Cisco performance monitoring using NetFlow Analyzer

A Cisco performance monitor helps you identify performance issues in your network. Nowadays, video is everywhere, and when it comes to your corporate network, it has to be treated in such a way that it operates with the high quality that's expected. An organization considering implementation of video conferencing or any video streaming should also consider that this will significantly increase the load on the network. The network should be capable enough to handle this additional load along with the existing load.NetFlow Analyzer, with its value-added features like Cisco IP SLA VO and Cisco Medianet and Mediatrace, helps implement video traffic on the network effectively.

Network load testing using Cisco IP SLA VO

Video packets (RTP) significantly impact network performance owing to their heavy nature and high flow rates. So, before deploying video traffic on the network, the network should be assessed to see how its performance will be impacted. IP SLA Video Operation (VO) is a new type of IP SLA technology that generates video traffic with the same traffic characteristics as a real video and measures the performance of the link carrying this kind of video traffic. IP SLA VO is similar to other IP SLA technology. It has a sender (source) to generate synthetic traffic, and a responder (destination) to absorb and analyze these packets. IP SLA VO has the following advantages:
  • Analyze the network health before deploying a video application.
  • Troubleshoot the performance of an application end to end and per hop.
  • Understand video traffic patterns on the network, which helps with capacity planning.

Configuring a Cisco IP SLA VO Monitor using NetFlow Analyzer

To see how to configure the Cisco IP SLA VO monitor using NetFlow Analyzer, click here. After configuring a video monitor using IP SLA in NetFlow Analyzer, the reports can be generated as given below:

Cisco performance monitoring

After verifying using Cisco IP SLA VO that current network is good enough to handle video traffic, the next step after implementation is to verify that this video traffic is actually performing well; this can be done using following the Cisco technology:
  • Cisco Medianet
  • Cisco Mediatrace
Cisco Medianet
Cisco Medianet monitoring allows the administrator to analyze the performance of the RTP traffic in the network. The traditional ping, Interface Traffic Analytics, and Cisco IP SLA will not help much in analyzing the performance of video or voice traffic. Because all the calls are voice calls and all the streaming is video, it is not possible to discriminate which session you want to monitor for the performance standard. Click here to learn how to configure Cisco Medianet. To see which reports NetFlow Analyzer offers, click here.
Cisco Mediatrace
Cisco Mediatrace allows administrators to analyze the performance of media-specific traffic on each hop level. Click here to learn more about Cisco Mediatrace and how to configure this in NetFlow Analyzer. Live video traffic performance monitoring details can be accessed here. NetFlow Analyzer, with all these performance monitoring features and with user-friendly reports, helps network administrator achieve high performance and an efficient network.