Routers and WAN links are the most expensive parts of a network. It can be difficult to manage the bandwidth allocation. Oversubscription of bandwidth can result in paying more for the bandwidth than needed. Under-subscription is not ideal either. It can result in poor network performance and unnecessary expenses. Due to these reasons, effective router change management is necessary to ensure the success of a network. Network administrators have to optimize the service quality by balancing the burst rate, committed information rate and throughput with response time, discards and congestion.
Monitoring and Bandwidth Challenges
Network administrators have to optimize bandwidth allocations, fix WAN problems, identify high traffic sources, minimize WAN link recurring costs, update legacy routers, and ensure high network availability. These jobs can be handled well by using an effective router management software program. A variety of tools with advanced network management features and functionality are available for this purpose. These programs help build better network infrastructure, allowing the company to ensure a secure and resilient network.
Measuring Traffic and Bandwidth
Bandwidth allocation can be optimized by measuring traffic and bandwidth. The software helps monitor bandwidth, discards, errors and utilization of WAN links. It is useful in verifying the ISP service level agreement. Accurate information on WAN link utilization and traffic helps improve bandwidth allocation for all links.
Real Time Monitoring of WAN Links
Monitoring WAN links proactively is necessary to ensure continuous network availability. It requires monitoring link errors and link latency. Threshold alerts are assigned to these points. It prevents expensive downtime by identifying any degradation in time. Administrators must get an alert immediately when a link goes down. Not knowing about it can be a big problem. Alerts related to this issue can be received through text messages or emails. These messages contain details of relevant links and threshold breach. This data allows the network administrator to identify the unavailable links.
Visualizing the WAN Links to Fix WAN Problems Faster
The router management program creates graphical maps. It allows the administrator to visualize the current status of WAN in a better way. All WAN links can be viewed immediately. Changes can be tracked. It should be noted that the WAN performance depends on the type, quality and performance of ISP as well. The router management software provides all information to indicate if the problem is with the ISP or the internal IT infrastructure.
A router change management program shows traffic trends. This data is used to devise better plans for future capacity building and reduce recurring expenses. A company can save money every month if it can identify underutilized links. The program takes previous records of traffic and prepares the utilization report. Any abnormal high traffic is detected quickly. The reports indicate the users and applications using most bandwidth. Unusual performance or behavior of the router can be identified early. It helps replace, update or upgrade the problematic routers.
