Network Taps

“High-performance copper, fiber, and virtual TAPs for uncompromised network visibility.”

What are Keysight TAPs?

Keysight Network TAPs (Test Access Points) provide reliable, lossless access to network traffic across copper, fiber, and virtual environments.

They are the foundation of Keysight’s Visibility Solutions, enabling monitoring, security, and observability tools to see all the traffic — without drops, without compromise.

Keysight offers one of the most complete TAP portfolios in the market:

• Passive and Active Fiber TAPs (including BiDi and high-speed 400G),
• Copper TAPs for enterprise and datacenter links,
• Aggregation and Regeneration TAPs,
• Bypass TAPs for inline security,
• Virtual TAPs for cloud and SDN environments.

Key TAP Families

🔹 Passive Fiber TAPs

• Split optical signals to provide 100% packet visibility.
• Support single-mode and multi-mode fiber, from 1G to 400G.
• Available in BiDi (Bidirectional) versions for modern datacenter interconnects.
• Zero impact on network performance — fully passive, no power required.

🔹 Active Fiber & Copper TAPs

• Powered TAPs that maintain signal integrity on long links or high-speed connections.
• Support for regeneration (duplicating traffic to multiple tools).
• Ideal for dense, high-speed datacenter environments.

🔹 Aggregation & Regeneration TAPs

• Combine multiple links into a single monitoring port (aggregation).
• Replicate the same traffic stream to multiple monitoring and security tools (regeneration).
• Reduce complexity and maximize tool utilization.

🔹 Bypass TAPs (for Inline Security Tools)

• Protect network availability when firewalls, IDS/IPS, or NDR systems are deployed inline.
• Fail-to-Wire and Fail-to-Open modes to maintain continuity if tools fail or are taken offline.
• Built-in heartbeat technology to monitor inline devices and trigger bypass automatically.

🔹 Virtual TAPs

• Extend visibility into cloud, SDN, and virtualized environments (VMware, AWS, Azure, Kubernetes).
• Capture intra-VM and east-west traffic that is invisible to physical TAPs.
• Feed traffic into virtual packet brokers or hybrid visibility fabrics.

Benefits for the Client

• Uncompromised visibility: Access every packet, error, and anomaly in real time.
• Future-proof: Support for 1G to 400G speeds across copper, fiber, and BiDi links.
• Optimize tool ROI: Deliver clean, precise traffic streams to NDR, SIEM, and APM tools.
• Increased resilience: Inline bypass TAPs ensure security tools don’t become single points of failure.
• Cloud-ready: Extend observability to virtual and multi-cloud workloads.

 Why Keysight TAPs are Different ?

• Comprehensive portfolio: covers copper, fiber, BiDi, aggregation, bypass, and virtual TAPs.
• High-speed readiness: up to 400G fiber TAPs for modern datacenters.
• BiDi support: native TAPs for bidirectional transceivers.
• Integration: tightly connected with Keysight Vision Series Packet Brokers for advanced filtering, deduplication, and traffic intelligence.
• Global trust: widely adopted in telecom, finance, and government sectors.

 Typical Use Cases

• Provide lossless traffic feeds to monitoring and security platforms.
• Deploy Bypass TAPs to secure inline firewalls, IPS, and NDR appliances.
• Use Aggregation TAPs to consolidate multiple low-utilization links.
• Deploy Virtual TAPs for visibility in hybrid and cloud environments.
• Enable high-speed observability in 100G and 400G datacenter backbones.

Services & Support (What We Offer)

• Visibility Workshops – assess customer infrastructure and define TAP strategy.
• Deployment Services – install and integrate TAPs across datacenter and WAN.
• Cloud Visibility Design – extend TAP strategy to hybrid and virtual environments.
• Integration – connect Keysight TAPs with Vision Packet Brokers for complete Deep Observability.
• Managed Services – operate and maintain TAP infrastructure.