Specifications

© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Introduction 1-34
NAM / Traffic Analyzer v3.5 Tutorial
© 2006 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction 1-34
NAM / Traffic Analyzer v3.5 Tutorial
Traffic Analyzer Software
IP / MPLS Monitoring
Traffic Analyzer Software
IP / MPLS Monitoring
Catalyst 6500 and Cisco
7600 Series NAM only
Catalyst 6500 and Cisco
7600 Series NAM only
Customer A
Customer B
Service Provider
MPLS Core
• MPLS provides an
elegant solution to
overlapping IP address
spaces when sharing a
core backbone
• Packet forwarding is
done based on labels,
which are assigned
when the packet enters
the MPLS network
• Switching is based on
labels and the IP
address is never
looked at
Customer A
Customer B
The NAM:
• Learns the VRF /VCID configurations from switch using Telnet or SSH (or manually import)
• Discovers all incoming / outgoing routes via the VPN route forwarding (VRF) tables
• Monitors traffic for selected VRFs
• Reports (real-time or historical) traffic statistics, application stats, hosts, or conversations
Customer B
Customer A
VPN 2 VRF
VPN 1 VRF
VPN 1 VRF
NAM-2
VPN 2 VRF
IP / MPLS Monitoring
The overlapping addresses, usually resulting from usage of private IP addresses in
customer networks, are one of the major obstacles to successful deployment of peer-to-
peer VPN implementations. The MPLS/VPN technology provides an elegant solution to
the dilemma.
Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS) combines the benefits of layer 2 switching with
layer 3 routing and switching. This new technology results in simpler customer routing and
simpler service provider provisioning, and makes possible a number of topologies that are
hard to implement (overlay or peer-to-peer VPN models). MPLS also adds the benefits of
a connection-oriented approach to the IP routing paradigm, through the establishment of
label-switched paths, which are created based on topology information rather than traffic
flow.
A NAM placed in the network can be used to monitor traffic embedded in the MPLS
packets! By communicating with the switch using Telnet or SSH, the NAM can learn the
VRF / VCID configurations or the administrator can import them manually using the NAM’s
user interface. The NAM can then monitor and discover the VPN route forwarding tables.
Once the mapping is known, the NAM can collect statistics per VRF name. All RMON2
statistics and extensions are available for the entire data source or per VLAN/MPLS VRF,
VCID, or Label within the Data Source. Thus, upper layer statistics can be enabled to
allow for monitoring of hosts, conversations, and applications. Additionally, packet capture
and decode can be performed and application response times can be measured on the
MPLS traffic streams.