Real-time Analysis

Using Real-time Analysis to Quickly Identify Issues

The Real World

Wireless users at the headquarters of a large healthcare provider were experiencing difficulties connecting to the network. The connectivity problems were isolated to a single AP, and to only users that required DHCP functionality. The problem appeared to be a simple AP issue.

The Real Solution

Problems are not always as they appear. Using the distributed power of the OmniPeek Product Family, the customer initiated multiple data captures. One capture, using OmniPeek Enterprise and its ability to capture and analyze wireless traffic, was initiated near the wireless clients experiencing the problem. A second capture was initiated using an OmniEngine that analyzed wired traffic from the wireless access point to the edge switch. A third capture using an OmniEngine was also initiated, but in this case analyzing the wired traffic from the edge switch to the network’s core switch. A client was then rebooted to invoke the entire wireless authentication and connection process. During this process all three data captures were concurrently monitored using the OmniPeek console.

The results indeed confirmed that things are not always as they seem. The wireless capture indicated no anomalies, as did the wired capture from the AP to the edge switch. However, OmniPeek analysis of the data on the third capture clearly illustrated that the edge switch was not forwarding DHCP packets to the core network, where the DHCP server was running. Clients were therefore never receiving DHCP addresses, and could not connect to the network.

The Real Benefits

The entire analyses, from initial action to resolution, took almost no longer than it does to read this account. Using Omni’s capabilities to perform, monitor and analyze simultaneous data captures on multiple topologies, at distributed network nodes, the customer was able to identify, confirm and resolve this issue 5 minutes after configuring the capture sessions. In total, the entire exercise lasted no more than 15 minutes.

There are many metrics out there for the cost of network outages, and they all agree in one fundamental way – they are costly! WildPackets dramatically reduces the time to perform root cause analyses of these problems, significantly reducing the costs of network outages. In addition, the Expert Events, filters and triggers that WildPackets’ products offer can be used to identify many of these outages before they even occur.