Passive fiber optic taps are very simple devices. They almost never go wrong. In fact they have MTBF figures calculated in millions of hours. You will certainly die before they will! However Ixia often gets questions from customers of the kind "I've installed your tap, but it does not work - please send me a new one". In almost all cases this is du...

Canada's 'big three' nationwide mobile operators Rogers, Telus and Bell have committed to offer a broad range of lower-cost data-only packages within the next 90 days, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) announced yesterday. The national providers must introduce the monthly plans ranging from 250MB (CAD15 [USD11.2...

Availability issues. Slow response times. Performance bottlenecks. Also web applications have problems that affect the satisfaction of your employees and customers. Identify and troubleshoot them before they impact your business with Flowmon APM, an agent-less solution to proactively drive user experience and application value.   Applicat...

SSi Micro, a Canadian far-northern wireless broadband operator which trades under the SSi Mobile and QINIQ brands, has teamed up with national cellular giant Rogers Communications to deliver enhanced services to customers in northern Canada, including in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. SSi has received a spectrum sub-licence from Rogers t...

Network management and monitoring is a large topic. It includes device monitoring and management, device cluster monitoring and management,network monitoring and management, application monitoring and management, problem resolution, and elements of network security as well. In this blog, I wanted to focus on device monitoring. Devices are often ref...

Innovation, Science & Economic Development Canada has published the final list of twelve applicants for the upcoming national mobile frequency auction in the 600MHz band. Alongside the big three nationwide mobile operators Rogers Communications, Bell Mobility (part of Bell Canada) and Telus, the other nine applicants are: Freedom Mobile (owned ...

During a typical month we generate between 500,000 to 600,000 HeartBeat calls, and of these anywhere from 4% to 6% of these calls we encounter availability or performance issue. So, we classified these issues to see where they were coming from: ​40% - Issue with answer – busy, ring-no-answer, silence or click40% - Caller-requested information unava...

Encrypted traffic is on the rise. It's no longer possible to inspect the content of the communication. What does this mean for network traffic monitoring? Encrypted traffic is on the rise. In 2016, NSS Labs found out that 97% of surveyed enterprises saw an increase in encrypted web traffic. Both Let's Encrypt and Google  currently re...

Cybersecurity is a hot topic today. Hackers are always looking to undermine our network connections and we are always trying to protect against them.  I'm no cybersecurity expert, but I am often asked, "Can Resilient PNT be used to improve cybersecurity?" Resoundingly, "YES"  Here are a few simple examples:  1. Passwords - Most secur...

Release 5.3.8 adds REST automation API support, improved wave-2 WiFi performance and stability, an improved RF RADAR generator and more. See the Release Notes for more details. Click here for more releases.  New Features & Improvements Release 5.3.8 (November 13, 2018) ​ Support Virtual Router Function (VRF) in kernel 4.16 and higher....

Canadian triple-play cableco Cogeco Connexion has announced the availability of gigabit internet services over HFC DOCSIS 3.1 technology for residents and businesses in a number of new locations in Quebec province. Cogeco's new 1Gbps and 360Mbps (download) packages are now being offered with optimised in-premises Wi-Fi equipment in Quebecois market...

Join Steve Miller, Vice President of Field Sales at Global Convergence, Inc., and Paul Krochenski, Director of Strategic Sales at Infosim, Inc., for a webinar on how the Unified Network and Services Management solution StableNet® can lead the way through the zoo-of-management tools. Based on two healthcare industry use cases, we will illustrate how...

Whether you are a network forensics expert or part of a cyber-security team, you need to have the ability to intercept network traffic, and capture data packets in real-time to prevent threats and live attacks. Corporate organizations should opt for network interception and traffic capture tools according to the size and architecture of their netwo...

Flow data can be one of the best tools a network engineer can use to track down issues. Flo data can be used for a variety of troubleshooting tasks, including:  ​Network performanceCapacity planningSecurity audits....and more The key to understanding how to analyze flow data is first to understand what information is contained within flow expo...

 Free 60-Minute Webinar Time-sensitive systems are facing many issues related to the use of GNSS as the sole provider of accurate timing information. In addition to jamming and spoofing threats that are gaining more visibility, GPS also has a week rollover event occurring in April 2019. Due to the 10-bit week number counter used for the GPS we...

​Even though experts say that fiber is the future of the 21st century networks, copper is still very important, mostly because of its low cost, high performance and efficiency. These are some of the reasons industries still choose to use Ethernet Cables and why analysts forecast that the global industrial Ethernet cables market will grow at a CAGR ...

In this article, we will delve deeper into the different types of TAPs and their passive and active solutions. In addition, we would also introduce a brief about Network Packet Brokers and their usability with TAP devices for added security.   To begin with, there are three types of TAP solutions. Each of these perform the same basic func...

In the TCP handshake, you may see an option called timestamps, shortly followed by scary-looking "TSval" and "TSecr" numbers. What are those values and how can you interpret them? Let's dig. What is a TCP Timestamp?   The timestamps option in TCP enables the endpoints to keep a current measurement of the round-trip time (RTT) of the netwo...

 Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has reported its results for the quarter ended 31 August 2018 (the end of its fiscal year 2018) including its fixed network and cellular (Freedom Mobile) divisions. Revenue from continuing operations increased by approximately 7% both in the quarter and fiscal year to CAD1.34 billion (USD1.03 billion) and ...

 One of the best ways to get access to your network and see what is happening on a network line is to place a network TAP that gives you full visibility without dropping any packets. However, the last thing you want to happen is that your network goes down in case of an unexpected power failure to the TAP device. To prevent network problems in...