<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none;" alt="" src="https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=2975524&amp;fmt=gif">
BLOG

On TAP at the Cisco Berlin Expo—Ensuring Network Visibility as Network Speeds Increase

February 9, 2016

Every year, Cisco—a Garland Technology partner—hosts a number of user expos across the globe to deliver premier education and training for network engineers all the way up to IT directors. On February 15 - 19, 2016, enterprise IT professionals at all levels will gather at the Messe Berlin in Germany for the Cisco Live Berlin Expo.

One focus every year is how to continuously adapt to greater network demands—and 2016 won’t be an exception. 

The use of bandwidth-intensive applications is pushing companies toward a switch from 10G to 40G and 100G network speeds. However, network architects need a more cost-effective and efficient approach to network migration.

Cisco meets these demands with their 40G bidirectional (BiDi) technology that uses 2 parallel multi-mode fiber strands to transmit the signal bidirectionally instead of unidirectional. This quadruples the speed and allows for cost effective network migration from 10G to 40G. 

The only problem is that BiDi technology introduces visibility issues by changing the way network elements must connect to TAPs. Garland Technology will be on hand at the 2016 Cisco Berlin Expo to showcase a number of Cisco-validated solutions for maintaining visibility in rapidly changing networks.

What to Look Forward to at the 2016 Cisco Berlin Expo

The technology education tracks available at the 2016 Cisco Berlin Expo cover a wide range of topics—from cloud, collaboration and data centers to SDN, security, enterprise networks and more. Amidst all of the excitement of the event, here are three key seminars to attend if you’re concerned about 40G networking and visibility:

  • Cloud Network Infrastructure—Multi-Speed 40/100G Network Switch Fabrics: A discussion of how switch fabrics help deliver scalability and the potential for granular visibility.
  • Next-Generation Nexus 9000 Architecture: Data center switching will continue to change as capacity demands increase. Maintaining visibility will be a top concern as architectures adapt to these demands.
  • Next-Generation Data Center Infrastructure: What will your data center look like in the coming years? It’s important to stay on top of the latest trends if you want to maintain visibility.

Discussions about increasing network speeds and visibility must go hand-in-hand—and Garland Technology will be at the 2016 Cisco Berlin Expo to showcase the solutions that can keep visibility at the top of everyone’s minds. 

Whitepaper Network Connectivity

Join Garland Technology at Cisco Berlin Expo 2016 for a 40G-SR BiDi Passive Fiber TAP Showcase

Cisco BiDi technology unifies 10G simplex cables to create bidirectional 20G links, but that traffic must still be treated as if it comes from four different links. That’s why network TAPs must support four cable connections to monitoring appliances in BiDi environments.

Consider the following features of the 40G-SR BiDi TAP that help you ensure visibility in your BiDi environment:

  • New prism-based technology to reduce bit errors on OM3 and OM4 applications
  • Unique high-density design supports 21 TAPs in one rack mount
  • The design supports scalability with a 1U rack mount kit that holds up to 4 modules, each of which can contain up to 3 TAPs

If you want to learn more about how Garland and Cisco are helping companies achieve 40G network speeds without ditching their LC connectors, contact Garland Technology for more information. 

See Everything. Secure Everything.

Contact us now to secure and optimized your network operations
Contact Us

Heartbeats Packets Inside the Bypass TAP

If the inline security tool goes off-line, the TAP will bypass the tool and automatically keep the link flowing. The Bypass TAP does this by sending heartbeat packets to the inline security tool. As long as the inline security tool is on-line, the heartbeat packets will be returned to the TAP, and the link traffic will continue to flow through the inline security tool.

If the heartbeat packets are not returned to the TAP (indicating that the inline security tool has gone off-line), the TAP will automatically 'bypass' the inline security tool and keep the link traffic flowing. The TAP also removes the heartbeat packets before sending the network traffic back onto the critical link.

While the TAP is in bypass mode, it continues to send heartbeat packets out to the inline security tool so that once the tool is back on-line, it will begin returning the heartbeat packets back to the TAP indicating that the tool is ready to go back to work. The TAP will then direct the network traffic back through the inline security tool along with the heartbeat packets placing the tool back inline.

Some of you may have noticed a flaw in the logic behind this solution!  You say, “What if the TAP should fail because it is also in-line? Then the link will also fail!” The TAP would now be considered a point of failure. That is a good catch – but in our blog on Bypass vs. Failsafe, I explained that if a TAP were to fail or lose power, it must provide failsafe protection to the link it is attached to. So our network TAP will go into Failsafe mode keeping the link flowing.

Glossary

  1. Single point of failure: a risk to an IT network if one part of the system brings down a larger part of the entire system.

  2. Heartbeat packet: a soft detection technology that monitors the health of inline appliances. Read the heartbeat packet blog here.

  3. Critical link: the connection between two or more network devices or appliances that if the connection fails then the network is disrupted.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT | THE 101 SERIES