Anue Systems announced the NEBS Level 3 certification of its Advanced Feature Module (AFM) for its 5273 and 5236 Net Tool Optimizer (NTO) products in order to meet the most stringent requirements of the telecommunication industry.

Anue Systems, an industry leader in network monitoring switches, introduced its advanced packet processing features in July 2011 to help network engineers significantly improve monitoring tool performance. With the NEBS certification of the AFM, telecommunication, service providers and large enterprise customers are assured the features will operate under extreme conditions.

The advanced packet processing features were tested and certified by MET Laboratories, a leading NEBS test lab. “NEBS-3 is a very strict test regimen for the most demanding telecom environments,” said Troy Franklin, MET’s Director of Environmental & Energy Laboratory. “For example, the test environment includes failover and partial operational requirements, RF emissions and tolerances and the testing of airflow patterns.”

With the challenge of maintaining the robustness and security of their networks, telecommunication companies are deploying an increasing number of network monitoring tools, including network analyzers and network recorders. Each monitoring tool requires access to the data traversing the network, which is typically achieved by connecting the tools via a TAP or SPAN port. However, many monitoring tools only need specific portions of the data for analysis. Indiscriminately sending the complete data stream to each monitoring tool effectively lowers their performance.

“When it comes to monitoring LTE networks, packet trimming delivers two key benefits,” said Rudy Millian, product manager at Anue Systems. “First, it enables our customers to comply with customer privacy policies by removing sensitive data from network packets before they reach the monitoring tools. Second, by removing non-essential data, packet trimming effectively boosts monitoring tool capacity and efficiency.”

The Anue AFM provides four advanced packet processing features to help telecommunication companies improve network monitoring tool performance.

• Packet Trimming improves monitoring tool bandwidth by trimming packets before they are delivered to the monitoring tool
• Packet De-Duplication improves tool bandwidth by eliminating duplicate data packets generated from redundant SPAN ports before those packets reach monitoring tools
• MPLS Stripping enables non-MPLS capable monitoring tools to monitor data by removing MPLS labels directly from the packet stream and restoring packets to standard IPv4/6 packets
• Extended Burst Protection ensures complete packet delivery to tools by preventing dropped packets when aggregating multiple network streams into a single 1G stream

About Anue Systems

Anue Systems (anuesystems.com) helps network engineers and scientists monitor and test complicated networks. The Anue Net Tool Optimizer allows network engineers to effectively monitor networks by increasing network visibility, maximizing monitoring tool use and eliminating port shortages. Anue’s Test and Measurement division provides Network Emulation products that simulate real world conditions for the testing and deployment of large networks. Founded in 2002, Anue’s customers include the world’s largest corporations, communication providers and government agencies.

• What Is the NEBS Level 3 Certification and Why Is It So Important?