APRIL 26, 2010 -- Further enhancing the industry's first and only, Cyan has enhanced the three-dimensional multi-layer network management system for its packet optical transport platforms. CyMS Release 2.3 incorporates what Cyan touts as the industry's first three-dimensional “heat maps” that indicate changing network conditions before services are affected.
The three-dimensional representation provides one of the quickest and most effective methods to communicate alarms, configuration errors, congestion, and capacity use in a manner that encourages pre-emptive actions to avoid service disruptions, as well as faster fault isolation and resolution when disruptions occur, Cyan asserts.
Scalable networks are fundamentally multi-layer in nature, says Cyan. Historically, these multiple network layers have been planned, implemented, and operated as independent layers. Cyan's Z-Series multi-layer transport systems and CyMS multi-layer management offering have been designed to provide an integrated and operationally unified view of the multiple virtual layers which comprise the complete network (see "Cyan Optics debuts company, packet optical transport platforms").
Cyan says that Release 2.3 of its multi-layer network management systems provides visual indications of network locations and layers that may be experiencing varying forms of degradation or resource utilization that warrant operator action. Operators thus can visually identify emerging points of network threshold conditions before service affecting or service constraining conditions occur.
When alarm conditions exist the CyMS heat map illustrates which layers and which services are in alarm. Gradient color coding of the network layers indicate which alarm points are the source of problems versus others that are mere symptoms. With these visually enhanced tools, operators can proactively identify which portions of the network warrant capacity expansion, which customers are prospects for up-selling, and which areas to focus on when network alarms exist, Cyan says.
"Proactive versus reactive network monitoring and control is not the norm; however, it is becoming the strategic high ground for service providers who are looking for time-to-problem-avoidance rather than time-to-problem-resolution," stated Michael Howard, principal analyst of carrier and data center networks at Infonetics Research. "The industry's prevalent tools present a view of networks in a 'numbers by node' approach, where the human mind must correlate and assemble a mental picture of the hotspot patterns developing across a multiple node, multiple layer domain. The Cyan software visually presents a multi-layer heat map picture portraying multi-node hotspots that are typically difficult for humans to visualize. The instant image is ready for consumption as the network conditions arise, rather than -- with other tools -- after a human coordinates, calculates, and analyzes the 'numbers by node' data. Cyan's packet optical transport systems with CyMS multi-layer management represent the state of the art for multi-layer network visualization, which today is a unique tool to aid operators in achieving smoother running networks with improved control, performance, and reduced operational costs."
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