Top Layer TL4508

Top Layer TL4508 ... their longevity. When upgrading to Gigabit from Fast Ethernet, the Top Layer IDSB allows you the flexibility to continue to use your existing 100Mbit sensors while providing you with a cost-effective method for upgrading their performance.

It is very common for enterprises to use two or more different types of monitoring sensors, each one optimized for different types of applications and traffic. The Top Layer IDSB can filter the traffic by IP address and/or the type of application, thus enabling the monitoring sensors to be optimized. In addition, the Top Layer Balancer can create "carbon copies" of either the whole or portion of the traffic, which can be delivered to different sensor groups. This functionality is very useful for delivering the same traffic to two different sensors, such as a network IDS and a network analyzer, and it allows side-by-side comparisons. Because of its versatility, the Top Layer IDSB can also be used to simultaneously test the performance and functionality of various sensors and determine which will work best in your environment.

Many monitoring sensors have trouble handling high amounts of traffic. Faced with this kind of overload, these sensors begin discarding traffic without checking it for attacks - a sure recipe for disaster. The Top Layer IDSB can be used to load balance the traffic to multiple sensors. Some balancing devices use "packet" based technology, balancing the traffic by looking at each packet and distributing the traffic to the various sensors. The problem with this approach is that you might end up with part of a flow going to one sensor, and the rest going to a different one. Since most sensors monitor traffic by looking at the whole flow, this will cause the sensor to malfunction and produce erratic results.

With a typical monitoring deployment, each sensor is installed singly, monitoring a separate portion of the network. When a sensor fails, attacks or intrusions on the portion of the network monitored by that sensor are missed. The Top Layer IDSB distributes traffic across a group of sensors. If one monitoring sensor in the group fails, the remaining sensors pick up the load without impacting the monitoring operation.

In networks where asymmetric routes are present, placement of monitoring sensors creates an even more challenging problem. To be effective, a sensor needs to see the entire data flow between any two end points. When traffic enters via one route and leaves via another, the sensor will only see half of the communication, and a serious attack may go undetected, or protocol anomalies may be falsely reported. The IDSB addresses this issue by using patented technology that matches both halves of the communication before passing the traffic to the sensor - providing complete network coverage.

The IDSB's Web management interface and configuration wizard makes the product simple to install and configure, and easy to use. Typically it takes less than fifteen minutes from beginning to end of installation.