Packet Design

Easing the IPv4-to-IPv6 Transition with Route Analytics

Alex Henthorn-IwaneVice-President, Product Marketingalex@packetdesign.com

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 1

Complex IP Network Behavior is

Unpredictable and Difficult to Manage

Networks Become More Redundant:

• Provide greater fault tolerance

• But also make it very difficult to

understand which routers are delivering

application or service traffic at any time

• More sensitive applications

• Less tolerance for

As Applications and Services Grow More Critical

How Do You Know:

• Which part of the network is

carrying the application traffic?

• If the network is causing a problem?

• Where in the network to troubleshoot?

• How to accurately plan the network?

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 2

Logical vs. Device-Specific

Causes of Application Degradation

Survey of 188 IT Professionals

Question: % of application degradations are caused by logical vs. device-specific issues?

Answer: 42% answered that at least half of the time, logical network issues were the root cause

– Application Delivery Handbook, 2009

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 3

Why Existing Network Management

Technologies Aren’t Sufficient

SNMP Network Management:

• Only understands device status

• Doesn’t see how devices work together

• Doesn’t understand routing

• Only looks at the end points

• Doesn’t understand the

network

Service Monitoring:

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

If IPv4 Networks are Challenging,

IPv6 Migration Make Them More So

Most networks won’t cut over to pure IPv6

There are important engineering questions that are difficult to answer on an ongoing basis:

Do the right routers and links have IPv6 routing enabled?

Are the right prefixes being advertised where they are intended to be?

Are IPv6 paths functioning as expected?

Is path redundancy is set up properly?

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 5

Route Analytics Technology

IGP Routing Adjacencies

BGP Route Peerings

AS 1 (OSPF)

AS 2 (IS-IS)

AS 3 (EIGRP)

• Peers with and listens passively to routing protocols to learn their view of the network

• Creates 100% accurate model of the actual routed topology

• Records complete routing event history

• Understands all application traffic paths at all times

• Capable of modeling network changes

BGP

BGP

Route Analytics

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 6

IGP Routing Analytics

Establish adjacency with one router in each Area

Records every single routing update

Creates real-time network map

• Created from routing data as up to date as routing in the network

Precise understanding of traffic paths

• Paths are computed using the same procedures as routers, but on a network-wide basis

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 7

BGP Route Analytics

Set up peerings with full I-BGP mesh

• Works as Route Reflector client

• Part of an RR Cluster

• Or a combination

• Works with BGP Confederations

Routing table visualization

Per BGP attribute routing table breakdown and visualization

Before and After analysis can highlight what is different between a known state of the network and the state in question

• This was the feature used in detecting the customer that injected the extra routes

Root cause analysis can process 100,000s of BGP message to determine the cause of these events

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006 8

Integrated IGP and BGP Network Map

All Routers and Links

Orange and magenta are different OSPF areas

Lines are routing adjacencies

Blue are BGP speakers

Red elements are down

Path Tracing

Yellow is a forward path between two routers, green is the reverse

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

How Route Analytics Aids IPv6 Transition:

Network-Wide Visualization and Analysis

Engineers can see IPv4 and IPv6 routing topologies

• Can display just IPv4 or IPv6 routing topology

• Visual validation of expected network state

Trace precise v4 or v6 paths

• Select source router and destination prefix

• Route analytics shows which path will be taken through network

Network-wide prefix inventory

• Ensure that v6 address blocks are allocated to the right routers

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

Dual-Stack IPv4/IPv6 Network

As Visualized by Route Analytics

Packet Design, Inc.Proprietary and Confidential

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

Real-Time Routing Details Recorded

by Route Analytics

Packet Design, Inc.Proprietary and Confidential

11

Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

Drill-Down Routing Details

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006Packet Design, Inc.Proprietary and Confidential

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

How Route Analytics Aids IPv6 Transition:

Re-windable Routing History

Route analytics records all routing events and changes, and stores it as a rewindable history

Engineers can rewind to a particular point in time and view the precise state of the network at that time

• Before and after analysis between two points in time shows exactly what changed in routing when a network problem was occurring

All other tools available in the real-time view can be used in historical mode

• Visualization

• Path tracing

• Prefix inventory

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

How Route Analytics Aids IPv6 Transition:

More Accurate Change Processes

Route analytics can model routing changes

• Enabling a new IPv6 router

• Adding new IPv6 prefixes

• Adding new links

• Downing routers or links for maintenance or to anticipate a possible disaster recovery failure scenario

• Moving prefixes from one router to another

Simulate network-wide behavior that would result

• Model a change and trace a critical service path to ensure that service would not be impacted

“Freeze time” and observe real-time changes

• Routing summary snapshot can be “frozen” and viewed in parallel with real-time update during change window

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Harnessing the Intelligence of IP

Packet Design

Nov 2006

Who’s Using Route Analytics?

Hundreds of global organizations across many industry verticals

• SPs, Mobile Operators, Cable MSOs

• Fiserv, Energy, Utility, Pharma, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Media/Entertainment, etc.

• Local, Municipal, State, Federal Govt, Military Agencies, Education

Dual-Stack IPv4/IPv6 Route Analytics

• Major carrier, ISPs in Japan

• European SPs

• U.S. Military/Defense agencies

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