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Cisco Bandwidth Quality Manager

Cisco Bandwidth Quality Manager 3.1 for TelePresence

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Product Overview

Cisco® TelePresence delivers true life-size images with ultra-high-definition video (both 720p and 1080p) and spatial audio, which creates a "room within a room" environment that makes users feel as if they are at the same table with people in remote locations.
Cisco TelePresence requires a high degree of quality of service (QoS) to preserve body language. Insufficient network resources can disrupt the user experience. The Cisco TelePresence QoS Network Management Solution includes Cisco Bandwidth Quality Manager (BQM), which is a network service quality management appliance that provides unsurpassed visibility and analysis of traffic, bandwidth, and QoS on packet networks. It is used to monitor, troubleshoot, and assure network performance objectives for both TelePresence and other applications sharing the network:

• Cisco BQM monitors and analyzes network traffic with microsecond granularity, identifying congestion causing TelePresence or other application quality degradation, and recommends corrective actions.

• Cisco BQM is an easy-to-use troubleshooting tool that facilitates root cause analysis for identified quality problems.

• Cisco BQM integrates with Cisco QoS mechanisms to minimize deployment and training.

Cisco BQM can be used in advance of a TelePresence rollout to help ensure that local network resources and QoS policies are sufficient both to deliver the demanding quality of service required by TelePresence and to maintain quality for existing application traffic. Following deployment, Cisco BQM provides continuous QoS-aware application monitoring and can diagnose whether or not the network traffic or QOS policy is responsible for service degradation and, if so, assists in identifying the solution.
Cisco BQM software runs on an appliance with gigabit-speed traffic monitoring ports. It is typically deployed at the data center or other potential traffic aggregation points, and it monitors every packet passively by spanning or tapping the Ethernet data links. All analysis and configuration functions are delivered though an advanced, user-friendly Web interface, with additional support for Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol and Telnet access to an intuitive command-line interface (CLI).
Tables 1 and 2 summarize Cisco BQM functions and business benefits.

Table 1. Cisco BQM Functions for TelePresence

Function

Description

Traffic insight

Cisco BQM traffic insight provides microsecond visibility and real-time analysis of the use of network resources to support the network application environment. Cisco BQM traffic insight identifies traffic microbursts of programmable duration from 5 milliseconds to 1 second, top talkers, listeners, and conversations and reports average link use, packet rate, and packet size distribution.

Congestion analysis

Cisco BQM computes the expected service level (ESL) in terms of loss and delay for each packet across hundreds of configured classes or site interfaces. The Cisco BQM congestion indicator condenses this information into a single number, which reflects the performance of each site relative to the network performance objectives.

Event analysis

Cisco BQM provides event tracing wherein a rolling real-time trace is always kept. If any congestion event is detected, a 10-second section of the trace around the event is recorded for later analysis. Cisco BQM provides analysis capabilities at the site, class, application, conversation, or even packet level.

Bandwidth sizing

Cisco BQM recommendations give clear, plain-language guidelines on class and link bandwidth requirements, queue-limit sizing, and policy settings. Each recommendation takes into account the amount of dynamic congestion that applications or classes can tolerate.

Quality alarms

Cisco BQM detection and analysis of congestion is made available to external systems through fully configurable Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) traps, syslog streaming, and e-mail alerts.

Table 2. Cisco BQM Business Benefits for TelePresence

Benefit

Description

Increases TelePresence uptime

Cisco BQM helps network managers ensure that network bandwidth is properly dimensioned and QoS mechanisms are properly configured to support the continuous high quality delivery of the TelePresence end-user experience. Cisco BQM continuously monitors, analyzes, and recommends corrective actions against events that affect network quality.

Reduces risk of TelePresence rollout affecting existing business critical network applications

Cisco BQM bandwidth and QoS analysis takes into consideration the network quality requirements of all applications. The BQM recommendations will protect not only the TelePresence traffic but will also make sure existing applications are not bandwidth starved.

Reduces operating time and troubleshooting expense.

Through its unique ability to monitor and analyze traffic with microsecond resolution, Cisco BQM diagnoses traffic-induced performance problems that many competing tools miss or misdiagnose.

Mitigates risk of making expensive bandwidth upgrade decisions

Cisco BQM determines whether a bandwidth upgrade or QoS or traffic management policy is the preferred action based on its unique algorithms. These algorithms take into account whether an upgrade action may result in no improvement to network quality.

Availability

Cisco BQM 3.1 for TelePresence will be available April 12, 2007. Customers can order these products and fully attached services through their normal sales channels beginning March 21, 2007.

Ordering Requirements

Cisco BQM available on the Cisco 1180 platform with a specialized network interface card. Full details about availability and ordering of the required hardware platform are available from your Cisco sales representative.
Table 3 provides part numbers for ordering. Please note that Cisco BQM Engine is available with either fixed ports of 10/100/1000 Mbps or with a modular version. The modular version of Cisco BQM Engine can be configured with combinations of 1000BaseSX (optical) Small Form-Factor Pluggables (SFPs) or 1000BaseT (electrical) SFPs.

Table 3. Ordering Information

Part Number

Description

CBQME-1180T-K9

Cisco BQM 3.1 TelePresence - 10 remote sites

CBQME-PCI

Cisco BQM Engine - Fixed PCI card with 4 port 10/100/1000 Mbps

CBQME-PCI-M

Cisco BQM Engine - Modular PCI card requires SFP's purchase

GLC-SX-MM

Gigabit Ethernet SFP with 1000BaseSX (optical)

GLC-T

Gigabit Ethernet SFP with 1000BaseT (electrical)

CBQME-3.1-SWT-K9

Cisco BQM Engine TelePresence License - 10 Remote Sites

CBQME-3.1-10T-LC

Cisco BQM Engine TelePresence License - 10 additional remote sites

CBQME-3.1-100TUPL

Cisco BQM Engine TelePresence License Upgrade to 100 Remote Sites and Full Functionality BQM

For More Information

For more information about Cisco Bandwidth Quality Manager, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/bqm, e-mail bqm-product-info@external.cisco.com, or contact your local Cisco Sales representative.