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Visibility Solutions

Garland Technology is committed to educating the benefits of having a strong foundation of network visibility and access. By providing this insight we protect the security of data across your network and beyond.

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The TAP into Technology blog provides the latest news and insights on network access and visibility, including: network security, network monitoring and appliance connectivity and guest blogs from Industry experts and technology partners

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Our extensive technology partnership ecosystem solves critical problems when it comes to network security, monitoring, application analysis, forensics and packet inspection.

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Whether you are ready to make a network TAP your foundation of visibility or just have questions, please contact us. Ask us about the Garland Difference!

The 101 Series: Filtering TAPs

In our 101 network TAP series, we have explained the functionality of the various network TAPs that are available to gain access to the traffic that is typically found in a network. We have reviewed passive fiber TAPs, copper network TAPs, aggregation TAPs, SPAN/regeneration TAPs and the bypass TAP.  

Now we want to review the ultimate way to optimize your visibility fabric – deploying advanced data filtering with packet broker functionality in a TAP. 

 

Filtering Capabilities

A network TAP will copy all of your data – every bit, byte and packet on your network. But sometimes your tools don’t need to see everything. Your VoIP or Wireshark only needs to see the traffic required to do its job. In this case we need to add the additional technology of filtering. When we are not interested in all the traffic that is going through the link, we can filter out what is not required by the tool – this ensures we will not oversubscribe the monitor ports.

This scenario (below) shows four 1G links with a filter applied and then aggregated together and sent out port D on TAP four to the monitoring or security tool.

Filtering TAPs by Garland with Port Mapping

Port Mapping for Maximum Efficiency

Port mapping (aka: filtering backplane) on the new XtraTAP: All-In-1 Chassis is an important feature because it allows you to aggregate low traffic links such as 1G VoIP links together. You can aggregate up to four 1G links to send to a VoIP analyzer and use only 1 port on the analyzer. This benefit minimizes of the number of monitor ports required on the monitoring tools and appliances.

>> Download Now: Network TAPs 101 [Free eBook]

Of course, when aggregating the traffic of multiple links there is the possibility of oversubscribing the TAP’s monitoring ports. To eliminate the possibility of oversubscribing we need to filter out the traffic that the monitoring appliances are not interested in, we do this with rule-based filters (see below). We also have the option to not apply a filter by sending all the data to a critical appliance like an intrusion detection system (IDS).

Port Mapping via a Backplane Filter with Garland's new 1G Packet Broker System

Smart Filtering and Aggregation

The XtraTAP: All-In-1 provides the capability of filtering network traffic at Layers 2, 3 and 4 of a packet. Providing the monitoring tools with only the traffic that they are interested in and creating efficiency to do only the processing they are designed for.

So, being able to aggregate the links together is good and then filtering out the traffic that the monitoring appliances are not interested in is better. 

Today's blog is all about the filtering capabilities in our new chassis system. However, this new 1G wonder box can do it all because it supports all of Garland's modular TAPs, including: copper network TAPs, aggregation TAPs, SPAN/regeneration TAPs and bypass TAPs.

Garland Technology's, The 101 Series is an educational series on how network TAPs work and the different functions they provide to the overall network design for access and visibility.

Looking to add a visibility solution to your next deployment, but not sure where to start? Join us for a brief network Design-IT consultation or demo. No obligation - it’s what we love to do!

Network TAPS 101 Basics for IT Security engineers

Written by Jerry Dillard

Jerry Dillard, CTO and Co-founder of Garland Technology, leverages over two decades in design and engineering to ensure maximum performance within today’s network environments. Dillard, the inventor of the Bypass TAP, continues to innovate network visibility solutions worldwide.

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