Streaming Network Telemetry

StableNet® Use Case – Performance & Service

Discovery &
Inventory

Network Configuration & Change

Fault Management &
Root Cause Analysis

Performance &
Service

Streaming Network Telemetry:

The StableNet® solution that empowers cutting-edge infrastructures with a network & service management platform that keeps pace

Take advantage of streaming telemetry for near realtime data with a scalable and highly automated solution that opens a new world of customization and insight into the KPIs that matter most to you

Background & Motivation

Background & Motivation

What do Industry 4.0 manufacturing, smart cities, and the explosion of IoT connectivity have in common? They all seek to automate and optimize services and processes by leveraging and making use of a massive flow of real-time data from always-on devices. Machine-to-machine communications in new mass production technologies, smart parking meters that facilitate urban planning, and the advent of 5G networking capabilities for increased wireless bandwidth are just some examples of a new world order that is defined by making sense of an incessant flow of large amounts of data and interconnectivity.

“The quality and stability of the network layer forms a crucial part of an optimal Industry 4.0 ecosystem. Disruptions in accessibility and connectivity can thus effectively nullify the advantages of an Industry 4.0 ecosystem” (Prinsloo et al, 2020, p.130)

Simply put, there are two paradigms for how network data is acquired. The first one can generally be referred to as a pull system. Using well-established protocols such as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), devices are periodically polled in order to gather data about device states. This happens at regular, pre-determined intervals usually in the range of minutes. The SNMP requests data (“polling”), events and results are aggregated, and this information is stored for later analysis. Through the use of SNMP traps, irregular and asynchronous events are pushed to the management system through an “open line of real-time communication”. This is a solution that StableNet® has long since mastered across vendors.

Streaming network telemetry, however, uses a radically different solution by which network, smart, and IoT devices are able to constantly push much more detailed data out in near realtime. In the telecommunications industry, for example, having access to a much wider array of possible metrics (call quality, packet loss, connection quality, etc.) could make all the difference in successful service delivery. With telemetry devices becoming more ubiquitous (and some vendors already announcing the end of support for SNMP), a holistic network and service management platform needs to have an integrated solution ready to go.
StableNet Telemetry Diagram

StableNet® Solution

StableNet® Solution

The StableNet® approach to managing streaming telemetry is scalable, customizable, and highly automated. This means that with a single streaming telemetry device offering more than 20,000 KPIs, you can select the metrics that matter most to you and also customize them at any time. With StableNet®‘s streaming telemetry solution, you subscribe to the network devices across vendors for the data you want and select an appropriate time interval at which to deliver the data. This data is then automatically transferred from the network elements to the StableNet® Telemetry Collector Module (STCM).

In the STCM, the vendor-specific data is converted into a universally valid data format by the vendor-specific telemetry adapters and then transferred to the StableNet® server via the StableNet® agents. Depending on the protocol used, external tools exist which simplify this process. StableNet® also offers the possibility to aggregate the data, for example via a Time Series Database (TSDB). Analysis, insight and reporting in StableNet® are not only vendor and technology independent, but now also integrate two fundamentally different paradigms for the type of data that can be handled and how it is processed.

In addition to its traditional support of polling methods, with StableNet® support for streaming network telemetry,
collected data can then be used to:

 

  1. Set up network monitors and alerts based on pre-configured thresholds;
  2. Create network performance baselines;
  3. Plan network capacity requirements;
  4. Troubleshoot a much wider array of connectivity and performance issues;
  5. Make use of the proliferation of IoT sensors for insight and analysis;
  6. Use artificial intelligence (AI) to make automated decisions;
  7. Have much more freedom in choosing metrics and KPIs that you need.

Benefits & Results

Benefits & Results

Effective and efficient network and service management requires an ability to acquire detailed information about the components and services you care about as well as an aggregated overview of this data in order to identify long-term trends, SLA-maintenance, and the suitability of your network infrastructure. The polling of network devices by protocols like SNMP is a tried-and-true methodology that has numerous, well-documented use cases. It is and will continue to be a critical protocol for network discovery. But just as each physical network constellation is different, so too are your needs regarding what information you require. Streaming network telemetry support enables a much higher degree of granularity, meaning you have access to a far more detailed analysis of your network and services should you need it.

Having a cross-technology platform that is both future-proof and can be customized to your requirements requires constant progress and improvement. StableNet® telemetry integration is a critical step that gives you far greater power to choose what you need to know and when you want to know it. While the technological infrastructure continues to evolve, you need a network and service management platform which is able to provide insight into your array of network devices and to help assure optimal performance by being able to choose the technology that makes the most sense to you. With StableNet®, you can feel secure knowing that you have a customizable solution for the entirety of your network infrastructure, regardless of what tomorrow brings.

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