Packet Design, a leading supplier of network appliances that provides routing-layer visibility into IP networks, announced  that  Broadview Networks, a business communications service provider, has deployed Packet Design (News - Alert) VPN Explorer to manage their IP network that provides business customers with Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet, Virtual Private Network (VPN) and Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-enabled data communications.

VPN Explorer from Packet Design is an IP/MPLS VPN routing analysis solution. It monitors Broadview Networks’ (News - Alert) large router network, which runs the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Multi-Protocol BGP (MP-BGP) MPLS VPN routing protocols.

Using a 'route analytics' technology, VPN Explorer allows the company's network engineering staff to look at otherwise hidden aspects of routing behavior - undetectable by conventional SNMP-based management tools - and understand its impact on network reliability, redundancy, and customer service delivery, company officials said.

“Our IP backbone network has grown to support many diverse services, including more than 50,000 OfficeSuite hosted IP phone stations, SIP trunking, multi-site MPLS networks, Internet access, and managed network ad end user security services,” said George Carey, managing director of ISP Operations for Broadview Networks, in a statement.

Carey further said as their customer base grew, their staff needed greater management visibility to continue delivering the best-in-class service experience that their clients are used to receiving.

According to Carey, traditional network device management solutions didn't really help them troubleshoot network problems because they could only tell the status of individual routers.

Packet Design's network management solution, according to Carey, is an excellent tool for automating the collection and analysis of network-wide IP and MPLS VPN routing information. “It has made a real difference in speeding up our response and resolution times for customer issues.”

Broadview officials were impressed with the fast up-time that Packet Design's solution gives them right out of the box. “We were able to install it in about 15 minutes and it was running smoothly and productively in practically no time,” Carey added. “Also, since it's vendor-agnostic and uses standards-based routing protocols, we didn't need to perform expensive software customization in order for VPN Explorer to operate in our network environment”

VPN Explorer's historical troubleshooting capabilities were particularly useful to Broadview team. As the VPN Explorer maintains a complete, recorded history of all routing and MPLS VPN changes over time, engineers could visualize and diagnose the precise routing operation of the network at a past moment in time when a customer issue was occurring.

With VPN Explorer, the company has gained total visibility into network operations at any moment in time. It also allowed them to locate and identify any relevant network issues affecting a customer's traffic, or to eliminate altogether the network as a cause, and move on to other potential root causes.

Back in October, Packet Design announced that Cable & Wireless Communications Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Bermuda (CWC, CIIMB), an international service provider based in Guernsey, has selected and deployed Traffic Explorer, an integrated routing and traffic analysis system from Packet Design to manage their IP network.