Data Sheet Netrounds Control Center The core component of Netrounds is a unifying cloud-based Control Center, which provides a consolidated GUI for operations staff as well as a cloud API for external OSS orchestrators to remotely control Netrounds four classes of traffic-generating active Probes: vprobe, SW Probe, HW Probe and Agent Probe. The Control Center is either hosted by Netrounds and offered as a SaaS solution, or deployed traditionally on-premise, and provides aggregated or detailed real-time result views and historic KPIs and SLA monitoring metrics. OSS, NFVO, PM Netrounds Control Center Operations staff Orchestration Web Portal Netrounds Active Probes V SW HW A vprobe SW Probe HW Probe Agent Probe Virtualized networks Non-virtualized networks Traditional networks End-user environments Key features of Netrounds Control Center Web portal for creation and initiation of test scenarios and automation templates Real-time KPIs, dashboards and drill down charts Offered as a securely hosted solution, scalable from single probes to nationwide deployments Centralized and dynamic inventory of distributed and traffic-generating probes Centralized storage and aggregation of test results and SLA monitoring metrics Feature-rich cloud API for distributed ondemand tests and end-user KPIs monitoring Remote updates of probe software Main benefits Enables remote troubleshooting and helps eliminating repetitive tasks Share live results through customer-facing views to monetize service assurance data No need for internal IT staff to maintain the platform, also suitable for smaller projects and effortless evaluations Consolidated user/programming interface towards all probes, instead of managing probes individually Instant alarm generation based on SLA definitions and scheduled periodic reports of historical data Enables OSS orchestration to couple service fulfillment and assurance by using live KPIs of active end-user experience Reduced maintenance cost
Netrounds Control Center has a wide range of built-in core features that are exposed over either an intuitive Web Portal user interface or a cloud-based application programming interface (API). The Web Portal is used for on-demand initiation of tests, remote troubleshooting and real-time reconfiguration of service assurance scenarios and thresholds. The API is used by external systems, such as OSS orchestrators to dynamically launch new probes and initiate activation tests and monitoring scenarios. Multi-tenancy and high security Cross-tenant sharing: Live results, active probes, template definitions Abstractions of test suites and scenarios Coordinated execution Benchmarking Auto-populated probe inventory Consolidated API and GUI interface towards all active probes Remote software maintenance of probes Coordinated result collection Result aggregation and storage Scenario and template builder Report and alarm generation Run-time reconfiguration Real-time views Tenant configuration Scheduling of events Launching new active probes Control of active tests and monitoring Retreival of SLAs and KPIs Web Portal Core features of Netrounds Control Center API features for OSS Netrounds Control Center is available either as hosted through the public cloud infrastructure, or installed traditionally on-premise. Both deployment alternatives share the same core features, Web Portal and Cloud APIs. Netrounds Control Center - Hosted Netrounds Control Center! Netrounds Control Center On-premise Netrounds Control Center! Deployed as a securely hosted SaaS solution in the Amazon AWS public cloud infrastructure Offered on a monthly basis without long-term contracts Operated and managed by Netrounds Scales from single active probe deployments to nationwide rollouts Great for projects and other activities with finite duration Multi-tenant solution with hundreds of other Netrounds customers 8-10 week update frequency of software for Netrounds Control Center, as well as repository for all four classes of probes (vprobe, SW Probe, HW Probe and Agent Probe) Installed on-premise, either in a bare metal or virtualized server environment Requires long-term contracts Operated and managed independently of Netrounds Starts at deployments of 50+ active probes Suitable for long-term commitments Multi-tenant solution for housing Netrounds customers customers 6-12 month update frequency of software for Netrounds Control Center, as well as repository for all four classes of probes (vprobe, SW Probe, HW Probe and Agent Probe)
Overview of Netrounds Control Center functionality Dynamic probe inventory Probes automatically discover and register towards Netrounds Control Center s login servers Probes appear as resources in inventory once launched by NFVO or OSS, or connected physically to the network Tagging of probes for simple grouping and structuring Remote configuration of probe interfaces Sharing of probes between different tenants on same Netrounds Control Center GUI builder for scenarios and templates Intuitive sequence and scenario builder Mix and match freely from each probe s comprehensive tool box (refer to accompanying datasheet for Netrounds Active Probes) Build custom topologies with custom traffic directions upstream and downstream Specification of SLA compliance thresholds Created scenarios and templates could be triggered by OSS through cloud API Sharing of scenarios and templates between different tenants on same Netrounds Control Center Real-time aggregated views of ongoing monitoring and tests Errored Second (ES) calculation and visualization Aggregated result views from large number of distributed active measurements SLA compliance indicators Selectable historical views, from last 15 minutes to years backward in time Sharing of results between different tenants on same Netrounds Control Center Periodic reports and alarm generation Configurable and comprehensive reports Summary of Errored Seconds (ES) for all ongoing monitoring and periodic tests Schedulable reports on custom intervals e-mailed to stakeholders Alarm triggering of SNMP traps Multiple severity levels for alarms, Critical, Major, Minor and Warning Manual and automatic suppression of active alarms
Northbound user interface (UI) towards operations staff Browser GUI towards Web Portal Native HTML with Javascript HTTPS for secure access of Web Portal Support for all common web browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari Mobile browser support HTTP Basic Authentication Multi-user support with different user levels and credentials Northbound application programming interface (API) towards OSS orchestrators XML-RPC Based on XML-RPC and JSON-RPC HTTP Basic Authentication Complete API documentation with Python programming code snippets Southbound interfaces for remote control and configuration towards active traffic-generating probes vprobes Proprietary control protocol using OpenVPN carried over TCP port 443 Firewall-friendly communication, initiated by probes towards Netrounds Control Center 1 second response time to user interaction Local storage on probe if/while communication between Netrounds Control Center is unavailable SW Probes and HW Probes Same as for vprobes above Server requirements to operate Netrounds Control Center Hosted Managed by Netrounds and scales transparently and elastically depending on number of probes attached no need for any involvement from end-users of Netrounds Server software always up to date Repository of remote software for probes (vprobe, SW Probe, HW Probe) always up to date On-premise Various server sizing available depending on deployment size (Small, Medium, Large) Deployed either on bare metal servers, or on existing private cloud infrastructure
Netrounds offers a programmable test and assurance infrastructure using distributed and reliable traffic-generating probes, all easy-to-use and available from the cloud as a SaaS subscription or on-premise deployments. Netrounds helps getting in-depth understanding of network performance and provides actionable metrics on end-user service experience. More than 220 network operators, enterprises and consultants worldwide use Netrounds to deliver high end-user experience to their customers. Founded in 2007, Netrounds is headquartered in Luleå, Sweden, with offices in Boston, MA, USA. NETROUNDS SOLUTIONS AB Storgatan 7 972 38 LULEÅ, SWEDEN Phone +46 920 42 00 15 www.netrounds.com Copyright 2015, Netrounds. All rights reserved. This document is issued to provide information only and the content is subject to revision without notice due to continued development. The product and services described are subject to availability and change without notice. v20150525-1