Cyber Security and Lawful Interception

Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical Systems provide a future-proof solution for accessing and monitoring optical signals; any data rate, any protocol and any format including DWDM.

The Challenge   Communication service providers, enterprises, and law enforcement agencies need continuous visibility and rapid access to optical networks.  CSPs and law enforcement agencies must adhere to national laws that demand timely access and monitoring of network communications in response to court ordered requests, while enterprises must keep vigilant watch over high security networks. Current trends in bandwidth growth, protocol evolution, and multiple signal formats including DWDM make it increasingly difficult to track and respond to events without significant increases in CAPEX and OPEX. Intelligent Optical Signal Access and Monitoring Application Note

The Solution

Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical Systems integrate powerful software with cutting-edge hardware to provide unmatched flexibility, performance, and cost savings for enabling Cyber Security and executing Lawful Interception on optical networks. Organizations use Glimmerglass to monitor and selectively intercept communications, distribute optical signals to one or many locations, and centrally manage the process on demand from remote locations. Furthermore, Glimmerglass leverages purely optical, photonic signal management to create a ‘transparent’ cross-connect. A transparent cross-connect accepts and reconfigures an optical signal without regard for its data rate or protocol. This means that a Glimmerglass IOS that manages 1G to 10G data rate signals today can manage 40G or 100G signals once the network evolves, without the need for hardware or even software upgrades.

Advantages Glimmerglass brings to Cyber Security and Lawful Interception customers:     Remotely select optical signals for analysis on demand without disrupting traffic. The Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical System selects and distributes tapped signals to provide perfect copies of traffic without impacting layer 2/3 equipment.   Handle any data rate, protocol and growth: 10G → 40G→ 100G and DWDM. With the ability to manage signals transparently, a Glimmerglass IOS that manages 1G to 10G data rate signals today can manage 40G or 100G signals once the network evolves, without the need for hardware or software upgrades.   Centrally manage optical signal taps and distribution with powerful, easy-to-use software. Redirect optical layer signals at remote sites in real-time using the intuitive web GUI or a command line interface.   Rapidly reconfigure optical paths, distributing signals to one or many facilities. Use the Glimmerglass Intelligent Optical System to select any signal tap for limited distribution or multicast to analysts.   Deploy industry’s most compact, low power and highest port density platform. Glimmerglass hardware combines the industry’s highest signal density for an optical cross-connect with extremely low power consumption (85 watts) in a compact form factor. This allows it to fit into many restrictive environments and platforms, where alternative solutions will simply not work.

Case Study

 

Problem

A federal integrator with a government customer needed to connect geographically dispersed antenna sites to a central pool of monitoring equipment.

Our Solution

With Glimmerglass managing the reconfiguration of optical signals, the integrator was able to create an RF-over-fiber solution that performed better and cost less than traditional implementations.