Any newbie in the Telecom world, when seeing this Weathermap for the 1st time, might have several confusions. Therefore, in the following part, IPTP Networks will explain the definition of this Weathermap, its benefits, details shown in the map, as well as how to read and understand the tool perfectly.
Weathermap Definition
Weathermap is a network map that visualizes network performance and realtime traffic flows of an organization, in this case, IPTP Networks.
The Weathermap tool is not only bringing many benefits to Internet providers, but also widely used by Internet Exchanges, Telecommunication companies, national educational Internet networks (For example, Eduroam in Europe), financial services, government agencies, plus universities and schools.
The benefits of the Weathermap tool
As a network performance visualization tool, IPTP Networks’ Weathermap is constantly updated every 5 minutes to make sure users can always get the latest news about the status of our system and the traffic of routes in real time.
Moreover, by checking the Weathermap tool when a problem occurs, you are able to quickly detect which connection is being used by a lot of people, causing the “traffic jam” situation at that time. Thanks to it, you can switch to another route that is “less crowded” and solve the matter on time.
Inside the Weathermap tool
In order to be better familiar with this tool, let’s take a deeper dig into elements inside it. Overall, the IPTP Networks’ Weathermap network map has the appearance like this:
In details, the information shown through the Weathermap includes:
– The “Load” column from 0% to 100% (as shown in the below picture) helps users know how much capacity (in percentage) of a connection is being used. To ensure smooth and convenient work, you should only choose any route in purple or blue color, which means the “load” level is only from 0% to 50%).
– The name of the IXPs, data center or any similar point where a connection begins from or ends at. The following example figure describes the Nikhef (328) data center in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, which is denoted as “328.nkf.ams.nl”.
– The load level of a route is represented by its color. Plus, the latency of that line is also included in the map. From the below image, we can easily see the connection from “tc1.stk.se” to “327.nkf.ams.nl” with a latency of 10ms is highlighted in purple, which is a good level (refering to the “Load” Column).
How to read and understand the Weathermap tool
So, basically, you will always see the network connections illustrated as below when opening the Weathermap tool:
Based on the above explanations, we can easily understand that the purple route from “1ws.lax.us” to “eq.da3.us” with 16 ms latency is in a perfect condition. The link from “1ws.lax.us” to “eq.la1.us” has a green color, which is also good since not all its capacity has been used. And the path from “1ws.lax.us” to LUMEN has two directions colored in either blue, cyan, or purple, proving that both of them are “empty” enough so users can freely choose which to use according to their preferences.
In addition, to learn more about the transcontinental latency of each different demanding route, please feel free to visit our Best Path tool.
Moreover, if you are looking for a perfect Ethernet solution for your private WAN needs, please read more about our EoMPLS Pseudowire service at:
Contact
If you experience a problem with this site that you would like to report, please contact us at ncc@iptp.net or use the blue “Live Assistant” button on the bottom right of the webpage.