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With the growing number of large frame relay installations now using ATM to consolidate traffic at their highest density sites, service-level management on ATM is paramount. Using the same genius found in its earlier products, Visual Networks has brought its highly successful frame relay service-level management system into the ATM arena with a new release of its Visual UpTime software and DS3 ATM ASE hardware device.
I tested beta versions of both Visual UpTime 5.0 and the DS3 ATM ASE in MCI WorldCom Developer's Lab in Richardson, Texas, and was delighted with the quality of information these products provided in a mixed frame relay and ATM network. Since the last time we tested UpTime (see "Lifting The Fog With Frame Relay Management Products," www.networkcomputing. com/911/911rl.html), Visual has enhanced its analysis to provide more manager-level reporting. It is now unquestionably the premier frame relay-specific service-level tool. Once Visual aligns the ATM products with its frame relay capabilities, the company may well own ATM WAN service-level management, too.
A focused WAN management application, Visual UpTime measures and reports the most important aspects of frame relay and ATM service-availability, data delivery, delay and utilization. Like many network management systems, it includes an event manager and exhibits protocol analysis capabilities. In my lab tests, the software expertly displayed circuit-- level details, but its real strengths lie in its planning and reporting features. Visual UpTime's service-level, capacity-- planning and circuit-level reporting features also are quite impressive.
During testing, Visual UpTime's Burst Advisor component helped in my analysis of utilization patterns. While it continues to recommend changes to the Frame Relay CIR (Committed Information Rate), it now also presents suggestions for its ATM analogue, SCR (Sustained Cell Rate). Although most views within UpTime are on a circuit-- by-circuit basis, including Burst Advisor's, the Executive Burst Advisor provides a networkwide view of the most- and least-used circuits in the WAN.
Sweating the Details The Visual system collects data...