The enterprise solution consists of three components:

PacketSmart Enterprise Platform (rack mount server)
A set of PacketSmart micro-appliances
PacketSmart GUI

The micro-appliances are small 4" x 5" devices with three RJ45 Ethernet ports. Once a micro-appliance is connected in a branch office network (inline OR on mirrored switch port) it becomes a powerful media generator PLUS remote network sniffer for the IT engineers at the corporate headquarters. The PacketSmart software platform is a high performance Linux-based application server that controls the micro-appliances and collects, correlates, and summarizes data collected from them in real-time. The PacketSmart GUI is a powerful java application that allows for control of the micro-appliances and visualization of large volumes of real-time data.

The PacketSmart enterprise platform is for multi-site enterprises who have the following requirements:

Need to monitor the quality of VoIP service delivery at their branch offices (Hosted IP or SIP-trunking configuration)
Need to manage the VoIP service quality of distributed call center locations
Need to have remote VoIP diagnostics and packet capability at branch office locations from IT headquarters
Need to design and monitor Voice-Over-Wifi networks

PacketSmart For Your Network Design Needs

"Network Design" is not a required part of deploying data networks. The forgiving nature of standard network protocols like TCP meant that data networks could be setup simply by interconnecting network elements like switches, hubs, and routers. Unfortunately this approach does not work when setting up converged media networks that need to carry VoIP, video, and data.

The problem with real-time services like VoIP and Video is that their quality depends on the underlying network's ability to support a steady flow of high packet rates. For example, VoIP uses approximately ten times more packets than data, and is affected by congestion delays in the order of milliseconds. A delay of over 100ms in a data network could bring down the quality of a VoIP call, while such a delay would be insignificant to a data session. Similarly, a loss of a few data packets would make no impact to a data session, but a similar loss on a VoIP call could make the call incomprehensible to the listeners.

Several QoS schemes are available to ensure optimum quality of converged media services like VoIP and Video. However, it continues to be a challenge to model how these schemes will impact quality on a live voice-data network.

The PacketSmart Enterprise platform provides multi-site enterprises with a powerful and simple network design solution for constructing converged media networks (or help in fixing existing ones) with optimal end-to-end QoS.

PacketSmart For Your Network Lifecycle Management Needs

"Monitoring" is a nice-to-have capability when it comes to data networks, but not an essential requirement. This is because when data networks slow down or experience problems, the reasons are often quite obvious. The fix usually involves replacing or upgrading key network routing elements or quarantining bad devices. Since data network protocols are very forgiving, most users do not even notice minor network degradations till the problem causes major productivity issues. However, this is not the case once VoIP and Video are deployed on a data network. A brief congestion that causes a mere 100 millisec delay will significantly impact the quality of VoIP calls.

Traditional SNMP-based network management platforms which monitor using a polling paradigm are ineffective in detecting transient congestion in the the order of milliseconds. A flow-based management approach that leverages deep packet inspection is essential in managing these new networks. Furthermore, considering the fact that all networks evolve over time, it is imperative to adopt a lifecycle approach to managing converged media networks. Such a lifecycle consists of network design, network verification, network troubleshooting, and network monitoring functions.

The PacketSmart Enterprise platform provides multi-site enterprises with a powerful and simple lifecycle management solution to manage their converged media networks at each of their branch-office sites.