The project brief was to design and develop hardware network analysers for monitoring Ethernet traffic. Many commercial analysers use software that collects traffic via standard network cards. This approach loses data and cannot give a true picture of all traffic passing through a network.

The final designs allowed the capture of all traffic on three channels continuously. This would enable a company to monitor for security and network efficiency, and allow remote deployment of units on different sites. All data packet, whether damaged, malicious or correctly packaged, could be filtered by hardware to allow instant capture of specific or anomalous events.

In consultation with the client, Dytronics Ltd. undertook all the hardware design and prototype development of the analyser boards. The final design used two microprocessors, 6 Altera FPGAs, a 652 pin BGA and JTAG testability, and utilised double-sided assembly to fit onto a card designed to plug into a PC. We laid out the 16 layer PCB, assembled prototypes including all surface mounted parts, and transferred the project into manufacture.