How a Simulator Like MIMIC Simulator Helps nGenius Customers

Netscout nGenius is a service assurance and performance management platform. 

It ingests NetFlow/IPFIX  and packets, metadata, and application-level information. 

Customers use it to monitor end-to-end service delivery, VoIP/UC quality, and application 

performance.

Common problems that customers can run into are:

1. High Data Rates – Full packet capture plus flows can overwhelm storage and analysis systems.

2. Service/Application Visibility Gaps – Correlating flows, packets, and user experience is complex.

3. Scalability and Cost – Packet-based monitoring requires very powerful hardware and lots of storage.

4. Multi-Vendor Complexity – Different devices export different flows/metadata.

5. Training & Troubleshooting – Staff need to learn how to interpret flow + packet data for root cause analysis.

6. Integration Challenges – Feeding nGenius data into ITSM/SIEM/SOC tools isn’t always straightforward.

    
   

 

 

 

MIMIC Simulator Suite virtualizes large network environments to help tackle some of these problems:

1. Validate Scale – Generate realistic traffic (flows + emulated devices) to see how nGenius handles high loads before production.

2. Application/Service Testing – Simulate voice, video, or application flows so teams can practice monitoring service quality.

3. Multi-Vendor Assurance – Emulate Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, etc. devices to test interoperability.

4. Training Lab – Give engineers real scenarios (DDoS, poor QoS, packet loss) without touching live users.

5. Safer Testing – Use simulated instrumentation data (SNMP, NetFlow, sFlow) instead of actual sensitive user data, avoiding compliance risks.

6. Integration Validation – Feed nGenius with reproducible test data to confirm workflows with SIEM, NMS, or service desks.
   

 

 

 

MIMIC Simulator and LiveNX

LiveNX customers benefit from MIMIC Simulator to complement their in-house lab at a fraction of the cost of real equipment: 

 

Customize LiveNX

• Enables rapid development of custom features by recreating the exact scenario in MIMIC with repeatable test data.

• This makes development, troubleshooting and support faster and more precise.

   

Large-Scale Test Environments

• LiveNX is designed to monitor enterprise and service provider networks with thousands of devices and interfaces.

• With MIMIC, LiveNX customers can simulate tens of thousands of routers, switches, firewalls, and endpoints before deploying in production.

• This allows validation of LiveNX scalability without needing physical gear. Resources can be allocated well in advance to ensure smooth operations.
  

Figure 1 - Topology view with connections between sites

Training and Demos Without Real Hardware

• MIMIC can generate realistic SNMP responses from a variety of vendor devices and pathological scenarios, as well as NetFlow, sFlow, and syslog traffic.
  

• LiveNX teams can train staff and demonstrate LiveNX features using fully controlled, reproducible simulated environments — no need to access the live production network.

• Disaster preparation can be done safely in the simulated lab.

 

Figure 2 - Traffic breakdown for one of the connections

 

Network Change / Upgrade Validation

• Before rolling out firmware upgrades, new device models, or topology changes, LiveNX users can simulate the new environment in MIMIC.

• This ensures LiveNX’s discovery, topology visualization, and performance analytics work correctly ahead of time.

Proof-of-Concept (PoC) Acceleration

• Customers evaluating LiveNX can set up large testbeds overnight with MIMIC instead of waiting for lab hardware.

• This reduces time-to-value and makes the PoC process smoother.

MIMIC Simulator and Dynatrace

In our quest to support all possible network management platforms, we have

interoperated with Dynatrace by discovering large networks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and drilling into devices: