Why Concentrator DAC

[KhwajaZiaulHasa]

Hello,

I wanted to know the basic purpose of a Concentrator DAC. Because I am confused that when we have the Decoder's DAC for storage why do we have to purchase a separate DAC for a concentrator?

Secondly I wanted to know that if we talk about the packet decoder and if we don't have to store the packets for too long, but we have packets coming for around 3 Gbps, even then will I need to get a DAC?

Regards

Zia

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

The Concentrator DAC stores and indexes the metadata that is generated by the Decoder.  This is what is stored in the Concentrator's DAC.  The Decoder DAC is what stores raw data that is captured.  When an analyst investigates the network traffic he is looking at the metadata, but when he drills down to reconstruct a session for example or grab a file, the system reaches into the raw data for this.

Depending on the Decoder host (hybrid .vs. standalone head unit).  The standalone headunit doesn't have on board storage it relies on the external storage for its retention.  However much storage you have and the data ingest rate defines how much raw data retention your system will have.

[KhwajaZiaulHasa]

Hello Matthew,

Thanks for the useful information. It was a really nice explanation.

Regards

Zia

[Anonymous]

If you are talking about a sustained 3Gb/s of traffic then you will consume something around 30TB per day of decoder storage assuming no filtering of content.