Fibre Network Monitoring (TAP)
Designed as a solution for network monitoring, a fibre TAP (Traffic Analysis Point) is a device that sits inside your cabling infrastructure and provides you with visibility into your network connection.
TAP modules mirror network traffic into a monitoring port while the signal to the network port is uninterrupted. Once the traffic is tapped it provides users with the opportunity to efficiently monitor their network for complete security.
Optical TAPs exist in two distinct types; active TAPs and passive TAPs. Active TAPs allow manipulation of a signal to the monitoring port and therefore tend to have more specialist applications and specialist transmission and monitoring equipment.
We only supply Passive TAPs which are non-powered units, either modules or cables and the most commonly used enterprise data centres for infrastructure and storage monitoring applications.
Example: M400 Series MTP – LC splitter TAP cable
What is Passive TAP?
A passive TAP is a simple device that facilitates the comprehensive monitoring of data from network ports or through trunk cables or patching fields.
Unlike electricity in copper network cables which is bi-directional, in a fibre cable light/data travels only in one direction and this means that a portion of the light can be split out to a monitoring point. The amount of light removed has to be enough to read the data being transmitted but less than that needed for the original destination.
A TAP therefore allows for complete transmission of data through the network without corrupting the data flow or interfering with the smooth running of the network.
What Types of Passive TAP are there?
There are predominantly two ways to create a passive TAP; using a FBT (Fused Bioconical Taper) optical splitter or a splitter with Thin Film technology.
Fused Bioconical Taper Splitters
Simply put, one fibre (carrying the signal input) is fused onto two fibres (two signal outputs). The percentage of light transmitted down each output can be adjusted at the point of the fuse. For example the light can be split 90:10 or 80:20 to 50:50.
Thin Film Technology Splitters
As opposed to splitting the light this technology uses a back reflection casued by a semi-permeable membrane across the fibre core. The main signal carries on through the fibre and the back reflection can be monitored.
Please see fig.1 and 2 below.
Which Type of TAP is most suitable
At the time of writing, passive TAPS are preferred over active TAPS and FBT splitters are preferred over TFF splitters for enterprise / data centre TAPS.
We make passive FBT splitter cables and modules for data centre and enterprise network use for data rates up to 100G over both multimode and singlemode fibre.
Some of Complete Connect’s Products
1. One Way LC to LC (x2) Splitter TAP cables in MMF and SMF
2. Bi directional Splitter TAP cables in MMF and SMF
3. Short Splitter TAP cables with low latency
4. 1U 19″ Patch Panels with multiple inputs and outputs
5. 100G and 40G port monitoring in both SR4 and PLR4
Summary
A passive optical TAP module is a simple, inexpensive and efficient means of monitoring system traffic. It operates invisibly on a network and has no IP/MAC address which mitigates against unauthorised access and hacking. A TAP operates across network speeds from 1 Gb/s – 100 Gb/s and the monitoring station receives an exact copy of all the traffic passing through the network. By installing a TAP during the deployment of a new network, future troubleshooting is made possible with no need to bring down a network.
We offer a wider range of standard and custom TAP modules that connect seamlessly within their 1u or 1u MX connectivity hub and can be found here.
Please contact us for additional information.
