Gain a Competitive Edge with Low-Latency Transactions
In a world where time is money, financial services organizations gain an edge by executing transactions faster than their competitors. To keep their systems running at peak performance, they must constantly monitor the latency of transactions through their networks. However, networks optimized for high performance and reliability have complexities that complicate the task of latency measurement.

One such issue is the typical cross-connect of redundant switches illustrated in the accompanying figure. This architecture provides dual data paths to double the bandwidth, while the cross-connects ensure that a data path remains available when a switch fails. The complication for latency measurement is that transactions can flow through any of the four data paths between the switches, and the measurement tool must see every transaction no matter which path it takes. Most tools used for latency measurement are designed to handle transactions flowing over a single link, so how can they work in this environment?

The Net Optics Solution: Dual Link Aggregation
The solution is to aggregate the traffic flows from the four data paths into a single stream that the tool can easily handle. The Net Optics 10G/1G Dual Link Aggregator is a perfect fit for the job. Its two independent Link Aggregators operate on the transmit flows and receive flows separately, presenting the tool with a single transmit stream and a single receive stream containing all of the transaction messages.

Solution Benefits:

Instrumentation Performance – With a maximum of 4 Gbps of total aggregated traffic throughput per tool NIC (when the inputs are 1 Gbps links), the Net Optics solution can ensure line rate packet capture and zero packet loss for monitoring tools with at least 8 Gbps processing throughput (transmit plus receive)

Flexibility – With both 10 Gigabit and 1 Gigabit support, the 10G/1G Dual Link Aggregatorcan be deployed in a variety of networks as a scalable solution that can grow with the network

Reliability – Dual redundant power supplies and a fully passive design ensure maximum uptime and absolutely no impact on network traffic; even if the 10G/1G Dual Link Aggregator loses power, network traffic continues to flow

Value Add – The two spare monitoring ports can be utilized for a redundant system back-up, or to enable other groups to share access to the traffic without contention

Net Optics White Paper - 10G/1G Dual Link Aggregator Solution