December 2001
  

Its The Network, Stupid

BY Tom Keating

SCOPING OUT THE NETWORK
Agilent Technologies gave me a sneak peek at their FrameScope 350, which is the first handheld analyzer to combine both physical cabling testing as well as logical layer (Ethernet/IP/IPX) testing. The FrameScope 350 performs Category 6 cable certification (a process for which it needs the optional DualRemote unit) with active network testing (ping, tracert, load testing, and more). We hooked up the FrameScope 350 to our LAN environment and let the auto network discovery work its magic.

Once the FrameScope 350 was connected to our LAN, it used DHCP to grab an IP address, a DNS address, a WINS address, and the default gateway address. Even better, it discovered all of the nodes on the network including printers, DNS servers, switches, routers, servers, workstations, and other network devices. Then, it listed them in a hierarchical tree-like structure on the units screen. I really liked FrameScope 350s color touch screen, which was surprisingly easy to navigate.

Agilent told me that the unit works in switched Fast Ethernet environments, but they also support physical layer testing of optical network environments as well. IT support staff, network installers, and service providers can use this product to quickly isolate and resolve protocol configuration, performance, and cabling problems. In fact, it includes full certification to U.S. and international cabling and networking standards.

One interesting feature is that FrameScope can be remotely controlled via a Web browser. But even more interesting is the products innovative AutoTest performance test suite, which uses objective performance metrics to measure the response times of key network services such as Web, file, e-mail, print, and DNS servers. Similar to our TMC Labs reviews, the unit ranks performances on a 15 rating scale, with 5 being the best. Often the problem with benchmarking or getting statistical analysis of your network is trying to figure out what you should compare against your network.

You can compare your network from one point in time to another point in time, but what if the network was slow or faulty to begin with? In other words, if your initial benchmark point was flawed, then your comparison is also flawed. Agilent has spent a lot of time researching the optimal and typical response times, so when you run the performance tests on the FrameScope, you can receive valuable and useful statistics via the rating scores to help diagnose network trouble spots.

Other features include the ability to identify 10/100 Mbps Ethernet utilization, broadcasts, collisions, and errors, as well as graphical reports that can be viewed online or printed. The unit has a serial port, USB connectors, and supports Type II CompactFlash cards with a 32 MB CompactFlash memory card that comes standard. The attached NiMH battery supports up to five hours of network testing and eight hours of cable testing. The Agilent FrameScope 350 standalone is priced at $5,995, and with the DualRemote (for Cat 6 and wire testing), it is priced at $7,995. This is a very useful network-troubleshooting product, and I suggest you check the company out at http://wirescope.comms.agilent.com.

BREAKING OUT OF STEALTH MODE
Then I discovered Delta Protocol Test Solutions. Considering that Ive been in this industry for nearly a decade, it was a bit of a surprise that I knew nothing of this company. However, after meeting with Delta Protocol Test Systems, they told me they purposely have been hiding under the presss radar screen. Theyve been around for several years, but until recently they have focused on selling video conferencing test equipment directly to customers. It was only when they saw the symmetry of extending their video protocol test knowledge to VoIP that they decided to build a VoIP test suite and to break out of their stealth marketing mode by meeting with the press to better promote their products. Delta Protocol Test Solutions makes several testing products, but the two that really intrigued me were the VoIP Analyzer/Emulator and the VoIP Bulk Call Generator.

The VoIP Analyzer/Emulator is a real-time protocol analyzer that provides a comprehensive decode of the H.323, MGCP, and SIP protocols. This is the first product that I am aware of that provides protocol decode of all three major VoIP standards. The analyzer captures IP packet data and automatically searches for signaling and audio traffic and measures call setup/teardown times. In addition, it provides conformance testing with full decoding for each protocol layer. The emulator generates multiple H.323 calls with real-time signaling and will test for interoperability among multiple vendor systems, establish endpoint connectivity, perform stress and load testing, and monitor performance of VoIP equipment, including packet delay, lost packets, and jitter. It supports up to 1,000 registrations with a gatekeeper, up to 150 calls with RTP audio, and from one to eight 10/100 LAN interfaces. The list of supported multimedia protocols include H.323, Q.931, H.225, RAS, SIP, SDP, RTP, RTCP, G.711, G.723.1, G.722, G.728, and G.729.

The VoIP Bulk Call Generator is equally feature-rich, supporting up to 1,000 H.323 and SIP calls, as well as 10,000 registrations with a gatekeeper or SIP server. The product generates multiple H.323 and SIP calls with real-time signaling and payload data for VoIP protocol testing. VoIP calls can be set up with full control of the H.323 and SIP stack parameters, which can be stored in Call Profiles and reused at a later time. The VoIP Bull Call Generator can originate and answer calls, inject packet jitter and errors, select the audio codec, display call setup/teardown status, and provide detailed reporting on the VoIP calls.

SIP AND RTP LOAD TESTER
One company that certainly has not evaded my radar screen is Empirix, a provider of test and monitoring solutions for Web, voice, and network applications. In fact, TMC Labs uses Empirixs testing products quite extensively in our lab. In mid-October, Empirix debuted its new Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Real Time Protocol (RTP) load test solutions. These two solutions offer complete load testing of media gateways, access gateways, and media servers with the ability to generate SIP signaling and RTP media load for up to an impressive 30,000 simultaneous calls at rates of over 200 calls per second.

The test solution includes Hammer PacketSphere RealStreamer, which generates real RTP media, and the newly announced SIP Loader. The Hammer SIP Loader and PacketSphere RealStreamer are controlled by a single interface, making for a seamless integrated solution with very good usability. The RealStreamer is the second application available on PacketSphere and can send and receive up to 1.6 Gbps of RTP media. Users can select different media clips and codec types and can view a variety of statistics on the RTP performance of the system under test. The platform can also host the PacketSphere Network Emulator, which Empirix claims is the industrys only gigabit wire-rate network impairment tool.

The Hammer SIP Test System is available on a standalone server or on Hammer TDM platforms. It utilizes the Hammer TestBuilder interface and is capable of integrated SIP and TDM (ISDN, SS7, CAS) signaling and feature testing.

High-Level Protection
Performance monitoring and network testing are essential. Equally important is monitoring the various software applications that use a portion of the available network bandwidth. One of the largest consumers of network bandwidth is e-mail, including both internal and external, which is either solicited, or unsolicited e-mail (that is, spam). Statistics show that 34 percent of business e-mails are unnecessary and that 15 percent of Internet bandwidth is used for spam. In addition to the waste of time and bandwidth, billions of dollars of damage have been caused by e-mail viruses such as the Love Bug and Nimda, among others.

With this in mind, I was pleased to meet with a company that offers high-level protection (application layer) for the network. BVRP USA (formerly Seattle Lab) offers several products. Especially interesting is their new Mail Warden product, which is a software security application that proactively filters e-mail messages, spam, viruses, and objectionable, provocative messages that can present liability concerns. The system can also be configured to prevent confidential material from leaving your company via e-mail. This product targets small to medium-sized businesses, and I found it to be very reasonably priced, starting at just $1,119 for 25 users on Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino, and other SMTP platforms. Ive seen competing products cost more than $10,000 for similar features. If youre looking for a cost-effective server-based e-mail filtering and virus checking solution, I highly recommend checking them out at www.bvrpusa.com.

The VoIP Challenge
The network is a critical component in just about any business. There are hundreds of network utilities and testing equipment manufacturers out there, from low-level packet sniffers all the way up to application level monitoring. Any IT administrator who has asked, What the heck is going on? Why is the network slow? might now have to add What the heck is going on with my choppy corporate VoIP phone? With voice applications playing an increasingly important role on the network, we will no doubt see more traditional data networking testing manufacturers add VoIP testing to their testing suite. And that is good news for all IT administrators. 

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