In an innovative approach to provide its customers with better Internet access, data and voice over IP (VoIP) service, East Germany-based HL komm Telekommunikations adopted Traffic Explorer route and Netflow analysis system from Packet Design, a supplier of network appliances that provide routing-layer visibility into IP networks.

 

The network management system from Packet Design will help the East German telecommunications service provider to quickly identify the problems and make critical peering decisions on their growing IP network.

 

“Traffic Explorer is the only IP network management system to combine traffic-flow data with network-wide "path awareness" to reveal the consequences of routing changes on application and service delivery,” said the officials.

 

Traffic Explorer enables users to gain better visibility into routing operations for identifying the problems and managing the networks effectively. Using a set of network appliances, it collects traffic-flow data at key entry points in the network and monitors the traffic changes according to the changes in the routing. It also stores traffic and routing data details in a database for future analysis or diagnosis purposes.

 

“Traffic Explorer enables HL komm to monitor customer traffic as it moves from end to end over the backbone network, helping the Leipzig-based service provider to do more effective troubleshooting and capacity planning, and to make cost-effective decisions about peering relationships with other providers outside the region,” said officials.

 

HL komm witnessed a major network expansion over the past several years. It now offers voice and data solutions to more than 50,000 end users through its independent services and converged services to business customers or other carriers. Many of HL komm customers are subscribers of the “triple play” service offered through its cable-provider partners. This situation has created the need for an efficient network and more visibility into routing and traffic, said company sources.

 

“As we expanded our IP backbone to increase network capacity, we suddenly had a lot of bandwidth, many more routers and much more complexity to manage,” said Gregor Türpe, design engineer at HL komm, in a statement. “And when we added IP-based voice services, the network's stability and the need to avoid service degradation became much more important. We were in need of new tools.”

 

Packet Design’s Traffic Explorer is deployed to diagnose network problems on HL komm’s Cisco (News - Alert) router-based network and identify their causes. It gathers routing and Netflow information and creates an overlay that shows the impact of routing changes on traffic activity, said Türpe.

 

“Because it keeps current and historical traffic data for every link in the network, if one of our customers experienced a problem with its traffic last Friday between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., we can actually 'rewind' the network to that exact time and see what changes in the routing led to the problem,” explained Türpe.

 

HL komm is in the process of connecting to a number of new peers and transit providers. With Traffic Explorer, HL komm is now able to make important decisions about key peering and transit relationships.