GigaSMART FlowVUE

Required License: FlowVUE

GigaSMART FlowVUE supports the following:

• flow-aware sampling of subscriber devices to filter and forward all flows sourced from a sampled set of subscriber device IPs
• flexible sampling on subscriber IPs and IP ranges, and at specified sampling rates
• user-configurable timeouts to detect and replace inactive devices
• IP-based sampling of flows and IP-based flows encapsulated in GTP-u tunnels

FlowVUE offers subscriber IP-based flow sampling that helps carriers turn Big Data into manageable data. The GigaSMART application enables existing tools to connect to the latest high-speed pipes by providing a representative view of traffic for diagnostic coverage. GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) is commonly used to carry mobile data across service provider networks and includes the control plane (GTP-c) and a user-data plane (GTP-u) traffic. FlowVUE allows for active sampling of a subscriber’s device (known as a user endpoint IP or UE IP) across GTP-u tunnels. The integrity of the subscriber flows is preserved by forwarding all the flows associated with the sampled UE IP to the monitoring and analytic tools.

In contrast, traditional methods randomly sample packets without any correlation to the flows. This provides limited visibility into subscriber behavior and experience. FlowVUE intelligently reduces the amount of traffic, while keeping the integrity of the data flows intact, but at a lower speed feed within a smaller pipe.

Leveraging FlowVUE, providers can enhance quality of experience (QoE) monitoring by forwarding all of the control plane traffic to the tools infrastructure and only perform intelligent user-plane sampling (a configurable percentage of UE IPs) to get a representative view of application usage.

When combined with the advanced filtering capabilities of GigaSMART Adaptive Packet Filtering (APF), operators can further filter, replicate, and forward specific traffic flows of interest based on application ports and packet content-based payloads for all or a subset of the sampled subscribers. This further reduces the volume of traffic to the tool infrastructure. The ability to sample a subset of subscriber devices and transmit all the associated sessions of interest to the monitoring tools, reduces the amount of data while enabling Big Data throughput processing, with existing cost structures.

FlowVUE operations can be assigned to GigaSMART groups consisting of multiple engine ports. Refer to Groups of GigaSMART Engine Ports for details.

Configuring FlowVUE

The GigaSMART parameters for configuring FlowVUE are as follows:

• flow-sampling-device-ip-ranges—Specifies the range of IP addresses that identify a valid device.
• flow-sampling-rate—Specifies how much GTP traffic from subscribers in the specified IP ranges is sampled. The values range from 5 to 95%.
• flow-sampling-timeout—Specifies after how much time a flow/device in a sampled IP range is declared idle and is no longer sampled. The values range from 1 to 60 minutes.
• flow-sampling-type—Specifies whether inner or outer IP addresses are used for FlowVUE sampling as follows:
• device-ip—Specifies a sample subset of devices based on IP address.
• device-ip-in-gtp—Specifies a sample subset of devices based on inner IP address in the GTP-u tunnel.

Sample a Subset of Subscribers and Sample all Subscribers Traffic

The following example samples on GTP-u traffic where 10% of the subscribers are forwarded.

 

Task

Description

UI Steps

1

Configure one network and two tool type of ports.
1. Select Ports > Ports > All Ports.
2. Click Quick Port Editor.
3. Configure one network port and two tool ports. For example, select Network for port 1/1/x3. Select Tool for port 1/1/x4 and port 1/1/x1.
4. Select Enable for each port.
5. Click OK.
6. Close the Quick Port Editor.

2

Configure a GigaSMART group and associate it with a GigaSMART engine port and configure sampling parameters
1. From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Groups > GigaSMART Groups.
2. Click New.
3. Type gsg1 in the Alias field.
4. Click int he Port List field and select an engine port. For example. 1/1/e1.
5. Configure the Flow Sampling parameters under GigaSMART Parameters.
• Select Device IP.
• Enter 1.1.1.0/255.255.255.0 in the IP Ranges field.
• Enter 10 for Rate to set the flow sampling rate to 10 percent.
6. Click Save.

3

Configure the GigaSMART operation and assign it to the GigaSMART group.
1. From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) > GigaSMART Operations.
2. Click New.
3. Type gsfvue in the Alias field.
4. Select gsg1 from the GigaSMART Groups list.
5. Select Flow Sampling from the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) list.
6. Select Flow Sampling - IP
7. Click Save.

4

Create an ingress (first level) map.

Note: In the rule, 2152 is GTP-u traffic.
1. Select Maps > Maps > Maps.
2. Click New.
3. Configure the map.
• Enter to_tool in the Alias field.
• Select Regular for Type.
• Select By Rule for Subtype.
• Select the network port for the Source.
• Select a tool port for the Destination.
• Select gsfvue from the GSOP list.
4. Add a rule.
a. Click Add a Rule.
b. Select Pass.
c. Select Port Destination.
d. Enter 2152 for the port value.
5. Click Save.

Sample a Subset of Subscribers and Sample a Subset of Traffic

FlowVUE can be used to reduce traffic to the monitoring tools. By combining FlowVUE with other GigaSMART applications such as APF, the traffic can be further reduced by filtering on specific Layer 4 application ports.

The following example samples on a subset of subscribers and forwards only the HTTP traffic related to the sampled subscriber set of devices.

 

Task

Description

UI Steps

1

Configure one network and two tool type of ports.
1. Select Ports > Ports > All Ports.
2. Click Quick Port Editor.
3. Configure one network port and two tool ports. For example, select Network for port 1/1/x3. Select Tool for port 1/1/x4 and port 1/1/x1.
4. Select Enable for each port.
5. Click OK.
6. Close the Quick Port Editor.

2

Configure a GigaSMART group and associate it with a GigaSMART engine port.
1. From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Groups > GigaSMART Groups.
2. Click New.
3. Type gsg1 in the Alias field.
4. Click int he Port List field and select an engine port. For example. 1/1/e1.
5. Configure the Flow Sampling parameters under GigaSMART Parameters.
• Select Device IP.
• Enter 1.1.1.0/255.255.255.0 in the IP Ranges field.
• Enter 10 for Rate to set the flow sampling rate to 10 percent.
6. Click Save.

3

Configure the GigaSMART operation and assign it to the GigaSMART group. Also, configure APF.
1. From the device view, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) > GigaSMART Operation.
2. Click New.
3. Type gsfvue_apf in the Alias field.
4. Select gsg1 from the GigaSMART Groups list.
5. Select APF from the GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) list
6. Enable APF.
7. Click Save.

4

Configure virtual port and associate it with the GigaSMART group.
1. From the device view, select GigaSMART > Virtual ports.
2. Click New.
3. Enter vp1 in the Alias field.
4. Select gsg1 from the GigaSMART Groups list.
5. Click Save.

5

Create a first level map and direct traffic to the virtual port.

Note: In the rule, 2152 is GTP-u traffic.
1. Select Maps > Maps > Maps.
2. Click New.
3. Configure the map.
• Enter to_vp in the Alias field.
• Select First Level for Type.
• Select By Rule for Subtype.
• Select the network port for the Source.
• Select the virtual port vp1 for the Destination.
• Select gsfvue from the GSOP list.
4. Add a rule.
a. Click Add a Rule.
b. Select Pass.
c. Select Port Source.
d. Enter 2152 for the port value.
5. Click Save.

6

Create a second level map and use the APF GigaSMART operation. APF performs filtering according to the gsrules, sending only matching traffic to the tool port.
1. Select Maps > Maps > Maps.
2. Click New.
3. Configure the map.
• Enter map1 in the Alias field.
• Select Second Level for Type.
• Select By Rule for Subtype.
• Select the virtual port vp1 for the Source.
• Select the a tool port for the Destination.
• Select gsfvue_apf from the GSOP list.
4. Add a rule 1.
a. Click Add a Rule.
b. Select Pass.
c. Select Port Destination.
d. Enter 80 for the port value.
e. Select 2 for Position.
6. Add a rule 2.
a. Click Add a Rule.
b. Select Pass.
c. Select Port Source.
d. Enter 80 for the port value.
e. Select 2 for Position.
6. Click Save.
Displaying FlowVUE Statistics

To display FlowVUE statistics, select GigaSMART > GigaSMART Operations (GSOP) > Statistics.

Refer to FlowVUE Statistics Definitions for descriptions of these statistics as well as to GigaSMART Operations Statistics Definitions.