Service providers want a real-time picture of MPLS-TE (Multi-protocol Label Switching—Traffic Engineering) tunnels in order to measure netflow. A recent release shows that Packet Design (News - Alert) has introduced the first network management product to provide this capability.

TE Explorer allows service providers can manage netflow through their tunnels, which are used to carry critical customer traffic across their MPLS core networks. This comprehensive solution is designed to help manage networks with MPLS-TE tunnels based on RSVP-TE (Resource Reservation Protocol—Traffic Engineering).

Service providers can also leverage netflow capabilities with the TE Explorer as it allows for the visualization of all traffic engineering tunnels, monitoring of their stability, verifying of their fault tolerance and the analyzing of their traffic utilization and bandwidth availability. Providers equipped with TE tunnel management knowledge can ensure the availability, resilience and performance of sensitive services.

Packet Design’s capability is expended with the TE Explorer as it allows for the inclusion of the ability to integrate MPLS traffic engineering tunnels, designed to diverge from IP routing paths when necessary to optimize traffic delivery through the core of an IP/MPLS network. Previous solutions aimed at MPLS traffic engineering management and netflow analysis provided no insight into dynamic changes occurring to TE tunnels. They also did not provide visibility into backup status or fault tolerance capabilities.

The netflow approach to information gathering across the network can be optimized with TE Explorer as it provides integrated IP routing and traffic engineering visibility across the service provider’s entire network. All tunnels can be visualized and analyzed in the context of underlying OSPF and IS-IS routing.

Service providers actually gain the ability to view lists of all tunnels, assess the availability of their bandwidth and periodic tunnel re-optimizations. Particular links can be used to view tunnels, assess how traffic utilization contributes to overall link utilization and drill-down into traffic on individual links or tunnels using the netflow platform.

Those who are attempting to troubleshoot the network can actually rewind the routing and TE tunnel state to a previous point in time when an intermittent problem could have been occurring. They also gain the ability to easily view all tunnel changes during a specific period of time to be able to trace the historical path of a specific tunnel that was experiencing instabilities and perhaps producing sub-standard performance.

With the TE Explorer, the service provider gains tunnel status monitoring, forensic troubleshooting, modeling and planning, and end-to-end traffic or netflow analysis to assure proper traffic flows for optimal service delivery.