To Monitor or Not To Monitor – Is that the Question?

By Jesse Price, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, NetQuest

In this time of economic uncertainty, many telecom operators face tough challenges with respect to network monitoring. Shrinking budgets are forcing them to reduce capex funds allocated to monitor the network, while the advent of a faster, more converged network is simultaneously requiring more monitoring to maintain the health of the network, and ultimately, customer satisfaction. How telcos deal with these two issues that are seemingly at odds with one another will be a big factor in what happens on the other side of this downturn.

In light of a decreasing budget, the telecom operators’ monitoring problem is twofold –how to keep existing equipment from becoming obsolete and how to minimize the amount of new equipment that must be purchased to keep pace with changing technologies. Let’s take a closer look at both of these issues.

First, telecom operators already have a lot of monitoring equipment installed in their networks today. However, as data rates at the core of the network get faster and faster, these existing tools are being overrun by data. Most tools are designed to monitor a specific service or suite of services. Therefore, each tool needs access to only a small fraction of the data in a high-speed line. Since the process of isolating the service of interest can quickly exhaust the resources of a monitoring tool, telecom operators either need to increase capex, allowing tools with less processing power become obsolete or reduce capex, leaving large amounts of the network unmonitored.

To add to the problem with existing tools, telcos must deal with the present transitional state of network monitoring. As we move toward a single, converged network, operators are seeing a mix of transport technologies and protocols carrying a particular service. VoIP monitors, for example, may need access to traffic being transported on Ethernet, POS, ATM, or legacy T1/E1 networks as well as tunneled traffic. Telcos are being asked to buy more interfaces on existing tools or purchase completely new tools to handle the interface conversions that are necessary to guarantee a comprehensive monitoring strategy.

A Light at the End of the Tunnel?

There are a few solutions on the market today that address one or both of the problems with network monitoring described above. The most promising and cost-effective solution revolves around a class of smart access products called monitoring access optimizers. These products focus on providing non-intrusive access to high-speed data in the network core and optimizing the traffic prior to monitoring equipment. Here, the term “optimization” is an umbrella term for link aggregation, packet/service filtering, interface translations, and other tactics intended to streamline the data for specific monitoring needs.

Located between monitoring tools and the network, monitoring access optimizers are well suited to handle converged network monitoring. A single device can be used to front-end multiple tools that are monitoring different services. Because each tool now only receives traffic that is relevant to its application, it becomes more efficient and requires less up-front processing power. Moreover, packet and/or service-based filtering can reduce existing tools’ bandwidth requirements, thereby prolonging the useful life of tools and decreasing tool-related capex.

Monitoring is a vital aspect of a healthy network and should not be put on the back burner. Of the solutions available today, monitoring access optimizers put carriers in the best position to execute a comprehensive yet cost-effective monitoring strategy.

As vice president of sales and marketing for NetQuest, Jesse Price is responsible for direct and channel sales, strategic partnerships and marketing initiatives for the company’s portfolio of monitoring access solutions. In this role, Price is responsible for positioning the company’s monitoring access optimizers and driving new opportunities for its products in the carrier, enterprise, government and strategic partner markets. He can be reached via e-mail at jprice@netquestcorp.com.

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