (cable, network connectivity, application) Automation embeds domain expertise, simplified diagnostics New technology -> new problems -> new test strategy required (e.g. 10GBASE-T readiness of a cable) Page 12
Factors Determining Cost of Ownership of Testing Tools Cross-layer Testing Advantage Pay-as-you need: features enabled by software licenses Tester evolves with your business need Page 13
Agenda Page 14
Cross Layer Handheld Tester Approach Cable Certification Testing Network Turn-on, troubleshooting, Service Performance Alien Crosstalk and External Noise Tests Cat 6, 6A, 7 Class E, E A, F SM & MM Fiber 10/100/1000 Copper and Fiber Network Testing Page 15
Cable Certification Testing Testing Challenge New Cable Types CAT6A, CAT7 Complexity of alien crosstalk issues CAT5e, CAT6 today; may need CAT6A in future Cross-layer Handheld Tester Below 10 seconds test time for CAT6A, fastest in the industry Technology to perform alien crosstalk testing in less than five minutes Software licensing: pay when you need Page 16
SwiftAXT: Alien Crosstalk Field Testing Technology Probably the only way you can prove the cabling to be 10G capable! disturber cable PSANEXT disturber cable disturber cable victim cable Fast, Accurate, Standards compliant field testing of alien crosstalk PSAACRF disturber cable Low complexity disturber cable disturber cable Scalable: allows trading test time with cost of test setup Uses innovating frequency domain measurement methodology Page 17
Agenda Page 18
Data Center and Enterprise network troubleshooting Testing Challenge Networking applications evolve faster than technicians can learn One symptom may have many possible root causes How to validate link performance from service provider? Under-performing Network links in the server farms directly translate to revenue loss VoIP under-performance is difficult to fix Cross-layer Handheld Tester Simplified troubleshooting with easy to follow performance scale Ability to automate problem finding and then drilling down to root cause finding Network link performance benchmarking (traffic generation, RFC 2544 tests) Network link performance benchmarking (traffic generation, RFC 2544 tests) Quantify audio quality and find reason behind poor quality Page 19
Integrated Troubleshooting Case Study 1: Solving Slow Web Server Issue Page 20
Integrated Troubleshooting Case Study 2: It turned out to be cabling fault Page 21
Integrated Troubleshooting Summary Networking problems may come from either client machine, network equipment, servers, or cabling 20-30% of network connectivity issues are cabling related Difficult to classify the problem area Economical and efficient to have same technician capable of solving issues from different origins Fewer test instruments, less load, less cost cable tester, network connectivity tester, and network application tester in one handheld instrument Page 22
Agenda Page 23
Conclusion Page 24
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