Broadcom Software Academy Blog

Welcome to the Experience-Driven NOC

Written by Jeremy Rossbach | Aug 24, 2022 6:00:00 AM

DX NetOps 22.2 Network Monitoring Software First to Power the User-Experience-Focused Network Operations Center

At Broadcom Software, we strive to build the most scalable operational software in the market. We work to ensure that our network monitoring software can track how constant network changes affect user experiences. As a global provider of networking equipment, we understand that there will always be changes happening on today’s enterprise networks, especially the internet. That’s why we build and refine our monitoring software to align with constant change. 

When software-defined network first started to emerge, many vendors left their customer with no option except for managing these environments like a black box of proprietary hardware and software. By contrast, Broadcom Software was first to market with an SDN monitoring solution. When we saw that the internet was becoming part of enterprise networks due to cloud transformation and SaaS adoption, we acquired AppNeta and made it part of our network monitoring solution. The latest release of DX NetOps, version 22.2, provides the first integration of AppNeta digital experience monitoring data and standardized, optimized network operations (NetOps) procedures and workflows. This new release is ready to power the Experience-Driven network operations center (NOC).

What does the Experience-Driven NOC look like? Let’s take a look at a typical operational use case.

“I need to leverage key experience and capacity metrics from ISP and cloud network paths so I can focus on problems that have an impact on connectivity and the end-user experience.”

In keeping with today’s NetOps standard operating procedures, teams should start with an alarm backed by patented noise reduction and event correlation. This is vital in ensuring only relevant data is presented, so teams get off to a highly focused start in triaging any network performance issue.

From right within the alarm, teams should be able to gain easy access to details on packet loss, latency, and jitter. Most critically, these insights should be provided for the entire network path that shapes the user experience, including unmanaged networks like ISP and cloud environments. 

Our workflow continues with a detailed analysis of network performance over time. This enables teams to make intelligent predictions on future capacity requirements. Teams should also be able to measure round-trip response times for end users and spot any deviations from established baselines, especially for voice and data transmissions across complex network paths.

By accessing detailed metrics and doing hop-by-hop analysis across the users’ network path, NetOps teams can easily identify the culprit responsible for a performance issue. Plus, they can track any route changes and continue to do focused, intelligent triage. 

Finally, by isolating the suspect network device and the specific performance issue, teams can speed mean time to innocence (MTTI). 

In this example, DX NetOps 22.2 easily pinpoints the suspect device in an ISP network that is experiencing data loss at a rate that exceeds the established two percent threshold. This is one-a-kind investigative evidence that can be provided to the ISP for faster resolution of the user experience issue.

It is an exciting time for Broadcom Software’s network monitoring software customers. With this release, we continue to deliver our industry-leading visibility, scale, and modern network coverage. Now we’re moving beyond the network edge to enable teams to quickly and easily isolate issues that affect the end-user experience, whether they’re occurring on managed or unmanaged networks.

To learn more, watch our solution demonstration, “Welcome to the Experience-Driven NOC.”