Network Sensors

PacketAnalyst High Performance Network Sensors

Accelerated Servers offers the PacketAnalyst (tm) line of high performance, cost-efficient sensors which have been deployed in small and large networks covering hundreds of POPs since 2003. Our sensors are based on an open, standards-based Linux platform, and support multiple concurrent cybersecurity applications running at line rate. They are easy to port your applications to because they run standard Linux (RedHat or Debian), use standard CPUs (x86), and have a standard PCAP interface. For additional capabilities, our sensors integrate well with Accelerated Servers-supplied central storage and analytics platforms.

How it Works

The PacketAnalyst platform manages data flow from one or more 10Gigabit full-duplex ports and allows multiple applications to run over some or all of the captured data in real time or in playback mode. The PacketAnalyst API is standard PCAP and DAQ. Any program that can be compiled or has a binary available for x86 and uses the PCAP or DAQ external libraries can be supported with a simple compile. Any Debian or RedHat package that uses PCAP ro DAQ will work without additional integration. The PacketAnalyst platform also has optional included components you can use to support automated log compression, rotation, and upload to central analytics cluster(s); automated application startup, management, and monitoring; and traffic monitoring of capture and/or dropped data from every port and each application.

PacketAnalyst Products

PacketAnalyst
Flexible 2u platform supporting 10Gigabit full-duplex line-rate operation with a suite of typical flow, DPI, IDS, and discovery, applications.
PacketAnalyst-Highcap
Flexible 2u platform supporting 20-30 Gigabit full-duplex line-rate operation with a suite of typical flow, DPI, IDS, and discovery, applications.
PacketAnalyst-Lite
Flexible 1u platform supporting 10 Gigabit full-duplex line-rate operation with flow, DPI, and packet capture applications. Additional applications can be run on the PacketAnalyst-Lite but might impact line rate functionality of the lighter-weight applications.
PacketAnalyst-DS12
Flexible 4u platform supporting 10Gigabit full-duplex line-rate operation with 12 hours of line-rate data storage, supporting a suite of typical flow, DPI, IDS, and discovery, applications.

PacketAnalyst Addons

DS12
12-hour Data Storage addon for 10Gigabit full-duplex line-rate. Standard sensors can support up to 2 DS12s.
Clustered Storage
For longer data storage and processing functionality, Accelerated Servers can provide custom multi-Petabyte storage clusters which seamlessly integrate with the PacketAnalyst OS to allow running analytics applications over multiple days or weeks of data.
Additional Ports
The PacketAnalyst, PacketSensor-Highcap, and PacketSensor-DS12 products can take up to 5 10Gigabit ports, supporting up to 30 Gigabits of aggregate throughput.

Applicable Application Missions

IDS/IPS
Runs Snort, Suricata, and other PCAP/DAQ-based IDS/IPS suites in both bypass and in-line modes.
Netflow/sFlow/IPFix Export
Supporting 100% accurate, un-sampled netflow, sFlow, or IPfix collectors.
Deep Packet Inspection
Runs DPI applications for lawful intercept, proprietary and confidential information protection, and other missions.
Cloud and Edge Data Processing
Edge sensors can be statelessly provisioned for scale (and run diskless), and support edge data processing natively or via on-sensor VMs.
Network and Application Performance Analysis
TCP Statistics, network and application transactional latency analysis.
Passive Device Fingerprinting
p0f and other OS/device fingerprinting applications discover hosts and identify them by OS.
Distributed Packet Capture
Real time distributed tcpdump functionality captures matching traffic samples in real time or across stored history across the entire network.
Billing, Accounting, and Usage Auditing
Netflow data supports tracking usage to the port or beyond to the customer/user level for billing or re-billing.
Identity Management Integration
Flow tagging using real-time feeds of user/identity to IP address usage mappings. Can be integrated with Identity Management and Tracking infrastructures.
Link Fault Discovery
Detecting sources of bad frames, unicast broadcast, and MAC/ARP spoofing.

Available Sensor Applications

  • Snort
  • Suricata
  • AMP
  • Yaf
  • p0f
  • tcpdump
  • Argus
  • Any x86 binary application using PCAP or DAQ
  • Any source-available application using PCAP or DAQ
  • Industry Applications

  • Cyber Security - Providing line-rate processing of multiple analytics applications
  • Service Providers - NetFlow for top talkers, billing, dDoS detection
  • Finance - Security as well as latency verification
  • OEM - Our platform supports any source-available application
  • PacketAnalyst Platform Features

    Line Rate Capture
    Line rate packet capture of multiple 10GIG interfaces per sensor.
    Open Platform
    The PacketAnalyst platform runs any application source or binary that can use PCAP or DAQ libraries on a standard x86 Linux platform.
    High Performance
    Stanard suites of security and flow software can all run simultaneously at N x 10GIGe on one PacketAnalyst-HC sensor platform.
    Operational Autonomy
    Applications can be segregated into VMs for security isolation and distribution of administrative control.
    Data Retention and Analysis
    All PacketAnalyst sensors support optional local disk for data retention, and applications can be run over live or historic data.
    Flexible Hashing
    Unlimited number of data streams can be generated based on multiple MPLS and/or VLAN tags, full IPv6 support.
    Manageability
    SNMP visibility into each port and application instance accumulating all bytes and packets processed and dropped.
    Cloud and Edge Data Processing
    Edge sensors can be statelessly provisioned for scale (and run diskless), and support edge data processing natively or via on-sensor VMs.
    40 Gigabit Scalability
    With 2 PacketAnalyst-HCs cooperating to process a single 40GIG link.

    Netflow Analytics Cluster

    Accelerated Servers can also supply central processing infrastructure for flow and security application logs and output.

    An Accelerated Servers 125-POP Netflow Analytics cluster:

    Network Analytics