Link Insights

Release 7.0.0 introduces the Link Insights feature, which provides comprehensive visibility into the health and performance of WAN links across VeloCloud SD-WAN. By continuously monitoring link-level Quality of Experience (QoE) metrics, including latency, jitter, and packet loss, Link Insights identifies degraded connections and quantifies the effectiveness of SD-WAN optimization. This feature provides insights into Edges across an Enterprise, helping to optimize network performance, troubleshoot issues, manage costs, and improve the user experience.

Key Capabilities

Real-time degradation detection: Automatically classifies link quality events as Critical (Red) or Fair (Yellow) based on configurable thresholds.
Before vs. After SD-WAN comparison: Compares link performance before and after applying SD-WAN corrective actions to quantify the DMPO's mitigation impact.
Multi-dimensional analysis: Groups degradation data by individual Link, Edge, or ISP to isolate problem areas across the network.
Top-N ranking: Surfaces the worst-performing Links, Edges, and ISPs to focus troubleshooting on the most impactful issues.
Detailed drill-down: Provides a paginated detail grid with per-link metrics, sorting, filtering, and CSV export for offline analysis and reporting.

Link Quality Classification

Link Insights classifies link quality into three states based on QoE threshold violations:

Table 1. Link Quality Classification
State	Color	Severity	Description
Critical	Red	High	Link metrics exceed the critical threshold, causing the link to degrade severely, resulting in a noticeable impact on end users. This state requires immediate investigation.
Fair	Yellow	Moderate	Link metrics exceed the fair threshold but remain below the critical threshold, causing the link to experience moderate degradation that may affect sensitive applications.
Normal	Green	None	Link metrics are within acceptable thresholds. The Orchestrator does not detect any degradation.

Enable Link Insights

The Link Insights feature is available to Operators, Partners, and Customers. However, Operators must enable this feature for Partners and Enterprise users through system properties. For more information, see the topic List of System Properties in the Arista VeloCloud Orchestrator Deployment and Monitoring Guide.

Link Insights is available to direct Customers by default. Partner Superusers can activate this feature for their Customers by navigating to Global Settings > Customer Configuration > Feature Access . For more information, see the Customer Configuration topic in the Arista VeloCloud Global Settings Guide.

Note: The Link Insights tab appears in Orchestrator only after completing these settings.

Access Link Insights

Select the Insights tab from the top menu of the Orchestrator. Select Link Performance located on the left pane. The Link Insights Dashboard appears.

The dashboard features three sections that offer progressively deeper levels of analysis. Click each of these links for more details.

Executive Summary
Distribution
Degradation Details

Note: The system retains data for up to 365 days. The filter option allows users to view data based on the selected time period. Performance limitations restrict the data selection range to a maximum of 31 days. The default filter value is Past 12 Hours.

Starting with the release 7.0.1, the Link Insights feature enables uptime calculation and detects sustained link instability on WAN-facing links and surfaces it as an event on the Orchestrator, without reacting to transient glitches or single bounces. This enhancement introduces two new events: Severe Link Degradation and Link Flapping. For more information, see the topic Operator-Level Orchestrator Alerts and Events of the Arista VeloCloud Operator Guide.

These events can be added as Alerts by navigating to Service Settings > Alerts & Notifications > Events . All events that are selected to be delivered as Alerts are displayed in the Alert Configuration > Incidents > Events section. For more information, see Configure Alerts and Notifications.

Executive Summary

The Executive Summary section appears at the top of the Link Insights dashboard. It displays Enterprise-wide degradation overview and SD-WAN mitigation impact.

Transport Type Selection:

These buttons allow users to isolate performance data based on the physical medium of the network links:

Wired: Displays metrics only for fixed-line connections. This is the default selection.
Wireless: Displays metrics only for cellular or satellite connections.
All Transport: Consolidates both Wired and Wireless data into a single unified view.

Note: For each transport type, users can also filter by Voice, Video, and Transactional.

The Executive Summary section displays the following data:

Table 2. Executive Summary
Data	Description
Total Links Degraded	Number of links experiencing any degradation out of total links in the Enterprise (e.g., "200 out of 2k").
Total Degradation Before SD-WAN	Cumulative degradation time (in minutes) across all links before SD-WAN optimization.
Total Degradation After SD-WAN	Cumulative degradation time (in minutes) across all links after SD-WAN optimization.
Total Mitigated	Percentage of degradation time that the SD-WAN successfully eliminates. Note: A higher mitigation percentage indicates greater effectiveness of the SD-WAN optimization for the affected links.
Links Experiencing Flaps	Number of links experiencing rapid and repeated transitions between Up and Down states.

Click the information icon to view definitions of the important terms used on the screen.

Distribution

The Distribution (formerly known as Degradation Summary) section displays the cumulative degradation time (in minutes) for the selected time range. The Orchestrator measures degradation at 30-second intervals. Users can compare the link performance before and after applying the SD-WAN corrective actions. This comparison quantifies the value of the SD-WAN overlay.

Note: Starting with the 7.0.1 release, Degradation Summary is renamed to Distribution and displays an additional tile called Link Flaps.

Link Degradation: This tile displays a stacked bar chart ranking the top 20 worst-performing items by total degradation time. Each bar is segmented by severity:
- Red segments represent Critical (RED) degradation time, indicating that the performance has crossed maximum QoE thresholds.
- Yellow segments represent Fair (YELLOW) degradation time, indicating performance exceeds objective QoE thresholds but remains below maximum limits.
Select the toggle button to switch between the Before SD-WAN and After-SD-WAN distribution details.
- Before SD-WAN: Displays the raw underlay link quality measured before applying any SD-WAN corrective actions.
- After SD-WAN: Displays the effective link quality after applying SD-WAN corrective actions. Shows residual degradation after SD-WAN optimization. Bars that fully disappear indicate 100% mitigation.
Note: At the bottom of the Link Degradation section, three dots indicate the link statuses. The After SD-WAN view displays a light blue dot, which signifies that the SD-WAN overlay successfully resolved all link degradation.
Link Flaps: This tile displays a stacked bar chart ranking the top 20 link flaps.

Hovering over a bar in the Link Degradation and Link Flaps sections displays Mitigation Details and Link Flap Details, respectively.

Select one of the following tabs on both these tiles to filter the distribution data by Links, Edges, or ISPs:

Table 3. Distribution Filters
Tab	Description
Links	This is the default selection. Ranks individual physical links by total degradation time and number of flaps. Useful for identifying specific underperforming WAN connections.
Edges	Ranks Edge devices by grouping degradation and number of flaps across all their links. Useful for identifying sites with systemic connectivity issues.
ISPs	Ranks Internet Service Providers by grouping degradation across all links they serve. Useful for evaluating carrier performance.

Select any item from the Top 20 Links, Edges, or ISPs to view the respective degradation details in the next section.

Click the information icon to view definitions of the important terms used on the screen.

Degradation Details

The Degradation Details section provides a paginated table with per-link performance data. It supports sorting, filtering, column selection, and CSV export for detailed analysis. Users can also refresh the data.

The following columns are visible by default:

Table 4. Default Columns
Column Name	Description
Name	Name of the WAN link.
Interface	Network interface associated with the link.
Edge	Name of the Edge device.
Link IP	IP address assigned to the link.
ISP	Internet Service Provider for the link.
Transport Type	Type of transport (Wired or Wireless).
Link Uptime	Time in minutes calculated per WAN link, using Link State Transition data over the selected timeframe.
Flap Count	Number of link flaps.
Traffic Type	Type of traffic: Voice, Video, or Transactional.
Critical Degradation (Before SD-WAN)	Total Critical (Red) degradation time before SD-WAN optimization, in minutes.
Fair Degradation (Before) SD-WAN	Total Fair (Yellow) degradation time before SD-WAN optimization, in minutes.
Most Recent Degradation	Timestamp of the most recent degradation event on this link.

Enable the following columns through the Show or Hide Columns drop-down menu:

Table 5. Additional Column Groups
Column Group	Column Names	Description
Critical Degradation (After)	Critical, Fair	Degradation time after SD-WAN optimization, in minutes.
Packet Loss - P95 (RX \| TX)	Rx, Tx	95th percentile packet loss in each direction (%).
Jitter - P95 (RX \| TX)	Rx, Tx	95th percentile jitter in each direction (ms).
Latency - P95 (RX \| TX)	Rx, Tx	95th percentile latency in each direction (ms).

Note: Toggling a metric column group simultaneously shows or hides both the Rx and Tx columns.

Click any column header to sort the table by that column. Click again to reverse the sort direction. Sortable columns include all degradation metrics, network metrics, transport type, and last updated timestamp.

The Degradation Details section includes a Quick Search field that performs a case-insensitive substring search across all fields simultaneously. It also supports advanced column-level filtering.

Link Insights feature supports exporting Degradation data in CSV format for offline analysis, reporting, or integration with third-party tools. Click the Download CSV button to perform this action. The export action takes into account all currently applied filters and sort orders.

VeloCloud SD-WAN 7.0.1 - Administration Guide - Link Insights Print

Link Insights

Executive Summary

Distribution

Degradation Details