The Riverbed Interceptor™ is the ideal solution for the world's largest enterprise networks and datacenters. With support for up to 4 Gbps of optimized WAN traffic and up to 1,000,000 simultaneous TCP connections, the Interceptor and Steelhead appliances provide the most scalable WAN optimization solution on the market.

Typical Interceptor Deployment

View full size diagram

Interceptor appliances may be deployed behind WAN routers in data centers in a variety of configurations, with many choices for high availability. An Interceptor distributes TCP connections efficiently across a stack of local Steelhead appliances. This enables flexible and scalable deployments without requiring the complex configuration of PBR or WCCP, making the set up of Riverbed WAN acceleration solutions simpler, faster and more scalable than any other vendor.

Key Features and Benefits

Up to 1,000,000 concurrent connections

The Interceptor enables large numbers of Steelhead appliances to work in parallel, optimizing up to 1,000,000 connections. The Interceptor supports in-path configurations over a single interface as large as a 6Gbps ether-channel trunk.

Up to 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports

The Interceptor can be configured with up to 12 Gigabit Ethernet ports to provide maximum scalability on networks with multi-router ingress/egress.

Ether-channel support

The Interceptor provides ether-channel support to expand bandwidth capacity in a variety of combinations to suit any environment. One 6Gbps interface, one 4Gbps and one 2 Gbps interface, or three 2Gbps interfaces are all supported.

TCP connection forwarding

Very large environments with asymmetrically-routed networks can employ connection forwarding technology between Interceptors to ensure connection continuity. Connection Forwarding can be enabled on up to 20 Interceptors running in single or failover mode.

Real-time cluster management

The Interceptor allows real-time addition, modification, or removal of Steelhead appliances in a connection distribution group.

High availability deployment options

Interceptor appliances can be configured for a number of high availability failover modes to provide continued optimization operations in the event of a hardware failure.  These include configurations such as in series, in parallel, in quad and with multi-inpath clustering, and the option of “fail to block” to close a non-optimizing route to traffic, forcing data to fully functional appliances.

Peering control

The Interceptor has fine grained control of what traffic gets optimized and how through the configuration of load balancing rules.  This can be implemented in probe or non-probe modes, or by IP address.

Connection tracing

The Interceptor can support up to 10 rules tracing up to 1000 connections to assist in debugging networking issues.  The traces record a list of events including load balancing and optimization activities.

Full transparency support

The Interceptor is automatically enabled to work with the Full IP Address and Port Transparency feature in Steelhead appliances for environments that require more visibility into their network traffic.

Link-state propagation

To ensure consistency throughout networking monitoring systems, an Interceptor will propagate a link state change to an opposing network device. Link state propagation is also supported on serially-clustered Interceptor appliances.

Familiar RiOS user interface

The Interceptor utilizes the same web UI and command line interface as the Steelhead appliance. The same in-path rules system can be used on the Interceptor to configure what types of traffic should be optimized by a group of Steelhead appliances.

Variable and Auto Connection Distribution.

The Interceptor provides several means of distributing connections between Steelheads in a cluster group, including algorithms for connection allocation based on source IP address, destination IP address, destination port, or the VLAN routing the connection..In the absence of custom rule sets, the Interceptor will dynamically determine the least-loaded Steelhead appliances to which it will direct traffic.

QoS compatible

The Interceptor honors all QoS markings (DSCP and IP Precedence) on traffic it optimizes, ensuring that priority traffic reaches its destination first.

Specifications

Compatibility

• Full feature compatibility with Steelhead appliances running RiOS 3.0 or higher
• Limited support for Steelhead appliances running earlier releases of RiOS

Platform

• 3U Rack Mount Chassis
• Triple redundant power supplies

Web Browser Support

• Most major browsers running current versions
• Tested with Mozilla and Internet Explorer