N-Platform Hardware Installation and Safety Guide
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and monitors the health of the active system. If the health or communications check of the active system
fails, the passive SMS will be activated.
The ZPHA modular device can be attached to an IPS to route traffic in the event of power loss. Smart
ZPHA modules, which are wired into the device, and bypass I/O modules, which are installed directly into
NX-Platform devices, perform the same function.
Threat Suppression Engine
The Threat Suppression Engine (TSE) is a line-speed hardware engine that contains all the functions needed
for Intrusion Prevention.
TSE features include:
• IP defragmentation
• TCP flow reassembly
• Statistical analysis
• Traffic shaping
• Flow blocking
• Flow state tracking
• Application-layer parsing of over 170 network protocols
The TSE reconstructs and inspects flow payloads by parsing the traffic at the application layer. As each new
packet of the traffic flow arrives, the engine re-evaluates the traffic for malicious content. The instant the
engine detects malicious traffic, it blocks all current and all subsequent packets pertaining to the traffic flow.
The blocking of the traffic and packets ensures that the attack never reaches its destination.
The combination of high-speed network processors and custom chips provides the basis for IPS technology.
These highly specialized traffic classification engines enable the IPS to filter with extreme accuracy at gigabit
speeds and microsecond latencies. Unlike software-based systems whose performance is affected by the
number of filters installed, the highly-scalable capacity of the hardware engine allows thousands of filters to
run simultaneously with no impact on performance or accuracy.
Threat Management Center
The Threat Management Center (TMC) is a centralized service center that monitors global threats and
distributes up-to-date attack filter packages, software updates, and product documentation.
The TMC collects threat information and creates Digital Vaccine packages that are made available on the
TMC website. The packages include filters that block malicious traffic and attacks on your network. The
filters provide the following protections:
