SatManage Product Guide (PDFDrive)

SatManage Product Guide
June 14, 2012

Copyright © 2012 VT iDirect, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is
prohibited. Information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The specifications and information
regarding the products in this document are subject to change without notice. All statements, information, and
recommendations in this document are believed to be accurate, but are presented without warranty of any kind,
express, or implied. Users must take full responsibility for their application of any products. Trademarks, brand
names and products mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. All such references
are used strictly in an editorial fashion with no intent to convey any affiliation with the name or the product's
rightful owner.
Document Name: SatManageProductGuide_RevD_061412.pdf
Document Part Number: T0000308
ii SatManage Product Guide

Revision History
The following table shows all revisions for this document. Refer to this information to verify
the version of this document. To verify the latest version, access the TAC Web site at
http://tac.idirect.net.
Revision Date Released Reason for Change(s) Who Updated?

A July 13, 20101 First release of this document. TJenkins
B July 8, 2011 Updated for SatManage 5.1.2 TTheus
C July 27, 2011 Updated for SatManage 5.1.3 TTheus
D June 14, 2012 Updated for SatManage 5.2: JScott
circuit delete, SLA reporting , and
ACM, GQoS, XLC-M and Upstream
statistics, STIG, Web Service APIs
SatManage Product Guide iii

iv SatManage Product Guide
Contents
About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii

Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Contents of This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Document Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Getting Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
1 SatManage Core System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 SatManage Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3.1 Drill Down Reports (Visual Correlation Tools) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3.2 Network Correlator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3.3 Signal Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.4 Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.4.1 Extended Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4.2 iDirect Reporting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1.5 Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.5.1 Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.6 Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.6.1 System Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
1.6.2 System Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2 NOC Toolset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2.1 iDirect Remote Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
SatManage Product Guide v

2.2 Remote Application Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 Circuit Acceptance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.4 Message Broadcast System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5 Planned Maintenance Outage (PMO) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.6 Sun Outage Predictor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.7 Documentation Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3 Customer Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1 SLA Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.1.1 Template Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.2 Manual Execution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.3 Reporting Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.1.4 Specific Mobility Functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2 Customer Portal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 Location Tracker: Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.1 Location Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Overlay Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 Multi-homing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
5 Auto Helpdesk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.1 Architecture: Polling Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.2 Auto HelpDesk State Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5.3 Auto HelpDesk Diagnostics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.4 Auto HelpDesk Ticketing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6 Traffic Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.1 Traffic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.2 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.3 Data Processing and Storage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6.4 Data Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7 SatManage Integration and Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

7.1 Integration with iVantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
vi SatManage Product Guide

7.2 Standard Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.2.1 Web Service API [A] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.2.2 SatManage Web Portal Interaction [B] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
7.2.3 Remote Application Connectivity Web [C] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.2.4 Data Polling Result Storage and Configuration [D] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.2.5 Email / NTP / DNS Access [E] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.2.6 iDirect Support and Maintenance[F] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.3 Non-standard Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.4 Customizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.5 More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Appendix A Visual Correlation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
SatManage Product Guide vii

viii SatManage Product Guide
List of Figures
Figure 1. SatManage Modular Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Figure 2. Dashboard Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Figure 3. Accessing the Visual Correlation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Figure 4. Additional Drill-down Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Figure 5. Network Correlator Showing Network Congestion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure 6. Network Correlator Showing a Regional Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Figure 7. Network Correlator Alarms and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Figure 8. Network Correlator Showing Recurring Network Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure 9. Signal Analyzer Showing Rain Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Figure 10. Signal Analyzer Showing A Network Outage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Figure 11. Dynamic Reporting of Eb/No and Power Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure 12. Extended Group Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Figure 13. Area Charts and Pie Charts Displaying Top and Bottom 10 Circuits for Upstream . . 17
Figure 14. Extended Reporter Traffic Graphs Showing the Minimum, Maximum and Average Values for
a Number of Remotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure 15. Extended Reporter Showing Latency and Jitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Figure 16. VOIP Metrics Showing Jitter and Latency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 17. Utilization Report Showing Upstream OTA versus Upstream CIR . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Figure 18. CM - Lowest and Highest MODCOD Pie Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 19. GQoS Downstream Statistics for Selected Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 20. "CIR Not Satisfied", showing that at no time was the Downstream or Upstream CIR
commitment not met . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Figure 21. Circuit Manager Listing Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Figure 22. Circuit Manager Edit Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Figure 23. Circuit Manager: Mini-tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure 24. System Monitoring Showing Load Spikes on the Front-end Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Figure 25. Disk Utilization Run from the Command Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Figure 26. Remote Status Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Figure 27. Remote Application Connectivity — iMonitor Running Remotely . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Figure 28. Remote Application Connectivity — Spectrum Analyzer Running Remotely . . . . . . 33
Figure 29. Circuit Acceptance: Report with Tooltip Displaying Recent Upstream C/N Changes 34
Figure 30. Sun Outage Predictor for a Customer Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Figure 31. Template Builder Detailed Report Renderer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Figure 32. SLA Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Figure 33. Customer Portal — Profile Management Allowances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure 34. Location Tracker— Single Remote Site Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Figure 35. Location Tracker — Historical Trail for Mobile Remote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Figure 36. Location Tracker Showing Remotes from Different Vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Figure 37. Location Tracker — Many Remotes on One Map in 2D or 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
SatManage Product Guide ix

Figure 38. Location Tracker — Real time Weather Overlay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Figure 39. Auto HelpDesk Ticketing Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Figure 40. Auto HelpDesk Ticketing Portal Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Figure 41. Example of Traffic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Figure 42. Defining Traffic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Figure 43. Defining Traffic Groups in Circuit Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Figure 44. Data Collection with Cisco NetFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Figure 45. Data Collection with SatManage Probe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Figure 46. Configuration with VLANs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Figure 47. Selecting Data to View in Traffic Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Figure 48. Aggregate Bandwidth Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Figure 49. Bandwidth Usage Pie Charts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Figure 50. Traffic Usage by Protocol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Figure 51. Aggregate Usage in Kbps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Figure 52. Traffic Usage by IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 53. Aggregate Usage by VOIP Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 54. Usage for All Traffic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 55. Usage for Individual Traffic Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 56. Viewing Traffic Usage Details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Figure 57. iVantage and iDX Integration: System Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Figure 58. iDirect Infrastructure: Reporting on Aggregated Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Figure 59. Common SatManage Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
x SatManage Product Guide

List of Tables
Table 1. Licensed Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Table 2. Network Specifications - by Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Table 3. Default Reports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59
Table 4. Data Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
Table 5. Typical Network Correlator Data Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Table 6. Typical Signal Analyzer Data Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
SatManage Product Guide xi

xii SatManage Product Guide
About This Guide
Purpose
This document provides an overall description of the SatManage product.
Intended Audience
The intended audience for this guide are network operators and network architects that work
with the iDirect network system.
Contents of This Guide

This document contains the following sections:
• Chapter 1, SatManage Core System
• Chapter 2, NOC Toolset
• Chapter 3, Customer Management
• Chapter 4, Location Tracker: Mobility
• Chapter 5, Auto Helpdesk
• Chapter 6, Traffic Analysis
• Chapter 7, SatManage Integration and Configurations
SatManage Product Guide xiii

Document Conventions
This section illustrates and describes the standard conventions used throughout this
document. Review the documentations conventions table prior to using this manual—it
provides information on how to interpret standard conventions used in iDirect documents.
Convention Description Example

Blue Used when the user is [SWITCH_PORT_n]
Courier required to enter a vid = vlan_id
font command at a command
line prompt or in a console)
Courier Used when showing Output similar to the following sample appears:
font resulting output from a [SECURITY]
command that was entered password =
at a command line or on a
$idi2$/bFMhf$5H8mYAaP1sTZ0m1Ny/dYyLaS40/
console.
admin_password =
$idi2$146rgm$.KtDb4OH5CEBxzH6Ds2xM.ehHCH
os_password =
$1$UTKh0V$cc/UfNThFmBI7sT.zYptQ0
Bold Used when the user is 1. If you are adding a remote to an inroute group,
Trebuchet required to type right-click the Inroute Group and select Add
font information or values into a Remote.
field within a windows-type
interface software.
The Remote dialog box has a number of user-
selectable tabs across the top. The Information Tab
Used when specifying is visible when the Dialog opens.
names of commands,
menus, folders, tabs,
dialogs, list boxes, and
options.
Blue Used to show all For instructions on adding an iSCPC line card to the
Trebuchet hyperlinked text within a network tree and selecting a Hub RFT for the line card,
font document. see “Adding an iSCPC Line Card” on page 108.
Bold italic Used to emphasize Note: Several remote model types can be
Trebuchet information for the user, configured as iSCPC remotes.
font such as in notes.
Red italic Used when the user needs

Trebuchet to STRICTLY follow the
font instructions or have WARNING! The following procedure may cause
(or see additional knowledge about a network outage.
table a procedure or action.
below)
xiv SatManage Product Guide

Related Documents
The following additional iDirect documents are available at http://tac.idirect.net and may
also contain information relevant to this release. Please refer to these documents as needed
or indicated within this guide.
• SatManage Installation and Configuration Guide
• Release Notes for specific information about newly released features
Getting Help
Software user’s guides, installation and upgrade procedures, an FAQ page, and other
documentation that supports iDirect products, are available on the TAC Web site located at:
http://tac.idirect.net.
To find answers to questions or information, contact the iDirect Technical Assistance Center
(TAC) at (+1 703) 648-8151.
iDirect strives to produce documentation that is technically accurate, easy to use, and helpful
to our customers. Feedback is welcomed! Send comments to techpubs@idirect.net.
SatManage Product Guide xv

xvi SatManage Product Guide
1 SatManage Core System
This Chapter contains the following sections:

• SatManage Framework, Section 1.1, page 4
• Dashboard, Section 1.2, page 5
• Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer, Section 1.3, page 6
• Reporter, Section 1.4, page 14
• Operations, Section 1.5, page 25
• Administration, Section 1.6, page 28
SatManage is a sophisticated suite of Web-based software tools for the automation,

monitoring and integration of hybrid networks and NOC-based applications. SatManage is a
powerful extension to iDirect’s iVantage™ NMS, taking NOC operations to an even higher
standard of network performance and scalability. With solutions for both small and large,
more complex networks, SatManage Standard and Enterprise editions enable any operator to
improve the overall efficiency of their network operations and increase customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
SatManage provides:
• Web-based management suite
• Powerful, intelligent monitoring and data analytics
• Viewing and analysis of network performance in real-time
• Built-in trouble-ticketing
• Integration available with third party systems, such as: billing, provisioning, contract
management, and trouble-ticketing products, such as Remedy
• Detailed fault management and SLA Management capabilities
• Ability to track every remote’s location and status
• Highly customizable views with multiple authorization levels
• Support for terrestrial and satellite networks
• Integration with all customer portals
SatManage Product Guide 1

A SatManage Solution for Any Size Network
SatManage Standard edition is ideal for mid-tier operators with fixed deployments who
require a robust, full-featured, out of the box solution. For larger network operations with
more complex requirements, SatManage Enterprise edition provides extended mobility and
traffic analysis features along with the ability to do further customization and system
integration with external Operations Support Systems (OSS).
The optional packages include:
• NOC Toolset (see Chapter 2, NOC Toolset)
• Customer Management (see Chapter 3, Customer Management)
• Mobility (see Chapter 4, Location Tracker: Mobility)
• Auto Helpdesk (see Chapter 5, Auto Helpdesk)
• Traffic Analysis (see Chapter 6, Traffic Analysis)
STIG Compliance
Starting with SatManage 5.2, a STIG compliant version of the software which operates on
RHEL v5.6 is available to customers with this requirement. The STIG compliant release
features the same interface and monitoring tools as the regular version of SatManage, but
permits customers to maintain Information Assurance (IA) and DOD Information Assurance
Certification and Accrediation Process (DIACAP) accreditation for their network.
Functionality and Licensing

Functionality within SatManage is enabled and expanded by the use of license keys. A
SatManage Core license is required for all SatManage installations. Licenses for other
SatManage packages are optional and added as needed. Licenses are available for SatManage
packages as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Licensed Modules
Standard Enterprise
SatManage Core (required)
Signal Analyzer x x
Network Correlator x x
Reporter x x
Extended Reporting x
Circuit Manager x x
Remote Status Monitor x x
Dashboard x x
NOC Toolset
Circuit Acceptance x x
Sun Outage Predictor x x
2 SatManage Product Guide

Table 1. Licensed Modules (continued)
Standard Enterprise
Planned Maintenance x x
Shift Msg Board x
Remote App Connectivity * x
Document Portal x x
Auto HelpDesk
State Model x x
Diagnostics x x
Ticketing x x
Ticket Portal x x
3rd Party Ticketing Integration x
Scripting Engine x x
Mobility
Location Tracker x x
Multi-Homing x
Customer Management
Customer Portal x x
SLA Manager x
Traffic Analyzer
Traffic Analyzer x
Table notes:
* 5.1 upgrades only, not available for new installations
Table 2 shows the Standard and Enterprise editions differentiated by functionality and the
network size that can be accommodated. An iDirect Account Manager can be contacted for a
tailored solution for networks of greater than 5000 remotes as well as other customizations.
Table 2. Network Specifications - by Edition
Edition Support Standard Enterprise

VSAT Max Number 500 (1000 - license required) 5000
NMS Servers Max 5 30
DNMS Support No (1-500 VSATs) Yes
Yes (501-1000 VSATs)
GNMS Support Yes (500-1000 VSATs) Yes

SatManage Framework
Table 2. Network Specifications - by Edition (continued)
Edition Support Standard Enterprise

3rd Party Modem Support No Yes
Storage 1 Year DB 2 Year DB
90 Day Cache 90 Day Cache
Hardware Standard Spec Standard Spec
Developer Access/Customization No Yes
Per Circuit Pricing No (Circuit License Expansion) for Yes
500 - 1000 Sites)
Customization No Yes *
* For Customization
Details Contact iDirect
Account Manager.
1.1 SatManage Framework

A typical SatManage installation consists of a single server that performs the following
functions, as illustrated in Figure 1 on page 5:
• Data Collection — Polls the iVantage database: handles all processing, polling, integration,
and high performance data caching
• Data Storage — Stores all configuration details and performance metrics
• Data Display and Interaction — Operation of all user-facing systems, including Web
servers/ftp servers
If the Traffic Analysis package is installed, an additional probe server is required.
Web Service API

Starting with SatManage 5.2, a Web Service API is provided for users of the Enterprise version
of SatManage. The Web Service API, a REST / JSON interface, allows for the retrieval of data
stored in the SatManage database by other external systems. For example, exported data
could be used by 3rd party billing, provisioning, or trouble ticket systems. The SatManage
System Administrator, through the Profile Management interface, controls whether the Web
Services API is enabled or not for a specific user.

Dashboard
Figure 1. SatManage Modular Framework
The SatManage core package consists of the following modules, which are described below:
• Dashboard
• Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer
• Reporter
• Circuit Manager
• Admin - System Monitoring
1.2 Dashboard
The Dashboard module gives service providers a consolidated view into overall operations. It
is the first page users see after logging onto SatManage, pulling information from various
modules into a single, highly configurable location.
Dashboards (see Figure 2 on page 6) can include operational information such as trouble
tickets and network performance, or customer information such as traffic information and
Service Level Agreement (SLA) reports. Any of the SatManage reporting tools, such as the
different exception reports showing problem sites, can be combined to produce a Dashboard

Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer
screen. Users can use a pre-created dashboard or create a customized one. For example, if
group Shift Message Board, Signal Analyzer and Network Correlator views are selected with
data below a configured threshold, and trouble tickets.
The SatManage system can host multiple dashboards, configured per group or per individual
user.
Figure 2. Dashboard Interface
1.3 Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer

The Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer interfaces provide access to a wide variety of
network metrics in a visually intuitive display. Both displays allow for easy identification of
recurring problems, even ones that occurred some time ago or over a long period of time.
Data is immediately accessible and can be referred to with ease.
Visual correlation is the key. Many similar systems use rules-based correlation, requiring rules
to be written to identify the multitude of possible event scenarios. The Network Correlator
removes the need for this, presenting the data in such a way that troubleshooting becomes
intuitive.
The visual correlation interfaces display multiple remotes, line cards, networks or inroute
groups. Time scales for the displays can range from 1 hour to 6 months per column width,
with resolution from 5 minutes to 12 hours. All elements in the interface are sorted according
to network topology, simplifying fault-finding when multiple circuits are affected. A “circuit”
is a single iDirect remote.
The visual correlation interface is a layered display, using multiple layers to represent various
metrics. The first is the background color bar, the second is a horizontal line/bar running
through the display, and the third is symbols representing significant network events specific
to the circuit in question.

1.3.1 Drill Down Reports (Visual Correlation Tools)

From the visual correlation interface (Figure 3), users can access a further set of Drill Down
Reports (Figure 4 on page 8), including:
• Circuit Manager Edit — modify customer information specific to this circuit or remote (IP
address, customer contact phone number, QoS (Quality of Service) assigned, attach
customer specific documents, etc.)
• Circuit Manager Print — print a formatted summary of circuit information
• Detailed Analysis — detailed analysis report for a circuit or other network element. Each
of the charts generated in the report can be viewed in either a static or interactive mode
(interactive mode provides for exact data read-outs, and zoom functionality).
• Events — summary of events (loss of lock, entry in to network)
• Location Tracker — display location of the remote associated with this circuit in a 2D or 3D
map (requires installation of Google Maps, or other)
• Reporter — accesses the Reporter tool
• Show Data Inspector
Figure 3. Accessing the Visual Correlation Tools

Figure 4. Additional Drill-down Reports
1.3.2 Network Correlator

The Network Correlator provides powerful visual correlation for rapid fault finding at
individual sites or across the entire network. Near real-time and historical data in the IP
domain displays in a multi-dimensional view on a single page (see Figure 5 on page 9). This
helps operations to view and compare the cause and effect of numerous streams of data and
detect patterns of network degradation through events and trends correlation.
The Network Correlator is preconfigured to display latency, traffic volume and service-
affecting events sorted by region, inroute and site. Using industry standard XML and SQL
interfaces, it makes data interfacing simple, fast and efficient, while the output is viewed
using standard Web browsers.
For most service providers, Network Correlator will be the most commonly used interface. By
focusing on IP metrics, it more accurately represents the network performance as
experienced by service providers and customers. For example, a service provider will be more
likely to notice a jump in latency from 800 ms to 1800 ms than a drop in SNR from 12 db to 9
db.

Figure 5. Network Correlator Showing Network Congestion
This tool drastically reduces outage time and fault resolution by providing an operator with a
unique and comprehensive view of what is happening on a network. This has enormous
benefits to service availability and reduced running costs.

Figure 6. Network Correlator Showing a Regional Problem
As with all the Visual Correlator interfaces, the Network Correlator uses multiple layers to
represent various metrics. The background color bar can represent any performance metric
including Latency, Jitter, Packet Loss, Temperature, Upstream SNR, Downstream SNR and
more (see Figure 6).
Overlaid to the background color it is possible to add another metric — a horizontal bar —
which can represent either: Upstream IP Traffic, Downstream IP Traffic, Upstream OTA
Traffic, Downstream OTA Traffic, Power Adjustment, SCPC Rx Errors, Utilization and more.
The third overlay represents High, Medium or Low priority alarms and events with meaningful
symbols, such as a down arrow and an up arrow representing a circuit going offline and online
respectively (see Figure 7 on page 11).

Figure 7. Network Correlator Alarms and Events
By using the Network Correlator interface, it is straightforward and intuitive to identify site or
network-based problems. The zoom functionality in the Visual Correlator interfaces helps
display data for longer periods of time. Infrequent, but periodic network events become
easily identifiable.

Figure 8. Network Correlator Showing Recurring Network Problem
The Network Correlator interface allows operators to configure the data resolution, providing
them with the ability to analyze circuits days or months in the past. As operators become
more familiar with the benefits of visual correlation, they will be able to recognize patterns
in the data, leading to predictive fault finding and handling (see Figure 8).
Data threshold values are also configurable, allowing operators to set levels suitable for their
networks, providing for a system more customized to the business.
Items that are typically monitored from the Network Correlator are listed in Appendix A of
this document.
1.3.3 Signal Analyzer

The Signal Analyzer provides visual representation of all measured and historical RF signal
quality levels and allows rapid detection of performance changes.
The Signal Analyzer uses a color-coded display of the sites’ signal quality over an extended
time period that shows even the slightest degradation in performance. A network engineer
can quickly hone in on problem areas with the ability to distinguish between site, regional or
hub issues and whether the root cause is weather, hardware failure, solar interference,
subsidence or dish misalignment.
Signal Analyzer provides for instant historical analysis, fast fault isolation, visual correlation
and root cause analysis.

Figure 9. Signal Analyzer Showing Rain Fade
Even untrained users can quickly identify the regional problems (columns of dark) and
site/circuit specific degradation (rows of darkening). One of the most obvious patterns seen
in Signal Analyzer is the atmospheric attenuation or “rain fade” (Figure 9).
Similar to the Network Correlator, the Signal Analyzer allows for the selection of data
resolution, improving the visibility of information to network operators. The data threshold
values can be configured by administrators for a more appropriate representation of the
network data metrics (Figure 10 on page 14).
Many common patterns (such as rain fade, sun outages, etc.) become easily recognizable, and
would be difficult to spot outside SatManage. These common patterns can be encoded into
Auto HelpDesk, so that when tickets are opened for these easily identifiable conditions the
Fault Code can be filled in automatically.

Reporter
Figure 10. Signal Analyzer Showing A Network Outage
1.4 Reporter
The Reporter module provides access to various reporting and charting options.
Reports can be run for any metric in the database, including pre-processed metrics such as
“availability”.
Reporter can be launched from the main reporter icon or from drop-down menus available
from other modules. For example, in Network Correlator or Signal Analyzer, right-click a cell
or site for access to the reporter options.
The Reporter tool displays basic graphs for all of the parameters available through the visual
correlation interface. The metric, the data interval to be configured, and the site(s) to be
reported on, may all be selected. A variety of different outputs are possible, including a

Reporter
graph for visual analysis, an HTML graph, and CSV format with raw data for further
manipulation in a spreadsheet.
Figure 11. Dynamic Reporting of Eb/No and Power Adjustment
Some additional types of reports include:

• Visual Correlation — provides some useful visual correlation reports, as configured by the
system administrator. This allows for convenient, preconfigured visual correlation displays
frequently used by a customer through the Reporter interface. For example, a network
with many customers running voice applications will be particularly interested in VoIP
performance: the sample VoIP report shows the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) score as
background, with the jitter overlaid, providing a snapshot of voice performance in the
network.
• Alarm Reporting — Alarm Reporting generates alarm reports for individual sites, multiple
sites, or defined groups of sites. Users can filter on High, Medium or Low priority alarms.
1.4.1 Extended Reporter

The Extended Reporter module provides additional features, charts and graphs that are
beyond those available in Reporter. These features are exclusive to the Enterprise Edition.

Reporter
These include:
• Top N Reporter
• Stacked charts
• Area Charts (simultaneously displaying average, and min/max)
• Split by function (specify breakdown for large number of sites)
• View several sites (or group) on the same graph or stacked chart
• XLC-M and Upstream (RX) statistics reporting
Figure 12 shows the Extended Group Reporter selection menus and Figure 13 on page 17 shows
area charts displaying top and bottom 10 circuits for Upstream.
Figure 12. Extended Group Reporter

Reporter
Figure 13. Area Charts and Pie Charts Displaying Top and Bottom 10 Circuits for Upstream
“Top N Reporter”
“Top N Reporter” reports the top and/or bottom “n” circuits in order of the metric selected.
It can be extended to include any internal (or external) data desired. This can be both
dynamically updated data and/or manually entered data, including the top 10 circuits by
upstream for circuits, worst 5 inroute groups by average latency, and the 10 networks with
best and worst average SNR. It is also possible to change between line and stacked area charts
(whichever may be suitable to visually represent the data from a given circuit).
The stacked chart option makes it very easy to spot the most significant data or site.
Area Charts
The Extended Reporter Area Charts plot the data as a traditional line graph along with the
minimum and maximum values plotted as a semi-transparent overlay. This ensures that the
operator gets to see the real picture and avoids masking issues that would otherwise be
hidden. For example, consider measuring jitter: traditional graphs only display the average
value, which might hide the true highly variant behavior of a remote with large swings
between its min and max values. By overlaying the min and max onto the same graph, such
metrics are easily identified.

Reporter
Figure 14. Extended Reporter Traffic Graphs Showing the Minimum, Maximum and Average Values
for a Number of Remotes

Reporter
Figure 15. Extended Reporter Showing Latency and Jitter
VoIP Metrics
The Extended Reporter includes a VoIP module, which calculates jitter, latency and packet
loss for every circuit without additional hardware or probes. Through this reporting
mechanism, it is also possible to calculate R-Value and MOS (Mean Opinion Score) both of
which are the de-facto telecom industry measures of VoIP quality. These metrics are made
available to various modules within SatManage for further performance calculations.
This module allows customers to analyze their VoIP experience and visually represent the
relation between Jitter and MOS Score or Jitter and Latency as can be seen in Figure 16 on
page 20.

Reporter
Figure 16. VOIP Metrics Showing Jitter and Latency
Utilization Metrics
The Extended Reporter includes support for utilization metrics, providing new metrics for
Downstream and Upstream OTA (Over-the-air) traffic utilization against MIR and CIR, allowing
for easier analysis of space segment bandwidth usage and enhanced bandwidth planning.
With Extended Reporter, the utilization metrics are available for use in existing SatManage
tools. For example, using the visual correlation interfaces or detailed analysis reports,
operators can quickly identify the remotes and infrastructure elements that are nearing their
bandwidth capacity.
The Utilization Expansion Pack includes bandwidth utilization reports for Upstream and
Downstream traffic, showing utilization versus MIR or CIR. Utilization is expressed as a
percentage of the customer’s negotiated CIR (see Figure 17 on page 21.)

Reporter
Figure 17. Utilization Report Showing Upstream OTA versus Upstream CIR

Reporter
1.4.2 iDirect Reporting

This tool allows the generation of ACM and GQoS reports for selected remotes, as well as
GQoS nodes, and outputs the results in a variety of formats.
ACM Statistics
The ACM Reporter presents Network and remote level MODCOD statistics. Charts show
modcod distribution of data and ACM gain of data of selected infrastructure types in the
network and can calculate ACM gain against selected MODCOD. ACM statistics give break
downs of important key measures of ACM:
• MODCOD usage over time
• lowest/highest MODCOD
• percentage of data sent at each MODCOD
• percentage of time spent at each MODCOD
• MODCOD usage by kSym/sec, kBps, kbps, ksym, kBytes, or kbits
• MODCOD usage can be displayed by kSym/sec, kBps, kbps, ksym, kBytes, or kbits
MODCOD distribution of data and ACM gain of data can also be displayed for other
infrastructure types in the network and can calculate ACM gain against selected MODCOD.
All charts created present the selected network elements (networks and/or remotes) with its
ACM statistics display on a separate tab for each element. ACM Reporter provides the
following statistics:
• MODCOD Summary: For each network element, every chart presents its "Lowest MODCOD
used", "Highest MODCOD used", "Most used MODCOD data", "Most used MODCOD time" and
"Highest Available MODCOD" over the sampling period.
• Breakdown of lowest MODCOD used: This pie chart represents the percentage of
transmitted data at the lowest MODCOD level being used over the sampling period. It does
not include any NMS related traffic at the network lowest MODCOD level.
• Breakdown of highest MODCOD used: This pie chart represents the percentage of
transmitted data at the best MODCOD level over the sampling period.
• Percentage of data sent at each MODCOD: This pie chart represents the percentage of the
overall transmitted data for each MODCOD level over the sampling period.
• Percentage of time spent at each MODCOD: This pie chart represents the total time spent
for each MODCOD level over the sampling period.
• MODCOD usage by Symbols/Bytes: This line chart represents the MODCOD usage either in
Symbols or Bytes over the sampling period, depending on the selection chosen in Box 3,
MODCOD usage.
• ACM Gain Summary: This line chart represents the ACM gain, in percentage, for the
MODCOD level previously selected in Box 3, Calculate ACM Gain option.
Figure 18 shows graphs of lowest and highest MODCOD for a remote.

Reporter
Figure 18. CM - Lowest and Highest MODCOD Pie Charts
GQoS Statistics
This tool allows operators to generate GQoS (Group Quality of Service) reports for selected
physical remotes or GQoS nodes, with a variety of output formats. Figure 19 on page 24 shows
select GQoS statistics for an individual site.
GQoS statistic features:
• Data for physical remotes can be displayed according to a number of metrics:
• Downstream / Upstream bandwidth Allocated / Free / Requested
• ICMP, IGMP, TCP, UDP, Reliable or Unreliable traffic
• Out of Band ( OOB ) or Over-the-Air (OTA) traffic
• Virtual Remote metrics
• Data for physical remotes can be displayed according to Downstream/Upstream
bandwidth Allocated, Free or Requested.
• SatManage 5.2 also features the introduction of a derived value for the satisfaction of
Committed Information Rate (CIR). See Figure 20 on page 24 for an example of CIR Not
Satisfied equal to 0 (CIR Satisfied).
• Historical GQoS statistics are stored in SatManage even if the GQoS of a node is changed.

Reporter
Figure 19. GQoS Downstream Statistics for Selected Site
Figure 20. "CIR Not Satisfied", showing that at no time was the Downstream or Upstream CIR
commitment not met

Operations
1.5 Operations
The “Operations” function of SatManage allows searching for circuits and customers, sun
outage predicting, creation and reporting of ticketing, and Circuit Manager (CM). This section
gives an overview of Circuit Manager.
1.5.1 Circuit Manager

The Circuit Manager is an integrated tool enabling the management of all circuits in
SatManage. A 'Circuit' in SatManage can be a remote, or other network element such as a
teleport, chassis, Protocol Processor, hub line card (HLC), or inroute group (IRG).
The Circuit Manager suite contains a number of automatic actions that can simplify circuit
management. All circuits within SatManage can be viewed, edited or deleted. If changes are
performed, the revision control function within Circuit Manager can display revisions to each
Network Management System (NMS) and notify any changes in properties as well as the status
of each circuit. Circuit Manager is capable of supporting various multi-homing modes and can
show automated reports between “live” and “expected” circuit configurations. Driven by
templates and HTML extensions, this module can be customized to specific data inputs and
requirements.
Circuit Manager also provides the ability to delete and archive circuits defined in SatManage,
share properties between circuits, perform customized searches and maintain audit trails of
all changes made to a circuit. Circuit Manager is highly extensible both through the use of
templates and also the ability to write plug-ins to perform custom actions on a circuit.
Circuit Manager also allows deleting and archiving circuits with easy menu selections for a
specific circuit (remote satellite router) as well as providing a similar standalone interface for
deleting and archiving sets of circuits.
Management information maintained for each circuit includes:
• Device configuration
• Site Contact details
• Escalation contacts
• Event suppression during site maintenance periods
• Site photographs
• Site commissioning reports
• Or any custom data (e.g., next service date due)
These features can include standard text properties, drop down boxes, checkboxes, tables
and data files. Write access to these is customizable to the property level of the individual
field and is based on the user’s SatManage access level.
In many cases the Circuit Manager is able to automatically populate and update some or all of
the configuration fields directly from the equipment itself (this is supported natively in an
iDirect environment).
A Circuit Manager record for a remote that is being monitored by SatManage contains a
mixture of data that is automatically populated, and data that is input by the user from
within Circuit Manager. For instance, much of the device configuration data will be

Operations
automatically populated by SatManage from the remote equipment, whereas the site contact
data will be input by the SatManage Service Provider through the Circuit Manager interface.
As well as providing management facilities on existing circuits, Circuit Manager dynamically
updates itself, automatically discovering new circuits as they are added to the network.
Circuit Manager is template driven, using an HTML extension. This means that the layout of
the interface can be configured to display properties that are most important to the end user.
The interface can also present technology-specific interfaces with technology-specific
properties. For instance, a Circuit Manager record for an iDirect remote will dynamically
display different information to that displayed for a remote of another technology type.
From the Circuit Manager listing, the user can select an editable or a printable (non-editable)
view of the circuit manager entry (Figure 21).
Figure 21. Circuit Manager Listing Screen

Operations
Figure 22 shows the typical layout in Circuit Manager in the edit view. This is an illustration of
a typical iDirect circuit (therefore the Circuit Manager record has an iDirect specific tab as
shown).
Figure 22. Circuit Manager Edit Review

Administration
Figure 23 illustrates the use of minitables in a Circuit Manager record. In the example,
minitables are used to store contact information for a particular circuit.
Figure 23. Circuit Manager: Mini-tables
1.6 Administration
The “Admin” section of SatManage allows the interfacing of technologies, troubleshooting,
the modification of licensing, user profile management, securing URLs, the partitioning of the
database, system archiving, and system monitoring.
1.6.1 System Monitoring

Within the Admin section, System Monitoring reports on various performance metrics related
to the SatManage servers themselves. Critical information such as the processing loads on the
individual systems, memory usage, and disk drive space utilization is presented. The
information is recorded and allows for historical analysis and reporting via graphs for these
hardware metrics (see Figure 24 on page 29).
In addition to historical reporting, thresholds for each metric can also be configured. If a
threshold is exceeded, the system will automatically send emails to the relevant parties. This
drastically reduces server downtime due to hardware faults by providing advanced warning of
potential issues.
System Monitoring also provides intrusion detection capabilities, automatically checking for
rootkit software (malicious software masquerading as beneficial tools for the purposes of
unauthorized entry) on a daily basis and notifying administrators in the event of detection.

Administration
Figure 24. System Monitoring Showing Load Spikes on the Front-end Server

Administration
1.6.2 System Commands

In addition to the standard server metrics interrogated by System Monitoring, SatManage is
able to run a variety of Linux and Dell OpenManage commands on the servers. These
commands can be executed from the SatManage portal without logging in to each server
(Figure 25).
This feature allows for rapid investigation of administrative issues such as RAID and hard disk
integrity checks, memory and processor status, Ethernet interface configurations, process
lists, open ports and crontab configurations.
With a fully extensible system, new commands can be incorporated by administrators should a
commonly used command not be initially available.
Figure 25. Disk Utilization Run from the Command Line

2 NOC Toolset
NOC Toolset is a set of applications that allows NOC engineers to simplify multiple operations
and increase customer transparency and communication. The NOC Toolset provides insight
into various information to properly manage network operations, including:
• iDirect Remote Status
• Remote Application Connectivity
• Circuit Acceptance
• Message Broadcast
• Planned Maintenance Outage
• Sun Outage Predictor
• Documentation Portal
2.1 iDirect Remote Status

Within the Operations section, iDirect Remote Status provides a quick graphical overview of
the status, performance, and health of a particular remote (Figure 26). Service Providers can
view graphical displays of various metrics for any particular remote in a network including
Eb/N0, TX/RX power, latency, temperature, TX/RX traffic and frequency offset.
This manner of presentation gives a comprehensive view of the behavior of the remote,
allowing for remote-specific faults to be found and diagnosed in a timely manner.

Remote Application Connectivity
Figure 26. Remote Status Page
2.2 Remote Application Connectivity

The Remote Application Connectivity module is designed to allow multiple users to run
Windows applications or Web sites remotely via a java-based Web interface embedded in
SatManage. All the tools required by a network operator can be made available through the
same Web interface, and be made securely available to remote (off-site) users. These
features are exclusive to the Enterprise Edition.
Network engineers and operators can run tools such as iVantage’s iBuilder and iMonitor,
without requiring the application to be installed locally (Figure 27 and Figure 28).
Additionally, SatManage provides the flexibility to run multiple instances of software from one
location.
An advantage of sourcing applications via the Remote Application Connectivity interface is
that, should an application require special circumstances in which to run, for example a
particular version of Java, this can be accommodated without interfering with other
applications locally.
User and group control mechanisms can be used to control which SatManage users have access
to which remote applications.

Remote Application Connectivity
Figure 27. Remote Application Connectivity — iMonitor Running Remotely
Figure 28. Remote Application Connectivity — Spectrum Analyzer Running Remotely

Circuit Acceptance
2.3 Circuit Acceptance

The Circuit Acceptance tool allows users to classify circuits based on their recent
performance criteria. The time required for installation or acceptance of new circuits can be
accelerated by service providers setting up their own threshold values against the metrics
which are compared against the circuit’s performance data. The circuit acceptance criteria
are highly configurable: the metrics and thresholds used to validate circuit performance are
configurable by the user.
The Circuit Acceptance tool generates a report for sites, checking performance data for a
selected time span. There are two types of reports: “Group” and “Multiple” Circuit
Acceptance. The “Group” report tool allows Service Providers to select circuits by customer
or by network, while the “Multiple” report makes it possible to select multiple circuits and
run the Circuit Acceptance tool against those.
If a site or group of sites has passed all the performance checks configured by the user, the
user can choose between clicking the Accept Circuit or Accept All Circuits link.
Should a circuit fail one or any of the tests, it will be marked as “Circuit Required Additional
Review”.
The acceptance report summary highlights failed circuits in red, and identifies the metrics
that have failed the tests. Additional information regarding the type of failure is available in
the form of a tooltip: a graph or a table providing an easy to read visual representation of the
reason for the circuit failure (Figure 29).
Figure 29. Circuit Acceptance: Report with Tooltip Displaying Recent Upstream C/N Changes
All the information (date, accepted date, username of the person who accepted the circuit) is
stored and can later be retrieved using the Circuit Manager. If an accepted circuit is
decommissioned, and later on, accepted again, the historical data will be visible in Circuit
Manager showing all previous dates of acceptance.
Running the Circuit Acceptance tool not only displays circuits which can be accepted but also
displays a list of circuits which have already been accepted, circuits that are outside the
selected time span, and sites that do not have performance data in the selected time period.

Message Broadcast System
2.4 Message Broadcast System

The Message Broadcast system, also known as “Shift Message Board”, allows important
messages to be broadcast to all or select SatManage users, helping improve communication
between operating shifts at a NOC, and notifying customers of impending events such as sun
outages or an upcoming maintenance window. These features are exclusive to the Enterprise
Edition.
Customers may receive messages by e-mail, or by messages posted to their customized
SatManage portal.
2.5 Planned Maintenance Outage (PMO)

The Planned Maintenance Outage portal handles notifications to customers. NOC operators
can modify affected sites, planned timeframes, and outage information that is stored in the
database available to other SatManage modules and send notifications to customers.
These notifications are entered into the system via a PMO portal in SatManage. Customers and
operators select the sites under maintenance from their authorized sites, and enter the
date/time of the start and end of the maintenance window, and a description for this event.
Outages are then be stored in the system, where they can be viewed and altered from the
PMO tool within SatManage based on the user’s access level, and also as message broadcasts
in the event of NOC staff entries. The outages are also stored as events, providing information
through the Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer modules for operators and customers.
At regular intervals, a script is run that sends email notifications of planned maintenance
outages to customers and NOC operations staff. These email notifications are formatted
based on templates designed and maintained by clients (standard templates are provided by
iDirect). This system enhances communication flow between customers and the NOC,
resulting in less calls to network operators.
2.6 Sun Outage Predictor

The SatManage Sun Outage Predictor calculates and predicts Sun Outages. This is performed
for every site in the network and the results are stored and available in the SatManage
database.
In the Dashboard, customers and operators are forewarned of an expected sun outage for a
particular site eliminating possible false alarm calls to the NOC and enabling backup plans to
be put in place in advance of the outage if necessary (Figure 30).

Documentation Portal
Figure 30. Sun Outage Predictor for a Customer Site
2.7 Documentation Portal

SatManage Documentation Portal provides a high performance, fully resilient and fully backed
up documentation portal, accessible via HTTP, SSH or standard Windows NetBIOS shares (i.e.,
mapped network drives).
The Documentation portal can properly handle all of the documentation typically related to
sites such as site information, equipment specs, network and IP plans, meeting minutes,
design documents, procedures, manuals and other ancillary documents. For large,
geographically diverse organizations, the Documentation Portal provides a simple, Web-
based, common access point for an operator’s large repository of documents.

3 Customer Management
Customer Management provides essential managerial tools for service providers to deliver a
high-level of service to their customer base.
The SLA Manager gives service providers and customers a uniform view into the same data
points and methodology pre-determined in a service level agreement (SLA). The Customer
Portal builder provides a simple, quick, and secure way to give customers access to SatManage
reports and displays. Portals can be customized and re-branded on a per customer basis.
3.1 SLA Manager

One of the most critical areas for contention between a Network Operator and their customer
is the calculation of the Service Level Agreements (SLA), the method which is used, and the
source data on which it is based. Very often if a customer does not have confidence in the
methods the Network Operator is using, they will do their own basic measurements and
calculations. Trying to reconcile two SLA reports based on different data sets is virtually
impossible.
Most conventional SLA reporting often produces some raw SLA metrics which then have to be
negotiated between the Account Manager and the customer at the end of each month, an
extremely time consuming and unproductive process.
SLA Manager is a tool which improves this model and allows network operators to
automatically generate reports specific to custom SLAs they have with their customers. The
SLA Manager is exclusively available in the Enterprise Edition.
SLA Manager provides live and scheduled reports for detailed SLAs on a per customer basis
(see sample SLA traffic report Figure 32 on page 40). The system’s metrics can be used to
calculate SLA performance for each customer including latency, traffic or availability. Outside
factors influencing service performance such as atmospheric attenuation, sun outages, and
planned maintenance can automatically be taken into consideration when creating SLA
reports.
The SLA Manager takes into account raw network availability and makes adjustments for
trouble tickets and other incidents. Special circumstances can be set for mobile networks
where outages can be virtually impossible to diagnose. A customer trouble ticket can denote a
circuit outage.
The SLA Manager provides operators with detailed information about their ability to meet
service level commitments made to customers.

SLA Manager
SLA Manager is one of the most customizable features within SatManage, in recognition of the
fact that most organizations differ in how they calculate their SLAs, and that many Network
Operators have different SLA calculation requirements for different customers (for example,
to reflect different service levels or specific contracts).
SLA Manager allows for significant time and cost savings in the preparation and scheduling of
SLA reports.
3.1.1 Template Builder

The Template Builder feature is a user friendly set of forms allowing the adding, editing, and
deleting of Templates for reports. The templates are built and, then, reports based on the
templates can be scheduled at select times or to run periodically. Figure 31 on page 39 shows
the Template Builder GUI, and Figure 32 on page 40 shows an Upstream and Downstream SLA
report both per remote and total per report for a time period.
Examples of report types selectable from Template Builder:
• Summary – prints out a table showing the average adjusted availability across all selected
remotes or a list of remotes
• Detailed – prints out a table with one row per remote with various levels of selectable
details
• Traffic – prints out Downstream and Upstream Traffic volumes for each site in defined
intervals and various levels of selectable detail
Examples of report content types selectable from Template Builder:
• Simple – table with remote name and adjusted availability
• Detailed – table with remote name, raw availability, number of masks applied and
adjusted availability
• Complex – table with remote name, raw availability, number of masks applied, adjusted
availability and chart with raw and adjusted availability

SLA Manager
Figure 31. Template Builder Detailed Report Renderer
3.1.2 Manual Execution

The Manual Execution feature allows reports, defined by templates (see Template Builder,
Section 3.1.1), to be run at unscheduled times, multiple copies run, or in groups of reports.
3.1.3 Reporting Output

Scheduled Reporter generates output by applying filters, called masks, for adjusted
availability at the time of report generation. If need be, masks can be modified during
discussions with a customer, and the report quickly regenerated with little effort. Scheduled
Reporter can help make clear the true availability of a circuit, and discussions as to whether
the SLA has been met or not can be resolved more quickly.
Default reports, available in HTML email and HTML to browser formats, generated by SLA
Manager include:
• Summary Report, displaying an average availability across all remotes selected
• Detailed Report, displaying raw and adjusted availability for each selected remote,
including a color-coded availability graph

Customer Portal
• Traffic Report, displaying downstream and upstream traffic usage per remote for the
report period, see Figure 32 on page 40 for an example
r
Figure 32. SLA Report
3.1.4 Specific Mobility Functionality

Mobile networks often present a virtually impossible SLA challenge since there are so many
reasons a circuit can go offline. Many of the outages should in fact be exempt from
availability calculations, but identifying these situations is impractical without an extensive
amount of communications with the remote site.
In this case, users can choose to operate the software in a way which assumes availability, in
place of the raw availability, and only includes an outage if there is a trouble ticket raised by
a client.
3.2 Customer Portal

SatManage is equipped with a fully featured, customizable customer portal that service
providers can offer as a value-added service to generate additional revenue and increase their
customer’s confidence through greater visibility. Not only can customers view traffic usage
information (given appropriate permissions), the portal provides customers with information
such as planned maintenance outages, vessel locations with weather overlays, and the ability
to keep their contact information up to date.
The customer portal uses a secure authentication engine which ensures that end users will be
restricted to viewing and reporting on the sites assigned to them, with the ability to allocate
individual sites and tools (SatManage modules) to each user account (see Figure 33 on page
41).

Customer Portal
For easier administration, Groups can be configured with site and tool allowances allocated to
members of these groups. Any change to the group site and tool allocations is then
automatically propagated to all users associated with that group. Groups for customer
accounts can be automatically populated and updated with sites (given an appropriate
remote naming scheme) to minimize the amount of administration required when a new site
is commissioned.
SatManage includes a Profile Management feature, which allows users themselves to enter
relevant information and set up default personal parameters for a number of modules in the
SatManage system.
Figure 33. Customer Portal — Profile Management Allowances
Profile Management allows administrators to restrict certain features of SatManage modules

for users. For example, a user might be permitted to run Location Tracker in 3D mode (with
Google Earth integration), or the administrator can limit the visibility of traffic reporting to
specific services within the Traffic Reporter module.

Customer Portal

4 Location Tracker:
Mobility
The Mobility package consists of the Location tracker, which allows for a real-time snapshot of
the health, status and exact location of each remote, and the Multihoming module, which
provides users with the ability to seamlessly track remotes to readily identify problems.
4.1 Location Tracker

The Location Tracker shows precise location and summary data for individual mobile assets or
entire groups of remotes. The color-coded health status of individual remotes and exact
location and heading of the terminals can be checked at regular intervals. Through pop-up
windows, all live and historical indicators, including lat / long data, Radio Frequency (RF) and
IP performance are displayed.
Location Tracker displays all mobile and/or static remotes on a 2D and/or 3D map (Figure 34).
This provides a quick overview of where all sites are located, their current status (signified by
the icon color) and, for mobile assets, a historical trail (Figure 35 on page 44).
Figure 34. Location Tracker— Single Remote Site Information

Location Tracker
Every point (both current and historical) can be selected to launch a popup displaying various
graphs and other useful network metrics for rapid analysis and fault finding measures. The
content of this popup are fully configurable. For example, an operator may wish to include:
heading, speed, last service date of a vessel, contact information, Eb/N0 or SNR values, etc.
Figure 35. Location Tracker — Historical Trail for Mobile Remote
Location Tracker is not only limited to mobile remotes, but can be used to display any remote
asset that makes latitude and longitude information available, be it built in to the device or
available from an external GPS device.
Any number of remote sites can be displayed on one screen at the same time, including
remotes belonging to systems from differing vendors (Figure 36 on page 45).

Location Tracker
Figure 36. Location Tracker Showing Remotes from Different Vendors

Location Tracker
Figure 37. Location Tracker — Many Remotes on One Map in 2D or 3D
Location Tracker’s 3D-mode uses Google Earth, adding another platform on which users can
access their network and remote information (Figure 37). Google Earth’s sleek presentation
model provides a compelling front-office presentation of one or more networks, and can
efficiently represent many remote data points.
SatManage stores data from all historical points, allowing for verification of compliance with
various governmental broadcast regulations.

Overlay Feature
4.2 Overlay Feature

Location Tracker includes an overlay feature. Overlays are graphical images that provide
another layer of information, such as weather patterns, wave height, satellite footprints,
service engineer locations, etc.
Overlays can be retrieved from both external and internal sources. Such information is
invaluable for confirming fault-finding analysis. For example: an operator has received a call
from a remote site noting a slow link, and via Signal Analyzer believes that the cause is due to
some sort of weather effect. By selecting the site in Location Tracker, and enabling a weather
overlay for that site’s region, they can confirm that there is a storm moving through that
area, and their weather effect diagnosis is correct (see Figure 38).
Figure 38. Location Tracker — Real time Weather Overlay

Multi-homing
4.3 Multi-homing
The Mobility package is an exclusive functionality to Enterprise Edition customers and
includes support for multi-homing. Multi-homing is the ability to manage a single mobile
remote seamlessly across multiple networks, maintaining its profile as it travels from one
network to another.
Fault-finding for mobile remotes is greatly improved by the Multi-homing system. In large,
global networks requiring multiple NMS systems for different coverage regions, a single
physical remote will have a separate instantiation in each NMS whose region it might travel
to. With Multi-homing, all instances of a specific remote across all NMS systems are managed
as a single entity, providing a continuous view of performance data for that remote regardless
of which network the remote is currently in. This ensures that all reports for that remote will
contain its full history, and simplifies issue tracking for beam-switches and conflicts between
multiple networks.

5 Auto Helpdesk
Auto HelpDesk is set of tools that automate the tasks for issue detection, Level 1 Support,
preliminary fault diagnostics, and creating and closing trouble tickets.
5.1 Architecture: Polling Engine

The engine of the Auto HelpDesk is the polling mechanism. It gathers the events that occur in
a network, and uses its Filter Manager System to process them appropriately. The Polling
Engine runs every 30 seconds for timely storage in a hierarchy of HIGH, MEDIUM, and LOW
priority event database tables, and for speedy event processing. The Filter Manager System
condenses duplicate events to single events for easier readability, and passes events to the
Auto HelpDesk State Model.
5.2 Auto HelpDesk State Model

The State Model simulates the actions of an experienced operator sitting in front of a simple
alarm screen, looking for issues and, where relevant, taking actions such as opening a trouble
ticket.
The State Model is able to accept state change input from polling engines based on tunable
configuration files. Multiple default state trackers (e.g., Status (Up/Down), Upstream and
Downstream SNR, Latency, Utilization) are available. The user can also add custom trackers.
The State Model applies these inputs to a decision tree, in order to determine whether action
needs to be taken.
The State Model can keep track of multiple hierarchy trees (including custom trees). The in-
built hysteresis engine eliminates bouncing, and absorbs recurring alarms in a much more
advanced way than normally done with set or clear.
Once it has been determined that an action must be taken, it can execute call-backs to
perform virtually any action: send an email, sound an alarm, create or update a trouble
ticket, or send an SNMP trap.
The State Model performs a weighted average status aggregation for root-cause analysis. For
example, if x percent of a tracker is “Alarm” or y percent is “Critical” for any particular level
of the tree, then execute the call-back for that object, not for each remote. It integrates
with Auto HelpDesk Diagnostics module to add further value.
The State Model provides huge efficiency savings by reducing the requirement for “mundane
alarm watching” as well as eliminating missed alarms.

Auto HelpDesk Diagnostics
5.3 Auto HelpDesk Diagnostics

The Auto HelpDesk Diagnostics module simulates the actions of an experienced operator by
performing standardized sets of tests and analysis to find the underlying cause of a problem.
The Diagnostics module sits between the main State Model and the call-backs which perform
the actions, and executes an extendible list of diagnostics scripts. Default scripts include
Upstream and Downstream SNR analysis, Packet Loss, Sun Outages and Planned Maintenance
MODEM reset, MODEM overheating, and generic cache and technology interface diagnostics.
The call-back actions are modified to include details of the cause if found. In many cases, if
the cause has been found and included in the trouble ticket, the requirement for action on
the part of the operator is minimal or nonexistent.
With structured and repeatable fault finding, a large number of tickets can be handled from
creation to closure without human intervention.
5.4 Auto HelpDesk Ticketing

The Web-based trouble ticketing system is based upon OTRS, a popular open-source ticketing
system, with numerous enhancements and modifications to provide a seamless integration
into SatManage.
The benefit of an integrated ticketing system is that it is a single point of control for user
accounts, customer details, and circuit information as well as consistent system-wide
functionality and information access. SatManage provides its own secure Web-based view for
clients to create and view their tickets.
In addition, Auto HelpDesk Ticketing offers a simple but comprehensive portal through which
customers can log their own tickets with elementary fault information already completed,
reducing the number of calls to NOC operators.

Auto HelpDesk Ticketing
Figure 39. Auto HelpDesk Ticketing Report
Operators have high visibility of tickets through a portal which includes dashboard widgets
customizable to display urgent and pending tickets for which they are responsible (Figure 39).
Auto HelpDesk Ticketing can interface with a mail system such that tickets can be generated
automatically from emails, allowing NOC operators to communicate directly with clients
while automatically logging all emails against the relevant trouble ticket (Figure 40 on page
52). The mail ticketing system supports automatic file attachments (MIME support), rich
text/HTML content and automatic responses to customer emails.
The ticketing System is integrated with the Auto HelpDesk call-backs module. The system can
automatically generate trouble tickets when problems occur, add notes and close tickets once
a problem has been resolved.

Auto HelpDesk Ticketing
Figure 40. Auto HelpDesk Ticketing Portal Queue
The ticketing system also includes Time Accounting to allow calculation of hours worked on
trouble tickets, a Stats module for statistical reporting and a Calendar system to schedule
appointments and events.
Customers can also choose to continue using their existing trouble ticketing systems bypassing
the integrated Auto-HelpDesk Ticketing system. In this case, SatManage can act as a portal to
those systems, automatically logging tickets based on configured conditions. Third Party
ticketing integration is only available to Enterprise Edition customers.

6 Traffic Analysis
The Traffic Analysis package is a tool that is exclusive to Enterprise Edition customers and
allows for detailed traffic analysis per site, VLAN, and end-user. Traffic Analysis package is a
seamless fit with the iDirect network topology. It performs powerful data collection,
processing, and storage at the IP address, protocol, and VLAN levels.
The SatManage Traffic Analysis package is designed to use either the SatManage Traffic Probe,
or Cisco NetFlow enabled devices, to extend packet monitoring down to the individual IP
address, port, protocol and VLAN level.
The Traffic Analysis system is conceptually split into three areas:
• Data Collection
• Data Processing and Storage
• Data Display
Data is collected from the network using either SatManage Traffic Probes or the Cisco NetFlow
features. The information arrives at the SatManage server(s) and is resolved to the correct
circuit (by IP address and VLAN ID) and to the correct Traffic Group.
Note that the SatManage probe is preferred to Cisco NetFlow for a number of reasons: VLAN
tagging is only supported in recent NetFlow releases (version 9, requiring a recent Cisco IOS),
additional load on routers, and the SatManage probe provides much more fine-grained control
over data capture on the probe.
6.1 Traffic Groups

In addition to assigning all traffic to the relevant VSAT circuits, the system can add arbitrary
groupings within each circuit called Traffic Groups. This means that when reporting on data
for a circuit, it can be viewed by traffic group (Figure 41 on page 54).

Traffic Groups
Figure 41. Example of Traffic Groups
There are two common uses of traffic groups.

The first is to create logical groups for types of traffic. For example, on a ship, traffic groups
defined might be Crew Internet, Crew Voice, Critical Data, Engine Management, and
Navigation Systems.
A second common use of logical groups would be if a single circuit is being used to provide
service to several organizations, such as on board an Oil Rig or Ship. In this case, traffic
groups for Client 1, Client 2, Client 3 would be created.
These can be mixed to create Client 1 Voice, Client 1 Internet, Client 2 Internet and so on.
Each of these Traffic Groups can be defined by using any IP range/host, protocol or VLAN ID
(Figure 42 on page 55).

Data Collection
Figure 42. Defining Traffic Groups
These are created on a per circuit basis in Circuit Manager (Figure 43).
Figure 43. Defining Traffic Groups in Circuit Manager
6.2 Data Collection

There are two primary ways of collecting traffic data: via a SatManage probe, or via Cisco
NetFlow on a suitably placed and configured network device (typically a router).
The feature differences between these two data collection methods are explained by way of
an example teleport setup. Consider the setup illustrated in Figure 44 on page 56.

Data Collection
Figure 44. Data Collection with Cisco NetFlow
For the network above, Cisco Netflow would be installed on Connectivity Router 1, in order to
provide visibility of the entire network (installing on Connectivity Router 2 would only give
visibility of the SCPC Modems network).
Note that VLAN tagging requires at least NetFlow version 9, which in turn requires a relatively
recent IOS. When installing NetFlow on a router, some care should be taken to consider the
additional processing load imposed.
Cisco NetFlow software must be purchased and installed separately from SatManage.

Data Collection
Figure 45. Data Collection with SatManage Probe
A preferred arrangement for collecting network data would be to configure the three (3)
switches in the network illustrated in Figure 45 to use port spanning or port mirroring. This
functionality is supported on most brands of switches.
With port mirroring setup on each switch such that all incoming data is mirrored to a single
mirror port, that mirror port can then be connected to a monitoring interface on the
SatManage probe.
Use of the SatManage probe requires physical proximity to the traffic LANs: it is usual to have
a SatManage probe in each teleport. For more complex network configurations, consult with
iDirect during the design phase of networks.
SatManage probes are available in a variety of configurations, from one monitoring and one
telemetry port up to eight monitoring ports.
A note on security: on most brands of switches (including Cisco), no data can flow into a span
port, therefore no security is breached using these methods, and using this method to span
data from multiple customer networks to a single point, in no way compromises security.
If VLANing is enabled, there is usually one additional line of configuration required on the
switch to ensure that the dot1q (VLAN tag) information is preserved in the SPAN traffic stream
so that the SatManage server can process them correctly (Figure 46 on page 58).

Data Processing and Storage
Figure 46. Configuration with VLANs
6.3 Data Processing and Storage

Data resolved to circuit and Traffic Group is stored in the SatManage database. The specifics
of the data storage allow years of historical data with very high levels of detail, and
extremely fast data access time.
6.4 Data Display

The Traffic Analysis interface is similar to that of other SatManage tools. The system is
restricted by user account as to the visible circuits, but can also be restricted by Traffic
Group. For example, it is possible to access only a subset of Traffic Groups within a subset of
allowed circuits.
The front end engine is essentially in two parts: a set of default “out of the box” charting
capabilities, and an API which allows certified developers to create their own reporting plug-
ins. The default capabilities are extensive and usually meet most of a customer’s
requirements, with development of API plug-ins intended for specific customizations.
In viewing data, users can select date range, the circuit and the Traffic Group(s) they wish to
view (from among circuits they are authorized to view). The default plug-ins are activated on
the initial page (Figure 47 on page 59).

Data Display
Figure 47. Selecting Data to View in Traffic Reports
Additional default plug-ins are activated by clicking on links on the left hand side.
The default reports available are listed in Table 3 and are illustrated in Figures 48 through 53.
Table 3. Default Reports
Breakdown of traffic per traffic group,

Overview
in kbps and relative percentage
Protocol Breakdown Breakdown of traffic by protocol, up to the application layer.
For example, SNMP traffic is identified as ‘udp::snmp’, secure
browsing as ‘tcp::https’, etc.
Show Top 20 Senders/Receivers Top 20 remote sites sending and Top 20 receiving sites are identified.
IP Profiles Top IP addresses, by traffic (kbps)
IP Conversations Top IP conversations, by traffic (kbps)

Data Display
Figure 48. Aggregate Bandwidth Usage
Figure 49. Bandwidth Usage Pie Charts

Data Display
Figure 50. Traffic Usage by Protocol
Figure 51. Aggregate Usage in Kbps

Data Display
Figure 52. Traffic Usage by IP Address
Figure 53. Aggregate Usage by VOIP Conversation
By default, each of the plug-ins creates a single pair of graphs for upstream and downstream,
in which data from all traffic groups is aggregated. Users can select the Aggregate option, in
which case a separate set of graphs are produced for each of the customer-defined Traffic
Groups (Figure 54 on page 63).

Data Display
Figure 54. Usage for All Traffic Groups
However if the Aggregate option is un-ticked, each plug-in displays one set of graphs per
Traffic Group (Figure 55).
Figure 55. Usage for Individual Traffic Groups

Data Display
Each of these charts can be set to run interactively with the toggle at the top right, which
allows the user to determine the exact values for all the displayed series at any point in time,
zoom and pan and various other functions (Figure 56).
Figure 56. Viewing Traffic Usage Details

7 SatManage Integration
and Configurations
In a typical SatManage installation, each of these elements can run on a single server and the
distributed architecture can be run on up to 9 machines:
• Database—All data and configurations are stored here. Only temporary data and working
files are stored on any of the other clusters.
• Processing—All of the processing, polling, integration, high performance data caching is
done here
• Portal—All user-facing systems (e.g., Web servers/ftp servers, access to NOC applications
and Network Management servers, etc.) are operated here, and are all subject to the
multi-user authentication and security.
The rich store of data in the SatManage database is accessible to 3rd party applications
through the Web Service API. See section 1.1 SatManage Framework, pg. 4, for more
information.
7.1 Integration with iVantage

SatManage supports all versions of iVantage up to iDX 3.0, including the distributed NMS
topology and Global NMS, and is able to integrate with multiple (30+) NMS systems with ease.
With SatManage, network operators have a consolidated view of remotes across all NMSs,
allowing for reporting across multiple NMSs and significantly reducing the time required for
resolving faults.
Accessing iVantage databases directly using SQL queries, SatManage retrieves a wealth of
information including configuration details and performance metrics of remotes allowing for
historical storage of integral data over several years (see Figure 57 on page 66).

Integration with iVantage
Figure 57. iVantage and iDX Integration: System Architecture
In addition to the many remote configuration fields incorporated into SatManage,

performance metrics are also retrieved including traffic volumes (broken down into basic
protocol groups), IP and RF metrics, the full suite of alarms, and a variety of line card and
network statistics, all of which enables an enhanced view of iVantage.
SatManage also has the ability to add derived metrics to the suite of performance metrics,
allowing for a solution fully tailored to customer requirements.
A sample of performance metrics included are found in Appendix A.
In addition to the above performance metrics, integration with iVantage and iDS/iDX provides
location information for remotes, allowing for richer fault-finding and tracking mechanisms
for safety, particularly in highly mobile markets such as the maritime industry.
If the SatManage system is unable to communicate with iVantage for a period of time,
SatManage will automatically retrieve the missing time period of data from the NMS when the
connection is restored, ensuring continuity of historical reporting.
Beyond metrics related to the remote, SatManage also stores information for other elements
of iVantage and the Intelligent Platform, such as Networks, Inroute Groups, Line cards and
Chassis. The ability for performance metrics to be aggregated to higher levels of
infrastructure allows for more accurate measurement of actual network traffic usage as
shown in Figure 58, with benefits for more efficient space segment planning and enhanced

Standard Configuration
visualization of performance for all remotes under that infrastructure. Incorporating

infrastructure specific performance statistics allows for further visibility of line cards and
chassis, leading to predictive fault-finding in the event of line card failures.
Figure 58. iDirect Infrastructure: Reporting on Aggregated Statistics
7.2 Standard Configuration

SatManage configurations can consist of multiple processes running on a single server for
SatManage Standard Edition or, depending on the complexity needed, on one to nine servers
for SatManage Enterprise Edition. Available processes are:
• SatManage Web (Main)
• Database (DB)
• Data Processing (DP1)
• Remote Application Connectivity (RAC), available on the Enterprise Edition, see
licensing Table 1 on page 2
Figure 59 on page 68 is a basic representation of the SatManage installation.

Figure 59. Common SatManage Configuration
7.2.1 Web Service API [A]

Figure 59, label [A] denotes the REST/JSON interface Web Service API, described in section
1.1 SatManage Framework, pg. 4.
7.2.2 SatManage Web Portal Interaction [B]

Figure 59, the items labeled [B] denote the SatManage Web Portal Interaction. SatManage is a
technology that uses Web browsers as portal to information retrieved from the technologies
and network devices that it interfaces with. SatManage uses Web server technology, allowing
users to connect securely via HTTPs. This connectivity can be either internal to the client’s
users, or to their customers over the internet. The SatManage Web server has a minimum of
two network interfaces, allowing clients the option of presenting one interface to a DMZ and
the other interface to internal users with an internal DNS.
The Location Tracker module has the ability to incorporate overlays that must be publicly
accessible to the Google Maps API for 2D mode. In the event that the client wishes to host the

overlay files (such as EIRP Footprint overlay polygons in KMZ files) on the SatManage server,
the Web server offers the option of opening port 80 on a single directory.
7.2.3 Remote Application Connectivity Web [C]

Figure 59 on page 68, label [C] denotes the Remote Application Connectivity (RAC) Web
access tools. The Remote Application Connectivity module gives users remote Web access to
tools essential to the operation of their network, and connect to the various NMS systems and
applications of interest regardless of the user’s location or current computing equipment.
To improve security, the SatManage RAC server is not accessible directly — instead, the user
connects to an internally designated port on the SatManage Web server [B], which forwards
the request internally to the software publishing application on the RAC server. The
application is then run on the RAC machine, with the keyboard, video and mouse functionality
streamed back to the user via the Web server.
The Remote Application Connectivity requires access to the end targets for the programs that
are published on them, for example, an iDirect NMS for an iMonitor client or 3rd party
application connectivity. Therefore, as needed, there may be ports opened in any firewalls
between the RAC server and the end servers. Connectivity will need to be performed on an
application by application basis, although iMonitor and iBuilder are a common set of
programs.
7.2.4 Data Polling Result Storage and Configuration [D]

Figure 59 on page 68, label [D] denotes the storage and configuration of data polling results.
While polling the various information sources incorporated into the SatManage system, access
is required to the database to retrieve configuration information to determine which sources
to interrogate, as well as information required for the processing of the retrieved data. This is
completed via SQL calls to the SatManage database. Once the data has been processed, it is
then inserted into the database.
7.2.5 Email / NTP / DNS Access [E]

Figure 59 on page 68, label [E] denotes email/NTP/DNS access. In order to run effectively and
be used to its potential, SatManage should have access to DNS and NTP services. Some clients
may wish to keep DNS and NTP masters as internal services and use these internal servers to
time-synchronize SatManage. Clients will also provide an email server address for the
forwarding of administrative and informative emails, providing great benefits with the Auto
HelpDesk module and operator/customer notifications.
7.2.6 iDirect Support and Maintenance[F]

Figure 59 on page 68, label [F] denotes iDirect Support Access. It is understood that iDirect
access to the SatManage subnet will be via two firewalls, using a token system. This will
require access on a number of different ports in order to make support possible and effective,
including SSH and RDP access. Further information would be beneficial regarding the access
that will be granted.

Non-standard Configurations
7.3 Non-standard Configurations

Customer’s network topologies vary widely, and SatManage installations can accommodate
these different topologies.
Networks with additional data processing servers at secondary locations, network elements
separated by firewalls, or the desire to have the Web server located in a less secure network,
can all be accommodated.
When considering how to implement SatManage in networks, contact an iDirect
representative for further information.
7.4 Customizations
Where SatManage contains many functionalities that support Customers in their day to day
operations, some Customers may have specific requirements. This could be an integration
with a 3rd party application like ticketing, billing, provisioning or contract management
systems or additional functionality that is not in SatManage. The flexibility of SatManage
allows Customers to work with a dedicated team of Engineers to work on specific
requirements. Contact an iDirect Account Manager for further information.
7.5 More Information

For more information about installing and configuring SatManage, see the SatManage
Installation and Configuration Guide, available on the TAC Web site at http://tac.idirect.net.

Appendix A Visual
Correlation Parameters
This appendix provides tables that list the parameters, or data items, that are used in
SatManage’s Visual Correlation tools, Network Correlator (NC) and Signal Analyzer (SA).
Table 4. Data Items
ITEM TOOL
Availability 60m SA
Digital Rx Power SA
Downstream C/N SA
Downstream CIR Util NC
Downstream HTTP NC
Downstream ICMP NC
Downstream IGMP
Downstream MIR Util NC
Downstream OOB NC
Downstream OTA Traffic NC
Downstream Other
Downstream Reliable NC
Downstream TCP NC
Downstream Traffic NC
Downstream UDP NC
Downstream Unreliable NC
FLL DAC SA
Frequency Offset SA
Instantaneous Availability
Jitter NC
Latency NC

Table 4. Data Items (continued)
ITEM TOOL
Linecard ACQ CRC Errors NC
Linecard Bursts Detected NC
Linecard Bytes Received SA
Linecard FLL DAC SA
Linecard Freq Offset SA
Linecard Lostlost count SA
Linecard Rx Composite Power SA
Linecard Rx Digital Gain SA
Linecard Rx Overflow SA
Linecard Rx Tunnel Errors SA
Linecard SCPC SNR SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Atten SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Bytes SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Errors SA
Linecard Traffic CRC Errors SA
Linecard TX Tunnel Errors SA
Lostlock Count
MOS Score NC
Network Downstream Broadcast NC
Packet Loss NC
Power Adjustment SA
R Value
Remote Flags
Rx COF SA
Rx Power SA
SCPC Rx Errors SA
Sym Offset SA
Temperature SA
Tx Power
Upstream C/N
Upstream CIR Util
Upstream HTTP

Table 4. Data Items (continued)
ITEM TOOL
Upstream ICMP
Upstream IGMP
Upstream MIR Util
Upstream OOB
Upstream OTA
Upstream Other
Upstream Reliable
Upstream TCP
Upstream Traffic
Upstream UDP
Upstream Unreliable
Uptime
Table 5. Typical Network Correlator Data Items
ITEM TOOL
Downstream CIR Util NC
Downstream HTTP NC
Downstream ICMP NC
Downstream IGMP NC
Downstream MIR Util NC
Downstream OOB NC
Downstream OTA Traffic NC
Downstream Other
Downstream Reliable NC
Downstream TCP NC
Downstream Traffic NC
Downstream UDP NC
Downstream Unreliable NC
Jitter NC

Table 5. Typical Network Correlator Data Items (continued)
ITEM TOOL
Latency NC
Linecard ACQ CRC Errors NC
Linecard Bursts Detected NC
Lostlock Count
MOS Score NC
Packet Loss NC
Remote Flags
Upstream C/N NC
Upstream CIR Util NC
Upstream HTTP NC
Upstream ICMP NC
Upstream IGMP NC
Upstream MIR Util NC
Upstream OOB NC
Upstream OTA NC
Upstream Other NC
Upstream Reliable NC
Upstream TCP NC
Upstream Traffic NC
Upstream UDP NC
Upstream Unreliable NC
Uptime NC
Table 6. Typical Signal Analyzer Data Items
ITEM TOOL
Availability 60m SA
Digital Rx Power SA
Downstream C/N SA
FLL DAC SA

Table 6. Typical Signal Analyzer Data Items (continued)
ITEM TOOL
Frequency Offset SA
Linecard Bytes Received SA
Linecard FLL DAC SA
Linecard Freq Offset SA
Linecard Lostlost count SA
Linecard Rx Composite Power SA
Linecard Rx Digital Gain SA
Linecard Rx Overflow SA
Linecard Rx Tunnel Errors SA
Linecard SCPC SNR SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Atten SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Bytes SA
Linecard SCPC Tx Errors SA
Linecard Traffic CRC Errors SA
Linecard TX Tunnel Errors SA
Lostlock Count
Power Adjustment SA
R Value
Remote Flags
Rx COF SA
Rx Power SA
SCPC Rx Errors SA
Sym Offset SA
Temperature SA
Tx Power
Uptime


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SatManage Product Guide

June 14, 2012

Document Name: SatManageProductGuide_RevD_061412.pdf

Document Part Number: T0000308

ii SatManage Product Guide

Revision Date Released Reason for Change(s) Who Updated?

SatManage Product Guide iii

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xiii

1 SatManage Core System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

SatManage Product Guide v

4 Location Tracker: Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

7 SatManage Integration and Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

vi SatManage Product Guide

Appendix A Visual Correlation Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

SatManage Product Guide vii

SatManage Product Guide ix

x SatManage Product Guide

SatManage Product Guide xi

Contents of This Guide

SatManage Product Guide xiii

Convention Description Example

Red italic Used when the user needs

xiv SatManage Product Guide

SatManage Product Guide xv

This Chapter contains the following sections:

SatManage is a sophisticated suite of Web-based software tools for the automation,

SatManage Product Guide 1

Functionality and Licensing

Table 1. Licensed Modules

2 SatManage Product Guide

Table 2. Network Specifications - by Edition

Edition Support Standard Enterprise

SatManage Product Guide 3

Table 2. Network Specifications - by Edition (continued)

Edition Support Standard Enterprise

1.1 SatManage Framework

Web Service API

4 SatManage Product Guide

Figure 1. SatManage Modular Framework

SatManage Product Guide 5

Figure 2. Dashboard Interface

1.3 Network Correlator and Signal Analyzer

6 SatManage Product Guide

1.3.1 Drill Down Reports (Visual Correlation Tools)

Figure 3. Accessing the Visual Correlation Tools

SatManage Product Guide 7

Figure 4. Additional Drill-down Reports

1.3.2 Network Correlator

8 SatManage Product Guide

Figure 5. Network Correlator Showing Network Congestion

SatManage Product Guide 9

Figure 6. Network Correlator Showing a Regional Problem

10 SatManage Product Guide

Figure 7. Network Correlator Alarms and Events

SatManage Product Guide 11

Figure 8. Network Correlator Showing Recurring Network Problem

1.3.3 Signal Analyzer

12 SatManage Product Guide