Packet-level network telemetry solves various faults that conventional tools cannot solve. Errors that make debugging challenging are described in the following table.
Table 1: Benefits of packet-level network telemetry
Silent packet drops | With many switches present in the DCN environment, it is challenging to track the switch that causes the packet loss. With constant tracing of specific packets across switches, the last hop switch can be spotted. |
Silent blackhole | Packet-level network tracing allows you to detect and localize a silent black hole. A silent blackhole can happen when corrupted entries in the TCAM table cannot be examined by monitoring the forwarding table entries. |
End-to-end latency | Hop-by-hop latencies between two endpoints are traced using packet-level network telemetry. |
Load imbalance | The problem of unevenly forwarded flows by a group of ECMP links can be detected by packet-level network telemetry, as to count the number of specific 5-tuple pattern flows mapped to each link. This offers a more reliable and direct method of detection and debugging. |
Protocol bugs | Bugs in the implementation of network protocols such as BGP, PFC, and RDMA can cause performance and reliability issues in the network. Troubleshooting these protocols is difficult as the protocols are implemented by a third party. |
