High Speed Ethernet and IP Capture

Wirespeed Ethernet traffic filtering and recording up to 320 Gbps direct to disk.

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Overview

Today's networks are built with switches, routers, and gateways interconnected with 1, 10, 25, 40, and 100 Gbps full duplex fiber optic lines. These fiber connections increasingly carry packets (vs. circuits) with data, voice, and video, interleaved, aggregated, and burst out at ever faster, bigger, and longer distances.

Diagnosing issues on these networks requires error free, non-intrusive interception at full line-rate (wirespeed) and then storing the captures for post analysis with a protocol analyzer. At such high rates, capturing and storing requires a unique architecture, large RAM, and hundreds of terabytes of storage. Additional features, like wirespeed filtering, packet slicing, storing and later extracting intended application streams are also vital.

The application includes four modules - FastRecorder™, PacketExtractor™, PacketRecorder™ , and PacketReplay™.

FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ provide extreme wirespeed IP traffic filtering and recording up to 320 Gbps direct to disk and offline filtering, extraction, and analysis. Supports 4 x 1 Gbps or 2 or 4 x 1/10/25 Gbps or 2 x 40/100 or 8 x 10 Gbps or 4 x 1/10/25 GigE Ethernet Interface
PacketRecorder™ and PacketReplay™ provide record and playback of IP traffic up to 10 Gbps

In FastRecorder™ mode, high rate real-time traffic can be recorded with precise hardware time stamping. The Record feature includes a powerful Hardware Filter that allows user to filter out unwanted traffic, and continuously capture the traffic of interest. The user can apply trigger conditions to Start or Stop writing to the Disk based on the Trigger criteria.

In PacketExtractor™ mode, the recorded traffic file on selected network interface ports and drives can be extracted to PCAP or PCAPNG (Wireshark® format), or HDL (GL Proprietary format) formats, and extracted trace files can be analyzed using any packet analyzer such as GL's PacketScan™. It also supports sequence number verification of extracted packets (BERT verification) Live traffic captured on a network using the Recorder utility, PacketScan™, or Wireshark® can be easily recreated in the lab. Also, PacketExtractor™ supports monitoring and analysis of eCPRI protocol.

GL's IP Analytics™ (PKV410) is an optional application that works with FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ used to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) by analyzing IP-based data streams to meet performance standards. GL's IP Analytics™ offers detailed statistics for various parameters such as Layer 3, COS, Layer 4, IPv4/IPv6 Endpoints, UDP/TCP Endpoints, and conversations, enabling precise analysis of network performance. Capable to compute and visualize network metrics with millisecond precision, including Packet Count, Byte Count, Packets/sec, and Bits/sec, provides real-time insights crucial for optimizing network efficiency.

FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ applications work with GL's PacketScan™ HD (or Wireshark®) Analyzers. GL's PacketScan™ HD is a complete IP traffic analyzer – similar to but more powerful than Wireshark®. For example, real time voice quality, fax quality, call and session separation, powerful ladder diagrams are included.

The traffic captured on a live network can be analyzed using packet analyzers such as PacketScan™ - All IP analyzer or Wireshark®.

Main Features

FastRecorder™

Lossless capture of high speed IP traffic (1, 10, 25, 40, and 100 GigE) links
Non-intrusive capture and record over Ethernet (Electrical and Optical) interfaces at nano-second time precision
Merging traffic with high-precision timestamps for recording on multiple ports
Provides predefined (customized filter) and advance hardware filter options
Provides options to customize filters which provides the flexibility to select the fields and use the logical conditions more efficiently
Up to 120 TB of total storage (NVME SSD) in the portable platform
Record only traffic-of-interest by applying efficient hardware filters based on MAC, 802.1Q (VLANs), IPv4/IPv6, Tunnel Traffic (Tunnel 1 and Tunnel 2), TCP, UDP, SCTP, SIP, and RTP parameters
Filter on inner layer of GTP, GRE, and VXLAN tunnel traffic like inner IPv4/IPv6 addresses and Transport Protocols (UDP, TCP and SCTP) port numbers
User can create their own filters using custom filter option which provides flexibility to check the fields and use the logical AND, OR conditions more efficiently
Packet Slicing on configured length to store only selected packet content
Optimized distributed disk operation to achieve wirespeed recording to disk
Option to record traffic continuously by retaining the latest traffic with user defined record size
Supports recording of eCPRI traffic based on eCPRI message types and UDP port number
Aggregated and per port statistics like captured, filtered/unfiltered, dropped frame percentage and counts
Recording can be started with default recording name. The current time is taken as the default recording name in “YYYY-MM-DD_HH-Min-Sec” format
Graphical display option to view the recorded statistics as well as a history of overall rate, frames/seconds, per-port rate, per-port frames/seconds, and port link status along with Zoom in and out options
Supports Email alert for specified trigger condition
Trigger-based condition is configured based on Date Time/Time format, Capture Rate, Filter Rate, Per-port Capture Rate, Per-port Filter Rate, and Port link status
Provides error counters in the statistics
Schedule the recording start/stop by setting triggering condition based on Datetime/time format

PacketExtractor™

Extract intended traffic from previous recordings into PCAP, PCAPNG (Wireshark® format), or HDL (GL Proprietary format) output traces
Pre-Extraction filter has been introduced to eliminate the frames which are captured due to GL’s SmartNIC™ limitation
Display of recorded as well as aggregated statistics of overall rate, frames/seconds, per-port rate, per-port frames/seconds, and port link status from the record start time to end time
Extracted trace can be analyzed in PacketScan™ HD or Wireshark®
Option to extract the packets into single or multiple output traces
Extraction filter provides option to filter UDP, TCP, SCTP port numbers, and inner IP and inner UDP IP, and other protocols
Extract traces with file size, time period, or packet count as the limit criteria
Packets can be sliced to limited length to optimize output trace size
Option to compress extracted trace files using 7-Zip to optimize storage
Supports analysis of eCPRI to monitor eCPRI traffic for packet impairments such as Missed Packets, Out of Order, Duplicate Packets, One-Way Delay etc.
Display of recorded aggregated and per port statistics such as captured, filtered/unfiltered, dropped frame percentage and counts
Graphical display option to view the recorded statistics as well as a history of overall rate, frames/seconds, per-port rate, per-port frames/seconds, and port link status from the record start time to end time along with Zoom in and out options
Supports Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) protocol to decrypt ESP packets on both IPv4 and IPv6 by providing ESP SAs value
Provides an option to view the configured hardware filters
Extraction can be done from user-specified start and end time
Enhanced to support Data Analysis and Rate Analysis

Specifications

Hardware Requirements	Requires GL's HD Network Interface adapters High Density Network Adapters can be any of the following types - 4x 1 Gbps – requires 850/1310 nm SFP Module; Ethernet/Optical SFP modules 2x 10 Gbps – requires 10GBASE-SR SFP+; Optical only 2x 40 Gbps – requires MTP/MPO Connector for CFP2; Optical only 2x 40/2x 100 Gbps – requires MTP/MPO Connector for CFP2; Optical only Hard Disk: SSD hard disk (For faster I/O operations) compatible with SATA verIII or RAM Disk System Configuration: 2U system with 32 GB to 128 GB RAM
Hardware Filters	Supports defining up to 10 filters at Layer 2, 3, 4, and 5 MAC: Frames can be filtered out based on Source MAC address, destination MAC address, Ether Type and FCS Error VLAN 0, 1, 2: Filters frames based on Tag protocol ID, User Priority, CFI, and VLAN ID IPV4: Frames can be filtered based on Source IP Address, Destination IP Address, Protocol Type, Header Length, Differentiated Services, Ds_ECN, DS_CodePoint, Total Length, Check Sum Error, IP Datagram ID, Fragmentation Offset, Flag_DontFragment and Flag_MoreFragments IPv6: Frames can be filtered based on Source IP address, Destination IP address, Next Header, and Payload Length Tunnel Traffic: Tunnel filter provides a method to filter the packets of one protocol within the protocols. Supported tunneling methods are GTP, GRE and VXLAN and Hardware filters can be applied to Tunnel 1 and/or Tunnel 2 layer fields ARP: Frames can be filtered based on Sender MAC Address, Target MAC Address, Sender IP Address, Target IP Address and Option Code TCP: In TCP layer Frames, can be filtered based on source port, destination port and check sum error UDP: In UDP layer Frames can be filtered based on source port, destination port, check sum error, UDP length and payload SCTP: SCTP packets can also be filtered based on source port or destination port SIP and RTP: SIP and RTP packets can also be filtered based on source port or destination port
Record Rate	Max Rate is 320 Gbps

FastRecorder™ Architecture

The traffic is captured on the selected port at the hardware level. The captured traffic will be timestamped and sent to the Host Buffer within the hardware. If the Hardware Filters are applied, then only the filtered traffic will be sent to the Host Buffer. In case of multiple port selection, the filtered traffic from the selected ports is aggregated and presented as a single stream.

The FastRecorder™ application has two modules such as Capture Module and Write Module. In the host buffer, the packets are segmented into different frames based on segment sequence number and segment sequence length and these stream of frames are captured from the selected network interface and the write module will save the captured traffic in the trace files in metadata format in to the SSD/RAM Disk.

PacketExtractor™ Architecture

The pre-recorded captured files (.dat format) stored in SSD/RAM disk will be fed to PacketExtractor™ application.

It reads the metadata file which contains the information of the recorded data on each drive with time stamp. The filters can be applied for extracting traffic of interest. The trace files segments are reassembled based on segment sequence number. The segment sequence number and segment length are used while analyzing or reassembling the segments.
The Extractor module extracts the packets from the reassembled segments. The write module will write the extracted packets to HDL or PCAP or PcapNG. The BERT verify option can be used to analyze the sequence number of extracted packets.

FastRecorder™ Application
PacketExtractor™ Application

FastRecorder™ Application

FastRecorder™ application provides various options to capture the high density real-time traffic on disk drives and store the recorded traffic into a file. The application can capture the traffic continuously until user stops the recorder or specify the size limit to stop the traffic capture.

Hardware Filters

The Hardware Filter option allows user to easily set up filter conditions to filter out unwanted traffic at line rate, continuously capture only the traffic of interest, and modify filters on the fly.

Example: Filtering Tunnel Traffic
Up to 10 filters can be defined based on various parameters in the protocol layers. As an example, GTP is configured in the below figure.

FastRecorder Statistics

Recorder statistics displays the statistics information of

Filter Match Frames
Filter Not Match Frames, Total Frames
Filter Match Frames %
Dropped Frames (Due to Buffer Overflow)
Recorded Bytes (Gbytes)
Capture Rate (Mbps)
Filtered Rate (Mbps)
Capture Frame Rate (Frames/Sec)
Filtered Frame Rate (Frames/Sec)
Record Duration (hr:min)
Available Host Buffer Size (Kbytes)
Utilized Host Buffer Size (Kbytes)
Available OnBoard Memory Size (Mbytes)
Utilized OnBoard Memory Size (%)
Utilized OnBoard Memory Size (Mbytes)
Disk Write Fail Count
Port Link Status
Port Link Down Count
L1/L2 ERROR Counters:

L2 Drop Events
CRC
Alignment
Code Violation
Fragments
Jabbers
Collisions

Overall Graph View

User can observe the real time display of graph (Time v/s Rate), Capture Rate, Filter Rate, and Port link Status from past 7 days.

Per Port Graph View

User can observe the real time display of port graph (Time v/s Frames/Sec), Capture and Filtered Frames from past 7 days

Trigger Conditions

User can specify the triggers to perform action based on the following conditions.

CaptureRate (Mbps)
FilterRate (Mbps)
Port[n].CaptureRate (Mbps)
Port[n].FilterRate (Mbps): where n is port number
TimeStamp.DateTime, TimeStamp
Time (min)

Recording Time Table

Packet Length	512	Bytes
Overhead	20	Bytes	12 bytes minimum IFG + 8 bytes Preamble+SFD
Napatech Overhead	16	Bytes	Packet Header Overhead
Actual Overhead	-4
Link Speed	10	Gbps
Number of Links	4
Disk Space/sec	4.620233085	GB
Duration (minutes)	18	Minutes
Total Disk Space	4.872902082	TB

PacketExtractor™ Application

PacketExtractor™ application consists of configuration settings that allows user to extract recorded files on the selected HD NIC interface port with or without applying filters and by specifying the different limit criteria (Time, Packet Count and Size) into required output file format to analyze the results using PacketScan and Wireshark application . User can also save the extracted traffic in multiple files by providing the file size to create a new file after every specified file size.

In the packet extraction from the stored recordings without filter the Extractor Filter option is unchecked and no filter configurations are done to extract the traffic.

In the packet extraction from the stored recordings with filter the Extractor Filter option is checked and required filter configurations are done to extract the traffic.

ESP Deciphering

FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ analyzer supports ESP protocol to decrypt ESP packets on both IPv4 and IPv6 by providing ESP SAs value.

eCPRI Analysis

FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ analyzer supports eCPRI analysis to monitor eCPRI traffic for packet impairments such as Missed Packets, Out of Order, Duplicate Packets, One-Way Delay etc. GL’s eCPRI protocol analysis tool supports eCPRI message types such as IQ Data, Bit Sequence, Generic Data Transfer, Remote Memory Access, One-way Delay Measurement, Remote Reset, and Event Indication for analysis and statistics

Analysis of Extracted Traffic

The extracted files can be analyzed using PacketScan™ HD and Wireshark application

Traffic Analysis using PacketScan™ HD application

Traffic Analysis using Wireshark application

BERT Verification

The BERT verification analyzes the received BER pattern and provides various vital measurements such as Status, Mismatch SeqNum, Sync Loss, Bit Error, Bit Error Rate, and Byte Count.

Record Statistics

Display the information of recorded file:

Filter Match Frames
Filter Not Match Frames
Total Frames
Filter Match Frames %
Dropped Frames (Due to Buffer Overflow)
Record Duration (hr:min:sec)

Recorder Graph View

User can view the Capture and Filter rate of the recorded file.

Hardware Filter Used while Recording

User can view the configured hardware filters. In this example, UDP layer is configured.

IP Analytics™

IP Analytics™ (PKV410), an optional add-on with FastRecorder™ and PacketExtractor™ plays a crucial role for monitoring and maintaining Quality of Service (QoS) in telecom networks. This involves analyzing IP-based data streams to ensure that voice, video, and data services meet predefined performance standards. IP Analytics™ provides detailed insight into recorded IP traffic captured at high speed. By analyzing IP traffic and data, telecom companies can enhance network performance, troubleshoot malfunctioning infrastructure, improve customer satisfaction, and increase operational efficiency. GL IP-ANALYTICS displays statistics for Layer 3, COS, Layer 4, IPv4 Endpoints, IPv6 Endpoints, UDP Endpoints, TCP Endpoints, UDP Conversation, and TCP Conversation.

At the core of IP Analytics™ lies its capability to capture all Ethernet packets and intricately organize them into flows, categorizing them based on key parameters such as IP Class Of Service, IP Address (both Source and Destination), and UDP/TCP Port Numbers (both Source and Destination).

IP Analytics™ enables you to categorize packets and flows with precision, offering several perspectives:

Flow based on IP Class Of Service: Understand how different classes of service impact your network's performance
Flow based on Unique IP Address: View the amount of traffic transmitted and received by individual IP nodes, offering insights into network load and potential bottlenecks
Flow based on IP Conversation: Analyze the traffic between pairs of IP nodes, enhancing your understanding of network interactions
Flow based on Applications: Identify application-specific traffic patterns based on TCP/UDP port numbers, crucial for application performance monitoring

Setting IP Analytics™ apart is its capability to compute and visualize crucial network metrics with millisecond precision. This includes measuring Packet Count and Byte Count for Each Flow, enabling assessment of data volume within each categorized flow. Additionally, dynamically calculating and plotting Packets/sec and Bits/sec offers real-time insights into network throughput. These metrics extend beyond individual flows to encompass each Ethernet port, furnishing a comprehensive overview of network performance.

Key Features

Includes detailed analysis of different IP layers such as Ports, Layer 3 Protocols, L4 Protocols, DSCP, IPv4 Endpoints, IPv4 Conversations IPv6 Endpoints, IPv6 Conversations TCP Endpoints, UDP Endpoints, UDP Conversations, TCP Conversations, SCTP Conversations, and Ping Conversations
Enhanced to support Tunneled Protocol Statistics for L4 Protocols, DSCP, IPv4 Endpoints, IPv4 Conversations, IPv6 Endpoints, IPv6 Conversations, TCP Endpoints, UDP Endpoints, UDP Conversations, TCP Conversations, SCTP Conversations, and Ping Conversations
Provides in-depth graph analysis for both Bits/sec and Packets/sec
Provides advanced filters to analyze the required packets
Easily export information from all tabs or specific tab information to CSV file format for further analysis
Allows selection of either a single Data Analysis HDF5 file or multiple HDF5 files from the folder
Provides the flexibility to sort columns in Ascending or Descending order for easier data interpretation
Traffic Rate is supported for both Packet Rate and Data Rate with time granularity options of “Seconds”, “Milliseconds”, and “Microseconds” intervals
Rate Analysis displays “Trace record date”, “Record Duration”, “Capture Ports” and “Total Packets” counts
Added “Set Rate Threshold” option which allow users to define a threshold value for displaying a horizontal line across the y-axis

Data Analysis

Leveraging the export capabilities from IP Analyzer, which is then converted into HDF5 format, IP Analytics™ allows you to perform extensive data analytics operations using VAEX (Python Library). This integration ensures that you can easily handle large datasets, applying various analytics operations with efficiency and speed.

Additionally, IP Analytics™ introduces a powerful customized filtering mechanism. This feature empowers users to conduct detailed analysis on specific portions of the traffic, enabling targeted troubleshooting and performance optimization.

IP Analytics™ transforms how users view and manage network traffic. Whether users are looking to monitor application performance, optimize network flow, or simply gain deeper insights into the network's data patterns, IP Analytics™ provides the tools and precision you need.

Using PacketScan™ HD system along with FastRecorder™ application, users can capture the traffic and analyze the captured data using GL IP Analytics™ tool. This device comes in rack-mountable and portable form factors and supports data rates from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps. Therefore, it is an all-in-one solution for both high speed capture and real-time analysis.

GL's IP Analytics™ tool is designed to analyze HDF5 files, extracting comprehensive statistics. From Layer 3 Protocols to Layer 4 Protocols, and beyond, it provides insights into IPv4 Endpoints, IPv4 Conversations, IPv6 Endpoints, IPv6 Conversations, UDP Endpoints, TCP Endpoints, UDP Conversation, TCP Conversation, SCTP Conversations, Ping Conversations, and Port wise details. It is an easy-to-use solution for in-depth data exploration.

Data Analysis Graph

Data Rate Over Time Graph

Packet Rate Over Time Graph

Rate Analysis

With PacketExtractor™, an optional add-on to PacketScan™ HD, users can now conduct Rate Analysis effortlessly. We have integrated GL's Time Rate Graph Plotter tool for enhanced functionality.

Rate Analysis Graph

With PacketExtractor™, conducting Rate Analysis is effortless using the Time Rate Graph. This feature analyzes HDF5 files and generates detailed graphs for each recorded port.

Data Rate Over Time Graph

Packet Rate Over Time Graph

Set Threshold Graph

Protocol Statistics

Provides advanced filtering capabilities for Outer protocol with filter expressions such as “eth.type, length, ip.dscp, ip.addr, ip.src, ip.dst, ip.proto, udp.port, udp.src, udp.dst, tcp.port, tcp.src, tcp.dst, port, sctp.src, and sctp.dst”.

Ports Statistics

L3 Protocols

L4 Protocols

IPv4 Endpoints Statistics

IPv4 Conversations

IPv6 Endpoints Statistics

IPv6 Conversations

TCP Endpoints Statistics

TCP Conversations

UDP Endpoints Statistics

UDP Conversations

SCTP Conversations

DSCP

PING Conversations

Tunneled Protocol Statistics

Supports Tunneled protocol statistics for L4 Protocols, DSCP, IPv4 Endpoints, IPv4 Conversations, IPv6 Endpoints, IPv6 Conversations, TCP Endpoints, UDP Endpoints, UDP Conversations, TCP Conversations, SCTP Conversations, and Ping Conversations. Also provides advanced filtering capabilities for Outer protocol with filter expressions such as “eth.type, length, ip.dscp, ip.addr, ip.src, ip.dst, ip.proto, udp.port, udp.src, udp.dst, tcp.port, tcp.src, tcp.dst, port, sctp.src, and sctp.dst”.