Finisar Surveyor, User Manual

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A-1
Appendix A
A
Implementation Profile
Buffers
Three types of buffers are essential to the execution of Surveyor’s features:
How Resources Use Buffers
Surveyor supports THGm, Portable Surveyor 10/100 Ethernet Analyzer Card, and
NDIS (10/100 Ethernet) LAN interfaces. Buffering is implemented with these
interfaces as described in Table A-2.
Table A-1. Buffer Types Used By Surveyor
Buffer Type Description
Real-Time (Monitor)
Buffer A real-time buffer provides the transient data storage area for on-the-
fly frame analysis which, in conjunction with MAC statistics and error
counters, produces real-time LAN analysis and monitoring informa-
tion. Data captured from the network is copied to this area after filter-
ing. The data is immediately available for evaluation, and for
streaming copy to disk, after which it is discarded from the buffer.
Capture Buffer A capture buffer provides a durable data store of LAN traffic filtered
and captured in real-time, which is kept for later analysis or saved to
disk. The capture buffer is a “wrap-around” buffer; once filled, it begins
filling again from the beginning and older data is lost unless saved to
disk.
Transmit Buffer A transmit buffer is used as storage for packets to be transmitted
when performing network or LAN component testing. The transmit
buffer stores traffic which can be transmitted on the network.