Tech, ExplainedNetworking, infrastructure and security
Zone

Network monitoring and testing

Why an app is slow, found without touching anything.

Application performance monitoring (APM)+Network monitoring and testingWhy an app is slow, found without touching anything.Network test equipmentMeasuring the fibre before it goes live.+Network TAPs and packet brokersCopying all traffic without slowing it.+Telecom service assuranceIs the network serving its subscribers well?+Network AIOpsA hundred alarms, one likely cause.+Attack path analysisCan the internet reach your crown jewels?+Network digital twinA copy of the whole network,to ask what it will really do.+CONCEPTS IN THIS SCENEObservabilityProduction environmentBandwidth and latencyAlert triageAnomaly detectionDigital twinCVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)Hybrid cloudAI coding agentsApplication performance monitoring (APM)+Network monitoring and testingWhy an app is slow, found without touching anything.Network test equipmentMeasuring the fibrebefore it goes live.+Network TAPs andpacket brokersCopying all trafficwithout slowing it.+Telecom service assuranceIs the network serving itssubscribers well?+Network AIOpsA hundred alarms, one likely cause.+Attack path analysisCan the internet reachyour crown jewels?+Network digital twinA copy of the whole network, to askwhat it will really do.+CONCEPTS IN THIS SCENEObservabilityProduction environmentBandwidth and latencyAlert triageAnomaly detectionDigital twinCVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)Hybrid cloudAI coding agentsApplication performance monitoring (APM)+Network monitoring and testingWhy an app is slow, found without touching anything.Network test equipmentMeasuring the fibre before it goes live.+Network TAPs and packet brokersCopying all traffic without slowing it.+Telecom service assuranceIs the network serving its subscribers well?+Network AIOpsA hundred alarms, one likely cause.+Attack path analysisCan the internet reach your crown jewels?+Network digital twinA copy of the whole network, to ask what it willreally do.+CONCEPTS IN THIS SCENEObservabilityProduction environmentBandwidth and latencyAlert triageAnomaly detectionDigital twinCVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)Hybrid cloudAI coding agents
The zone holds the six products that observe a network without changing it: network test equipment, TAPs and packet brokers, telecom service assurance, network AIOps, the network digital twin and attack path analysis.
opens a page inside this one a page in the same scene a page in another scene a concept page a label only, with no page

Network monitoring and testing is the set of tools that engineers use to test a network before it goes live, copy its traffic while it runs, and work out why something on it is slow, without changing anything. A network here means the cables, radio links, routers and switches that carry data between users and servers. These products observe the network. They do not carry its traffic, and they do not block it.

Say a state board's exam results website is slow for students in Lucknow on results day, while students in Kanpur open it normally. The cause could be anywhere on the path: the students' mobile network, a fibre cable along a highway, a router in a data centre, the cloud, or the website's own code. The tools in this zone help to find which one, in three ways.

First, everything was tested before it went live. Network test equipment measures each new fibre cable, radio site and piece of equipment, and records how it performed on its first day. So engineers have a starting point to compare with when something changes.

Second, the traffic can be copied while it runs. Network TAPs and packet brokers take an exact copy of the data passing along a cable, and send each part of the copy to the tool that needs it. The live traffic continues untouched.

Third, software turns the data into answers. Each product answers one question. Network AIOps answers "what is the real cause of all these alarms?" Telecom service assurance answers "is the operator's network serving its subscribers well?" A network digital twin builds a software copy of the whole network, called a digital twin, and answers "what will the network really do with this traffic?" With that copy, engineers can test a change before they make it. Attack path analysis builds a similar model to answer a security question: "what can reach what?"

In the Lucknow case, the operator's service assurance shows that web pages and videos load slowly in one part of the city only. Network AIOps connects this to alarms from one router. Since the morning, that router's link to the next city has been carrying 97% of the traffic it can carry. The website itself is fine. The operator moves part of the traffic to another link, and pages load normally again.

The buyers are mainly telecom operators, which are still rolling out 5G across India, and large companies and banks with networks of their own. Network models also help security teams. It shows where an attacker could get in, and which known flaws, each listed with a CVE number, an attacker could actually reach.

This zone sits beside application performance monitoring, which watches the app and its servers. When an app is slow, engineers usually check both.

In this zone

Network test equipmentNetwork TAPs and packet brokersTelecom service assuranceNetwork AIOpsAttack path analysisNetwork digital twin

Concepts

Alert triageDigital twinCVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures)
Tech, Explained is a part of ingrid.fyi. Every page explains one piece of technology in plain words.