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Current Hurdles:
1. Wide variety of SNMP agents and MIBs
- SNMP agents are embedded in all kinds of equipment, producing an explosion
of interoperability cases.
- New versions are released more and more frequently.
2. Difficult to setup large networks
- The large quantity
of devices creates a combinatorial nightmare of scenarios.
- Not only must the
equipment itself be purchased, maintained, upgraded, etc., but also
the infrastructure to support it (lab space, power supplies, cabling,
etc.).
- Large labs increase electricity consumption and cooling overhead.
3. High point-of-entry cost for NMS
- Too expensive to
buy all types of network devices.
- Support costs are
higher.
- Difficult to justify
purchase of equipment for testing/evaluation purpose.
4. Incomplete testing
- Even a representative
sample of devices cannot guarantee minimum interoperability in more
complicated environments.
- Cannot test all
the different versions/combinations. The time to boot different firmware
or to reconfigure a device is prohibitive.
- Difficult to test
various failure symptoms. Pathological scenarios may even require physical
interaction, such as jiggling a wire or unplugging a connector.
- Long-term testing
requires a too much time.
5. Expensive to plan for the future
- Future network
growth is costly to test with current equipment.
- Extrapolation of
resource requirements is risky.
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MIMIC's Solutions:
1. Immediate Cost Savings
- No need to buy
extra laboratory equipment (hardware, agents, software). The cost factor
of lab equipment is reduced by a factor of up to 1,000.
- Leverage existing
laboratory equipment by running MIMIC alongside the real device. Instead
of buying ten of the same devices, buy one real device, and simulate
the remaining nine.
- Reduced support
costs for test equipment. Rather than supporting different types of
devices, it is only necessary to support MIMIC on industry-standard
hardware (Intel-based PCs or AMD).
- Time savings dramatically
impact labor costs, especially early in the development cycle. MIMIC
can be employed in the prototyping and design stages. It only took us
minutes to setup the simulations used to demo the Applications
on this site.
- Allows instantaneous
hypothetical growth scenarios with minimal additional expense. Time
can be fast-forwarded in MIMIC with a few mouse-clicks and keystrokes.
Agents can easily be cloned. This helps in realistic future resource
planning.
2. Reduced Setups and Maintenance
- No need for multiple
network connections, power supplies, etc. Physical lab space and infrastructure
requirements are reduced 100-fold.
- No need to set up WAN links. MIMIC simulates network delay and runs with most network
interface cards. It even runs over PPP on a serial line.
- Energy savings of smaller lab means less environmental impact.
3. Complete Testing
- Test management
applications with a wide variety of agents instead of just one.
- Test multiple versions
of each device simultaneously.
- Configure pathological
conditions easily in order to investigate even the trickiest configurations.
4. Flexible Simulation of Heterogeneous Network
- Run MIMIC on any
industry-standard Intel-based PCs with a wide variety of
network interfaces.
- Run MIMIC on your
laptop, and take your lab on the road for customer support calls or
trade shows.
- Configure MIMIC
with any IP address, even on multiple subnets.
- Simulate different
failure symptoms, such as network delays, retransmits, packet losses,
etc.
- Change the configuration
easily in order to simulate a variety of scenarios.
- Use the recording
environment to setup existing scenarios easily.
5. Complete Control
- Control the entire
environment, even multiple MIMIC boxes, with one remote console.
- Manipulate parameters
at run-time to simulate different network conditions.
- Change time instantaneously
by "fast-forwarding" or even "rewinding."
- Access MIMIC from
any workstation that supports the X Window System.
6. Reliable Test Environment
- No need to worry
about test equipment failures.
- Reduce the number
of points of failure.
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