The Brix System supports testing points from Brix Networks, called Verifiers, as well as selected third-party measurement sources. With the Brix System, administrators can deploy the right performance data collection option for their environments: Brix Verifiers exclusively, only third-party devices, or a combination of Brix Verifiers and third-party sources.

For maximum deployment flexibility, the Brix Verifier family includes both hardware appliances and software agents that are installed throughout a network and are managed by either the BrixWorx or BrixMon central-site software engines.

Brix Verifiers offer the following capabilities:

• Comprehensive Active and Passive Testing
• Multiple Deployment Options for Full Network Coverage
• Lights-Out Operation for Production Networks
• Zero Truck-Roll Installation and Management
• Highly Accurate Performance Measurements
• Scalable Interface and Testing Capacity

COMPREHENSIVE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE TESTING
VoIP administrators test their networks to achieve a variety of goals, like proactively identifying performance degradations before they impact users, satisfying contractual SLAs, and cost-effectively troubleshooting user-impacting problems when they do occur.

Accomplishing all of these objectives requires a comprehensive testing approach consisting of both active and passive testing. Active tests precisely simulate user-level transactions, while passive tests monitor live, user-generated applications and traffic. Brix Verifiers support both of these testing methodologies. Brix advises a foundation of active testing complemented by focused passive testing for targeted locations or for specific problems.

Active testing is especially recommended for:

• Providing continuous performance feedback, regardless of user activity
• Catching developing problems before users are impacted
• Testing multiple paths and backup infrastructure from a small number of locations
• Predicting expected service performance prior to new service roll out

While passive testing is most useful for:

• Troubleshooting infrequent or customer-reported problems as they happen
• Viewing network utilization and performance trending without adding extra load
• Proactive capacity planning

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MULTIPLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS FOR FULL NETWORK COVERAGE
Testing between Brix Verifiers installed at customer premises measures "end-to-end" user experience, but it provides no visibility into the cause of slow performance or the location of an error. To pinpoint the cause of performance issues, administrators segment their networks by installing Brix Verifiers at selected network boundaries to create points of demarcation (or demarcs). For example, a demarc at the service provider edge allows providers to distinguish an access network problem from one in the core, while a customer premise demarc clearly delineates the customer's local area network (LAN) from the service provider's access network.

The Brix Verifier family has a model designed to fit every network environment, ranging from the end-user's location to a service provider's network core:

• Customer Premise — The Brix 100 Verifier is deployed in enterprise networks to create a customer premise-service provider demarc or to segment enterprise campus LANs.



• Network Edge — The Brix 1000 Verifier is deployed at metro hubs, regional head-ends, PoPs, data centers, or wherever additional testing capability is required.



• Network Core — The Brix 2500 Verifier is designed for deployment in high-speed locations, such as a service provider core, peering points, large metro PoPs, and national enterprise data centers. The Brix 4000 Verifier is designed for signaling and media aggregation points throughout the VoIP network deployment to provide passive measurement for live call analysis.



• PSTN — The Brix 3500T Verifier is installed on the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) portion of a service provider's VoIP network.



• Enterprise Workgroup Server — The software-based Brix Verifier Agent is installed on servers for ongoing quality monitoring.



• End-User Locations — The software-based On-Demand Brix Verifier Agent is easily downloaded for on-demand troubleshooting or network qualification applications.

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LIGHTS-OUT OPERATION FOR PRODUCTION NETWORKS
All hardware-based Brix Verifiers are designed for long-term deployment in the lights-out, production networks of service providers and enterprises.

Brix Verifiers are purpose-built appliances that feature a dedicated, real-time operating system and feature the kind of unsurpassed reliability that cannot be matched by software solutions running on high-maintenance, general-purpose operating systems or personal computers with failure-prone spinning storage media.

In-network Verifiers — the Brix 1000, Brix 2500, Brix 3500T, and Brix 4000 — are available in Network Equipment Building System (NEBS) Level 3-compliant models that have passed a series of independent and stringent environmental, safety, emissions, serviceability, reliability, and quality tests, and are certified for deployment in carrier central offices.

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ZERO TRUCK-ROLL INSTALLATION AND MANAGEMENT
Out of the box installation — powering up a Brix Verifier and connecting it to the network — is simple and can be completed by non-technical personnel or end users. For the software-based Brix Verifier Agent, deployment consists of a short, easy installation procedure or download request.

As the Verifier starts up, it performs system integrity checks, automatically discovers its BrixWorx or BrixMon server, and then downloads, over a secure, encrypted connection from the server, all of the system software, tests, and configuration information needed to begin testing.

Once deployed, a Brix Verifier is completely and securely managed remotely through either the BrixWorx or BrixMon server's Web-based Operations Center user interface. Even software upgrades, additional tests, and modified configurations are all transparently downloaded as needed.

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HIGHLY ACCURATE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENTS
Unlike customer premise and residential locations, where the nearest millisecond is "accurate enough," there is a critical need for unquestionably accurate and precise performance measurements in high-speed and in-network locations.

The hardware Brix Verifier family features exceptionally accurate timing capabilities to support sub-millisecond precision. Time measurements take advantage of the Brix Verifier's packet timestamp engine. Hardware-based timestamping eliminates variations attributed to operating system or networking software processing, or interference from other applications.

Additionally, in-network Brix Verifiers support optional CDMA or GPS timing modules to provide worldwide accurate synchronization of timestamps to sub-100 microsecond precision. This level of accuracy is required to identify low latency intra-metro or regional issues.

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SCALABLE INTERFACE AND TESTING CAPACITY
The Brix Verifier family has a model to meet the network interface and testing capacity requirements of any target deployment environment. Installed at customer premise locations, the Brix 100 Verifier features 10/100 Mbps Fast Ethernet interfaces, while the Brix 2500 Verifier, targeted at high-speed core deployments, offers Gigabit Ethernet, Packet over Sonet (POS), and Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) interfaces. Similarly, Verifier test capacity scales from the modest requirements of an enterprise branch office running hundreds of tests to a high-density data center running hundreds of thousands of tests.

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CHOOSING THE RIGHT BRIX VERIFIER
Brix Networks offers a broad family of Verifier options:

• Brix 100 Verifier — customer premise deployments
• Brix 1000 Verifier — network edge and high test capacity locations
• Brix 2500 Verifier — core network and extremely high test capacity locations
• Brix 3500T Verifier — PSTN locations
• Brix 4000 Verifier — for signaling and media aggregation points throughout the VoIP network
• Brix Verifier Agent and On-Demand Verifier Agent — on-demand or continuous testing for enterprise workgroup servers, desktops, and residential locations

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