The only way to ensure the ability to mitigate attacks on an application aware network is through security and performance testing.

Application awareness enables service providers to manage network traffic for better performance and security. But deep-packet inspection (DPI) systems must accurately detect and classify applications in the service provider infrastructure. And application-related policies must work as expected. The only way to ensure the ability to manage congestion, deliver tiered services and mitigate attacks on an application aware network is through security and performance testing.

What to Test

Service providers should perform the following network security and performance tests:

• Traffic Detection and Classification—verify that the latest applications and protocols are detected
• Application Control—validate the ability to control detected applications through features like white listing, connection/rate limiting, application QoS, URL filtering and data loss prevention/data exfiltration
• Congestion Management—confirm bandwidth and connection rate control capabilities
• Policy Enforcement—ensure that applications do not evade application signatures
• Scalability & Performance—validate the ability of the network security components (e.g., IPS/IDS, ALG, proxy and NAT) to handle millions of users running real applications
• Security—verify the detection and prevention of malware, spam, DDoS and known attacks; and test the effectiveness of fuzz testing, and application white/black lists

Spirent Solutions

Perform these tests efficiently and accurately with Spirent testing solutions:

• Spirent Studio Performance is a purpose-built testing solution that ensures your applications and network infrastructure will perform and scale under real-world conditions and loads
• Spirent Studio Security is a security testing solution purpose-built for testing cloud applications and infrastructure