When asked to describe the OptiView XG to someone else, network engineers frequently make a comparison to the Swiss Army Knife.
Commissioned in the late 1880s by the Swiss military, the original "Swiss Army Officer's Knife" - as it later became known - was designed to provide an easy-to-use, easy-to-carry, single tool to maintain and repair a rifle in the field (and open canned food). That way, the soldier would always have on hand whatever tool was needed to keep the rifle operational.
The same philosophy guided the founders of Fluke Networks in the creation of the first portable network analyser, the LANMeter. Today, we're pleased to announce the latest software and hardware update for the award-winning OptiView XG Network Analysis Tablet - "adding tools and sharpening the blades" for this indispensable, all-in-one network engineering tool.
The new features include:
* New Windows Reflector Software
* New OptiView Performance Test Remote (PTR)
* Automated Network Mapping
* Sequential Store-to-Disk
* ClearSight Analyzer v9.5
* HeadsUp XG for Android
In this release, I'll focus on the first two - the ability for OptiView users to instantly deploy software test agents anywhere in their distributed networks, and an economical alternative for full line-rate 10Gbps instrumentation. This shows how Version 11 and the new OptiView Performance Test Remote provide complete flexibility in performance test endpoints.
Troubleshooting remote sites
Supporting distributed users and sites is difficult at best. When problems happen for remote users, many organisations lack the visibility needed to solve the problem remotely, forcing network engineers to travel across town, across country or even internationally to get to root cause. This is a significant drain on time and resources, and takes critical staff away from working on key IT projects.
Conducting Network Performance Tests (NPT, introduced in v10) provides a clear assessment of network capabilities and quality, end-to-end. Now, with Version 11, network engineers have a "good-better-best" network instrumentation strategy for performance testing and remote site troubleshooting.
With Version 11, engineers can direct remote users to point their Web browser to XG's IP address, and instantly download the new Windows Reflector. Then, direct a stream of traffic (only a little is needed) to the user's PC, which then reflects that traffic back to the OptiView. This gives the engineer insight into roundtrip jitter, latency, loss, and whether QOS is being maintained to and from that remote site. With no restrictions on the use of this software agent, OptiView owners can now instantly deploy a test endpoint anywhere in their network, for performance testing and troubleshooting wherever it is needed.
High performance validation, VOIP/video assessment, troubleshooting
When we released v10 and the Network Performance Test (NPT) capability, we gave OptiView owners a way to validate carrier SLAs and QOS, resolve performance problems in local or remote site networks, detect problems caused by internal traffic policing, and resolve performance problems with their VOIP phones. NPT on OptiView XG provided end-to-end network visibility for troubleshooting and network assessment.
With most networks moving to high-performance 10G links in their data centres and critical uplinks, Version 10 gave OptiView owners a way to validate this expensive network infrastructure - to ensure that their investment in top-of-the-line switching was delivering the performance as promised... or not, as the case may be. But, investing in two OptiViews in order to conduct full 10G testing is also a big investment.
Now with the OptiView Performance Test Remote (PTR), OptiView users have a cost-effective way of instrumenting one or more points in the network with a 10G device for performance testing, troubleshooting and installation validation. The PTR operates as a "peer" for full bi-directional testing - upstream/downstream - providing asymmetric measurement, an essential test methodology for VOIP assessment. Jitter and loss measurements must be made independently (not roundtrip) to have meaning for assuring or troubleshooting VOIP/video performance.
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