- Net Optics
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Net Optics, Inc. 
Type Private Company Founded 1996 Headquarters Santa Clara, California Key people Eldad Matityahu, Board Chairman
Bob Shaw, President & CEOProducts Network taps, Bypass Switches, Media Converters, Aggregation Taps, Regeneration Taps, data monitoring switches Website www.netoptics.com Net Optics, Inc. is a manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. The company was established in 1996 by Eldad Matityahu. It is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and maintains a worldwide market presence through partners and reseller networks. Net Optics is a private company and supports approximately 6,300 customers, including Fortune 500 companies, global governments, and network labs.[1]
Net Optics’ line of passive network monitoring access devices includes taps, bypass switches, regeneration taps, aggregators, data monitoring switches, and media converters.[2] Products are designed and manufactured in the United States.
Contents
Partners
Net Optics works together with various companies to produce compatible products for their respective industries. Net Optics is currently working with Cisco Systems, F5 Networks, TippingPoint, and Oracle
Technical information
Taps
Test access ports or network taps are passive devices that enable tools such as protocol analyzers and security systems to monitor the data on a network link. Taps pass data transparently through their two network ports, while making copies of the data available on one or more monitoring ports. Conventional network Taps provide two monitoring ports, each receiving the half-duplex traffic flowing in one direction on the network link.[3]
Bypass switches
Bypass switches provide fail-safe access ports for in-line monitoring appliances such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and firewalls.[4] The bypass switch is connected in-line in a network link, and the monitoring appliance is connected to two monitoring ports on the byapss switch. During normal operation, link traffic flows into the bypass switch, through the monitoring appliance, and back out the bypass switch, completing the link. If the monitoring appliance loses power, is disconnected, or otherwise fails, the bypass switch passes traffic directly between its network ports, bypassing the monitoring tool, and ensuring that traffic continues to flow on the network link.[5]
The bypass switch is a passive appliance, so link traffic continues to flow even if the bypass switch itself loses power.
Some bypass switches send a Heartbeat packet through the monitoring appliance in order to ensure that the monitoring appliance is passing traffic; if the Heartbeat packet does not return to the bypass switch, the monitoring appliance is assumed to be down, and the switch goes into bypass mode, excluding the monitoring appliance from the traffic path.
Regeneration taps
Regeneration taps make multiple copies of traffic on a network link so multiple monitoring tools can observe the traffic simultaneously. Regeneration taps enable identical tools to be connected redundantly for increased availability. Or, different types of tools can be connected so traffic can be monitored simultaneously by groups with different charters. For example, a network security engineer can monitor traffic at the same time a system administrator does performance tuning.
Aggregators
Aggregators are taps that copy multiple traffic streams to a single monitoring port. Port aggregators combine the traffic flowing in both directions on a network link into a single stream that is copied to the monitoring port. Link aggregators combine traffic from multiple network links or Span ports into a single stream that is copied to the monitoring port.[6]
If the aggregated traffic in a port aggregator or link aggregator exceeds the bandwidth of the monitoring port, packets are dropped. However, some aggregators include buffering to temporarily store bursts of high-bandwidth traffic so packets are not dropped (unless the capacity of the buffer is exceeded).
Aggregators may also incorporate a regeneration function, making duplicate copies of the aggregated traffic available simultaneously on multiple monitoring ports.
Data monitoring switches
Data monitoring switches enable a pool of monitoring tools to access traffic from a large number of network links. They provide a combination of functionality including aggregating monitoring traffic from multiple links, regenerating traffic to multiple tools, pre-filtering traffic to offload tools, and directing traffic according to one-to-one and many-to-many port mappings. Data monitoring switches enable organizations to use their monitoring tools more efficiently, to centralize traffic monitoring functions, and to share tools and traffic access among groups.[7]
Media converters
Media converters are devices that pass network traffic between different types of network ports. Port types may include copper, multimode fiber, and singlemode fiber. For example, Net Optics media converters include 10 Gigabit SR to LR, 1 Gigabit LX to SX, SX to TX, and SX to FX. Media conversion functionality may be integrated with different models of Taps and Bypass Switches as well, enabling network links to be monitored by tools with different interfaces. For example, a Converter Tap may enable a fiber network link to be monitored by tools with copper interfaces.[8]
iTap Technology
Some Net Optics products include iTap technology, which provides the ability to remotely manage devices through SNMP and Web-based interfaces. iTap-enabled devices generate RMON traffic statistics including port utilization, peak utilization, packet count, oversize packet count, CRC error count, and other metrics.[9] Programmable threshold-based utilization alarms are also supported.[10]
See also
References
1. Business Week- Private Company Information 2. Enterprise IT Planet.com - Net Optics Taps 3. Processor.com - Improve Network Monitoring 4. Sys-Con Media.com - Net Optics, Inc. Introduces iBypass for Fail-Safe IPS Security Deployments 5. The Tolly Group - Net Optics 10/100/1000 iBypass Switch Evaluation 6. The Network Encyclopedia - Remote Network Monitoring (RMON) 7. Network Computing - Tap Into Easy Network Management 8. The Network Encyclopedia - Media Converter
- ^ Business Week- Private Company Information
- ^ Enterprise IT Planet.com - Net Optics Taps
- ^ Processor.com - Improve Network Monitoring
- ^ Sys-Con Media.com - Net Optics, Inc. Introduces iBypass for Fail-Safe IPS Security Deployments
- ^ The Tolly Group - Net Optics 10/100/1000 iBypass Switch Evaluation
- ^ Miu, Denny K and Tim O'Neil - Aggregation Tap versus Tap Aggregation
- ^ About.com - Intelligence on Tap
- ^ The Network Encyclopedia - Media Converter
- ^ The Network Encyclopedia - Remote Network Monitoring (RMON)
- ^ Network Computing - Tap Into Easy Network Management
External links
- Net Optics website
- Interview with Net Optics CEO Bob Shaw
- Press Release of collaboration between Net Optics, Oracle, Intel
- Summary of Products
Partners Website: NetOptics.com Categories:- Manufacturing companies
- Networking hardware
- Companies established in 1996
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