Why do You Need a Network Packet Broker to Optimize Your Network
Efficiency
What is a network packet broker?
Why do I need a network packet broker?
- Obtain more comprehensive and accurate data for better
decision-making
- Tighter security
- Solve problems faster
- Improve initiative
- Better return on investment
What can NPB do?
Redundant packet deduplication
SSL decryption
The header stripping
Application and threat intelligence
Application of monitoring
The benefits of NPB
Ensuring network security and user growth in a rapidly changing IT
environment requires a complex set of tools that perform real-time
analysis.Your monitoring infrastructure may have network and
application performance monitoring (NPM/APM), data loggers, and
traditional network analyzers, while your defense system utilizes
firewalls, intrusion protection systems (IPS), data leakage
prevention (DLP), anti-malware, and other solutions.
No matter how specialized security and monitoring tools are, they
all have two things in common:
You need to know exactly what's going on in the network
The analysis results are based only on the data received
A 2016 survey by the business management institute (EMA) found that
nearly 30 percent of respondents did not trust their tools to
receive all the data they needed.This means there are blind spots
in the network for monitoring, resulting in futility, high costs
and a higher risk of being hacked.
Visibility requires the avoidance of wasteful investment and
network monitoring blind spots, which require the collection of
relevant data on all the dynamics of the network.The mirror ports
of the splitter/spectrometer and network device are also known as
SPAN ports and become access points for capturing traffic for
analysis.
This is a relatively "simple operation," and the real challenge is
how to efficiently transfer data from the network to every tool
that needs it.If you have only a few network segments and
relatively few analysis tools, the two can be connected
directly.However, given the speed with which the network is
expanding, even if it is logically feasible, this one-to-one
connection is likely to create an unwieldy management nightmare.
The EMA report says that 35 percent of organizations believe that a
shortage of SPAN ports and splitters is the main reason they cannot
fully monitor their network segments.Ports on high-end analytics
tools such as firewalls can also be scarcer, so it's important to
avoid performance degradation from overloading your device.
Why do I need a network packet broker?
The network packet broker (NPB) is installed between the shunt or
SPAN ports used to access network data, as well as security and
monitoring tools.As the name implies, the basic function of a
network packet broker is to coordinate network packet data to
ensure that each analysis tool gets exactly what it needs.
NPB adds an increasingly critical intelligence layer that reduces
cost and complexity to help you achieve the following goals:
Obtain more comprehensive and accurate data for better
decision-making
Network packet agents with advanced filtering capabilities are used
to provide accurate and efficient data for your monitoring and
security analysis tools.
Tighter security
When you can't detect a threat, it's hard to stop it.NPB is
designed to ensure that firewalls, IPS, and other defense systems
always have access to the precise data they need.
Solve problems faster
In fact, the time spent just identifying the problem accounts for
85% of the average repair time (MTTR).Downtime means lost money,
and mishandling it can have a devastating impact on your business.
The context-aware filtering provided by NPB helps you find and
identify root causes of problems faster by introducing advanced
application intelligence.
Improve initiative
The metadata provided by the smart NPB via NetFlow also facilitates
access to empirical data to manage bandwidth usage, trends, and
growth, thereby nip the problem in the bud.
Better return on investment
Smart NPB not only aggregates traffic from monitoring points like
switches, but also filters and collates data to improve security
and monitoring tool utilization and productivity.Simply handling
the associated traffic improves tool performance, reduces
congestion, minimizes false positives, and enables greater security
coverage with fewer devices.
Ways to increase ROI using network packet proxies
1. Accelerated troubleshooting
2. Detect vulnerabilities faster
3. Reduce the burden of security tools
4. Extend monitoring during upgrade
5. Tool life
6. Simplify compliance
Network Packet Broker Specifications
| NT-CFTAP-24 26 28XG-D NetTAP® NPB Functional Parameters |
| Network Interface | GE ports | 24*GE SFP slots |
| 10GE ports | 0/2/4*10GE SFP+ slots |
| Deployment mode | SPAN monitoring input | support |
| In-line mode | support |
| Total QTYs interface | 24/26/28 |
| Traffic replication / aggregation / distribution | support |
| Link QTYs supporting Mirror replication / aggregation | 1 -> N link traffic replication (N <24/26/28) N-> 1 link traffic aggregation (N <24/26/28) G Group(M-> N Link) traffic replication and aggregation [G * (M
+ N) <24/26/28] |
| Functions | Distribution based on traffic identification | support |
| Distribution based on IP / protocol / port Five tuple traffic
identification | support |
| Distribution strategy based on protocol header the key labeled
traffic identifies | support |
| Strategic distribution based on deep message content identification | support |
| Support Ethernet encapsulation independence | support |
| CONSOLE Network Management | support |
| IP/WEB Network Management | support |
| SNMP V1/V2C Network Management | support |
| TELNET/SSH Network Management | support |
| SYSLOG Protocol | support |
| User authentication function | Password authentication based on user name
|
| Electric(1+1 Redundant Power System-RPS) | Rated supply voltage | AC110-240V/DC-48V [Optional] |
| Rated power frequency | AC-50HZ |
| Rated input current | AC-3A / DC-10A |
| Rated power function | 150W(24XG: 100W ) |
| Environment | Operating Temperature | 0－50℃ |
| Storage Temperature | -20-70℃ |
| Operating Humidity | 10%-95%, Non-condensing |
| User Configuration | Console Configuration | RS232 Interface, 9600,8,N,1 |
| Password authentication | support |
| Rack Height | Rack space (U) | 1U 460mm*45mm*440mm |
NT-CFTAP-24 26 28XG-D Network TAP NPB.pdf
