Data monitoring switch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[1]A data monitoring switch is a networking hardware appliance that provides a pool of monitoring tools with access to traffic from a large number of network links. It provides a combination of functionality that may include aggregating monitoring traffic from multiple links, regenerating traffic to multiple tools, pre-filtering traffic to offload tools, and directing traffic according to one-to-one and many-to-many port mappings.[2]
Data monitoring switches enable organizations to use their monitoring tools more efficiently, centralize traffic monitoring functions, and share tools and traffic access between groups. Some of these devices also provide functionality that helps justify tool purchases and simplify deployment and management of the device itself.
Several other terms have been used to describe this class of devices, including data access switch, tool aggregator, network packet broker, net tool optimizer, and distributed filter tap.