Napatech has launched the NTBPE optical bypass adapter, an intelligent bypass and failover solution for in-line network appliances. The NTBPE provides an improved alternative to traditional in-line failover solutions, by also allowing intelligent upgrades of network appliance functionality without disrupting network connectivity.
The NTBPE is a stand-alone adapter providing support for up to four network ports of either 1Gbit/s or 10Gbit/s bandwidth and two of the company's in-line adapters. With the NTBPE, the in-line adapters can support applications for in-line network monitoring, network measurement or network security on two network connections with full 1Gbit/s or 10Gbit/s throughput. In the event of a failure on the network adapters or on the supporting server, the NTBPE will automatically perform a switch to a bypass path, which allows the network connections to continue without disruption.
The switch to a bypass path can also be initiated on command through software. This allows the adapters to be inserted or removed from a network connection without disrupting network connectivity or requiring the network appliance to be shut down. As the network adapter features can be upgraded using a software download, new features can be introduced to the network appliance without disrupting traffic, by simply performing a bypass switchover, upgrading the network adapter and then performing a switch back to normal mode.
The NTBPE is designed to fit into standard PCI-Express slots in standard servers and is provided with a software suite for ease of integration supporting Linux and FreeBSD.
