APCON Resolves SPAN Port
Contention for Global Contractor
Case Study
A large multinational oil and gas industry company undertakes projects in energy exploration
and production. The company maintains offices worldwide, but is headquartered in the United
States and in the United Arab Emirates. APCON allowed this company to resolve SPAN port
contention and achieve total network visibility through packet aggregation and filtering.
Challenge
This company’s data center challenge is one that often turns up in major
multinational corporations – the need to address SPAN port contention
in a data center primarily made up of Cisco switches.
▪ APCON intelligent data traffic
management switches eliminate
SPAN port contention
▪ SPAN port contention occurs
when multiple tools depend on
a single SPAN port for data feed
Most Cisco switches are limited to two “Rx” or “Both” direction SPAN
sessions per switch. SPAN (or mirror) port contention occurs when there
are too many network monitoring tools competing for simultaneous
access to a SPAN port data stream. Multiple stakeholders using packet
analyzers, APM tools, VoIP tools, and others can easily overwhelm
limited SPAN ports. Those stakeholders may have legitimate needs
to access those data streams, but data centers often have limited
resources to create additional SPAN ports to serve multiple tools.
Furthermore, in trusted data centers such as this customer’s installation,
certain stakeholders may not have security clearance to view all data.
Catalyst 2960-S Series SI
CONSOLE
SYSY
RPS
STAT
DPLX
SPED
MODE
SPAN
SPAN
▪ Packet aggregation and
one-to-many multicast is
the required solution
▪ Enterprise-grade network
monitoring switches by APCON
deliver needed data to the right
tools, regardless of the number
of SPAN ports
Infinistream
VoIP Recorder
Sniffer
IDS
Problem: With only two SPAN ports configurable on most switches,
only some tools can be connected at any given time.
APCON Solution Eliminates SPAN Port Contention
APCON switches eliminate SPAN port contention through packet
aggregation, filtering, and multicast capabilities. The APCON solution
aggregates and then multicasts SPAN data streams, using tool-specific
egress filtering on each multicast port to allow the data streams to be
SPAN
tailored to the specific requirements
set by the monitoring device.
Catalyst 2960-S Series SI
CONSOLE
SYSY
RPS
STAT
DPLX
SPED
MODE
INTELLAPATCH® Switch
1
3
5
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9
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15
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31
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32
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31
4
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18
20
22
24
1/10 Gigabit Fiber Ethernet
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
C A
26
13
28
14
30
15
32
16
35
24
34
36
33
35
23
24
34
17
S
10 Gbps Ethernet
2
ENTER
33
23
10 Gbps Ethernet
4
100/1000 Ethernet
EL
29
2
100/1000 Ethernet
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E36-1
CANC
27
100/1000 Ethernet
100/1000 Ethernet
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E36-1
25
Packet Aggregator
100/1000 Mbps
10 Gbps
Status
Status
C
Power
E
36
18
D
Power
Packet Aggregator
100/1000 Mbps
10 Gbps
Packet Aggregator
1/10 Gbps
Status
B
Power
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E18-6
1/10 Gigabit Fiber Ethernet
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Packet Aggregator
1/10 Gbps
Status
A
S
T
U
D Y
Case Study – APCON Resolves SPAN Port Contention for Global Contractor
Catalyst 2960-S Series SI
CONSOLE
SYSY
RPS
STAT
DPLX
SPED
MODE
SPAN
SPAN
Data rate conversion is also required at these data centers, so that
the output from a 10G Ethernet SPAN port may be filtered and then
monitored by a 1G Ethernet device. This extends the useful life of older
1G tools and saving the substantial additional expense of a 10G tool that
would be only partially subscribed.
Infinistream
VoIP Recorder
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To achieve all these benefits, a packet aggregating network monitoring
switch such as the APCON INTELLAPATCH® Series 3000 with INTELLAFlex™
blades is required. The INTELLAPATCH switch with INTELLAFlex blades
eliminates SPAN port contention by multicasting the data from a single
SPAN port to multiple tools and provide the flexibility to precisely filter the
data to the set that each tool needs to receive.
Catalyst 2960-S Series SI
About APCON
CONSOLE
SYSY
RPS
STAT
DPLX
SPED
MODE
APCON develops innovative, scalable
technology solutions to enhance network
monitoring, support IT traffic analysis,
SPAN
INTELLAPATCH® Switch
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1/10 Gigabit Fiber Ethernet
1
2
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4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
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13
14
15
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17
18
10 Gbps Ethernet
4
10 Gbps Ethernet
33
23
1
ENTER
filtering, and network switching products,
29
100/1000 Ethernet
EL
27
2
100/1000 Ethernet
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E36-1
CANC
25
100/1000 Ethernet
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E36-1
and security. APCON is the industry leader
for state-of-the-art IT data aggregation,
3
100/1000 Ethernet
and streamline IT network management
Packet Aggregator
100/1000 Mbps
10 Gbps
Status
Status
B
Status
1/10 Gigabit Fiber Ethernet
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
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17
18
Packet Aggregator
1/10 Gbps
Status
A
Power
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E18-6
software support. Organizations in over
C
Power
Packet Aggregator
1/10 Gbps
Power
INTELLAFLEX™ Blade
ACI-3030-E18-6
as well as leading-edge management-
D
Power
Packet Aggregator
100/1000 Mbps
10 Gbps
50 countries depend on APCON network
infrastructure solutions. Customers
include Global Fortune 500 companies,
banks and financial services institutions,
telecommunication service providers,
government and military, and computer
equipment manufacturers.
Contact Us
Please email sales@apcon.com
or call 503–682–4050 if you have
any questions
Infinistream
VoIP Recorder
IDS
Solution: The APCON switch takes the output of a single SPAN port and
multicasts the stream to any number of tools. The APCON switch also
filters the data stream for each tool, eliminating SPAN port contention.
Results
By implementing an intelligent data traffic management system using
APCON network monitoring switches, this customer was able to eliminate
resource contention and provide each set of stakeholders with access
to a common set of tools. This allows the company to delay or eliminate
future tool purchases, providing an ongoing return on investment.
Additionally, APCON’s scalable architecture preserves the initial
investment as the company’s needs grow.
APCON, Inc. ▪ www.apcon.com ▪ +1 503–682–4050 ▪ 800–624–6808
© 2012 APCON, Inc. All Rights Reserved. IntellaPatch® is a Registered Trademark and IntellaFlex™ is a trademark of APCON, Inc.
@APCON ▪
www.facebook.com/APCONfb ▪ APCON is an Equal Opportunity Employer – MFDV
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