The data plane is equally important, and not just because it carries 90 percent of network traffic. In today’s world numerous applications are competing with each other and are delivered from numerous connections, clouding visibility in the traditional sense. All these different touchpoints can impact user experience, creating a demand for both broad analysis of a region and granular insight into every session. It’s not enough to know that a user or group of users is experiencing packet loss. To fully see the network as a user does, CSPs must find out where the problem is originating and from what application or service.

The vast majority of carriers are now going to run two networks simultaneously — LTE along with 3G as a fallback and for legacy support — so the challenge isn’t just to manage the transition to voice over LTE (VoLTE) but to run the handoff between the two networks.

NetScout purchased assets of Accanto Systems last July, enabling it to address legacy voice and VoLTE implementations. “The technology acquired is consistent with our packet-flow strategy,” Anil Singhal, NetScout’s president and CEO, said at the time, “and brings important voice-service monitoring capabilities that will strengthen our unified service delivery management strategy and accelerate our time-to-market to support emerging technologies like VoLTE.”

Taking it to the next level with switches

NetScout is also tackling the subject of network monitoring fabric with its monitoring switches. Following its acquisition of Simena in 2011, the company invested in solutions that address the need for an automated fabric that can accommodate nonstop traffic access.

Rohit Mehra, vice president, network infrastructure at IDC Research, commented on the importance of extending visibility into the switch market. “Many organizations are now building a monitoring fabric to simplify and streamline the distribution of traffic flows to extend the life of existing management tools..”

Its latest switch, the nGenius 3900 series packet flow switch, is high performance and high capacity, and can support interfaces of up to 100 GbE (gigabit Ethernet). Last month Tolly Group founder Kevin Tolly remarked, “Our test results validate that the nGenius 3900 series packet-flow switch provides the scale, performance, intelligence, and flexibility to construct seamless large-scale network monitoring fabrics.”

Scouting ahead

What used to be called applications are now business services comprised of a collection of middleware, network elements, technology enablers, and — yes — applications working together. The resulting puzzle of services, combined with the underlying network foundation, creates significant challenges for IT organizations.

In a recent poll NetScout asked 15 major mobile operators why they bought service assurance from someone other than their network equipment manufacturer (NEM). The answer was simple: CSPs want an independent view of what’s happening in the network. Beyond that, they want to see the network the way it’s experienced by a user.

Seeing the big picture while simultaneously having the ability to drill down to an individual user view is no easy task. The nGenius solution takes a complicated environment and simplifies it for CSPs by providing a complete, unified solution — not a mixture of different products — that’s integrated with a single workflow. It also includes reporting and planning capabilities, real-time data analysis, extensive historical analytics, support for multiple operational groups, and a myriad of other features that make the nGenius solution remarkably flexible and scalable.

In a world of accelerating mobile complexity, NetScout helps CSPs advance from traditional service assurance to unified service delivery management. For mobile operators who are moving toward the IP realm but face heightened user expectations and increased competitive and financial pressures, the nGenius solution can meet their needs today as it evolves to meet the needs of the future.