Strip Charts
Overview
A strip chart is a summarised and combined version of other graphics which are available on the Details page. It gives a quick overview of the status of a watch. There are 3 metrics on the vertical axis Stability, Health, Load/Response.

Strip charts appear in Status Heat Tiles when you click on a tile - this is an aggregated strip chart of the last 6 days with "today" on the right. They also appear in the following locations in Highlight:
- Reporting Network page, when requested for a report under the "Show" drop-down
- Details page for a Switch
This page shows variation in strip charts for the following watch types:
Status page strip chart panel header

- Expand the strip chart panel to full screen to the left
- Collapse the strip chart panel to the right
Depending on which tile type was clicked the panel header shows one of the icons below and the name or description, if available, of that tile.
- Service
- Location
- Open the strip charts in a new window
- Close the strip chart panel or click the tile to close the panel
- Show only watches with issues
Check to display strip charts marked amber or red, indicating they have an issue. A chart marked green may also be shown if it is for a parent watch which contains a watch which has an issue; for example, a bearer running a performance test which is exceeding target. This setting will be remembered for the remainder of the session.
Sort order
When is checked, charts are displayed in the following order:
- Services
- sorted by severity (red then amber) and then by most recent
- Locations
- sorted by severity (red then amber) and then by most recent
Status page strip chart view options

Click to reveal these options (click again to close):
Name Description
By default, watch descriptions show on strip charts. Toggle to show watch names instead. All watches have a name but descriptions are optional. If no description is configured, the watch name shows regardless of the status of this toggle. The option of Name or Description is remembered when you next login.
Graph Details
By default, a graph shows the last 6 days plus "today" on the right with day of the week indicators (T, W, T, F, S, S, M) above. Toggle to hide the graph and show additional details instead. Details vary based on watch type. For example:
- Bearers, Multilink
- Bandwidth shows as BW
- Performance tests
- Source and Target descriptions shown; if name selected or no description configured, IP addresses or URLs shown
- Switches
- Number of critical ports
Watches linked to a service will show their location when Details is selected, see image in the next section: Status page strip charts - expanded.
The option of Graph or Details is remembered when you next login.
Download a CSV list of all watches linked to the tile. The CSV file shows watch name, description, watch type, product type, current state (red/amber/green), duration (of any issue in seconds) and watch URL link. Description and product type are optional fields on a watch which may be empty in the CSV. Duration is 0 for watches in a green state. Note: the state of a watch could change with each poll, typically every 3 minutes.

Status page strip chart markers
Strip chart icons indicate watch type:
- for bearers
- for classes, VLANs and MLEs
- for performance tests
- for hosts
- for switches
- for Wireless controllers
- for Wireless Access Points (APs)
Strip chart line colours indicate:
- green line
- no current issues
- red or amber line
- ongoing issues
- grey line
- no status available
Strip chart line widths indicate:
- green thick line
- watch has its own Details page
- green thin line
- performance test showing on parent Details page
Duration:
Red and amber strip charts show a duration in hours (h) or days (d). This marks the time since the watch left the green state.
Status page strip charts - expanded
- Expand the strip chart panel to full screen to the left
- Collapse the strip chart panel to the right

(For bearer) Watch type; Product type; configured Traffic analysis type if set (Flow or NBAR)
(For test) Test type(For bearer) Description or watch name plus bandwidth
(For test) Source IP address or description and Target IP address or descriptionFor service tiles only, location of the watch is shown
Duration period of any issue with the watch
An aggregated strip chart of the last 6 days plus "today" on the right
Link to the Details page. You can also click anywhere on the strip chart
Maintenance
Watches in maintenance do not send alerts, change the colour of heat tiles nor decrement availability figures

When a watch is in maintenance, you will see these markers on the strip chart:
- the maintenance icon which on hover shows "Watch in maintenance"
- purple background indicators show current and past maintenance periods
Strip charts still show colour changes to amber and red when in maintenance but this does not change the heat tile colour.
Note: the purple background indication is available on strip charts for every watch type except switches
Bearers

A Product Type field enables service providers to display their service name for a watch rather than the Highlight default name, for example FTTC instead of ADSL
Read more about product type in creating a watch and editing a watch.
There are 3 metrics on the strip chart vertical axis: Stability, Health and Load.
Stability
on the strip chart shows availability blips from the Details page Line health chart, which represent an event which happened at a precise time. Read more about how availability is displayed in Highlight.Health
on the strip chart combines information from the Details page Line health chart - the outbound issue of discards and inbound line errors (such as CRC and Frame Errors). Health blips represent a sliding scale: the colour shown indicates how severe the issue is, with cool colours (blue/green) when measurements are below threshold turning hot (orange/red) when measurements approach and exceed the threshold. See the table below for colours used with discards/line errors. Note: line errors are not available for Classes of Service.Load
on the strip chart represents the Details page Traffic load and shows the maximum of the In and Out loads. It is designed to show when there is a severe load condition, regardless of direction.
Note:
clicking on a strip chart from Status Heat tiles or a Reporting Network report opens the Details page and displays the traffic load graph and the line health chart. Clicking on the Details page Line Health chart opens a dialog box showing any availability issues and a detailed list of any outages.
Discards/Line Errors
are measured as a percentage of overall packets sent (Discards) or received (Errors). Colours on the graphics are:
Discards | Up to and including 0.10% | Up to and including 0.50% | Up to and including 1.00% | Up to and including 2.50% | Up to and including 5.00% | Greater than 5.00% |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Colour | Ignored | Blue | Green | Yellow | Orange | Red |
Discovered elements - Classes, VLANs and MLEs

Discovered elements have similar strip charts and line health charts to their parent bearer. In the Status Heat Tiles page the strip charts for discovered elements appear directly under their parent bearer and slightly indented, as in the following example for Class of Service and VLANs:
Performance Tests - ICMP Ping, UDP Echo and TCP Open
The description of strip charts is the same for ICMP Ping, UDP Echo and TCP Open tests.
A strip chart for a performance test is a summarised version of a performance chart. There are 3 metrics on the vertical axis: Stability, Health and Response.
You can click on a strip chart from Status Heat Tiles or a Reporting Network report to open the Details page and compare with the performance chart. Note: There may be time variations depending on time zone selected. Strip charts use the source location time zone.
Stability:
a red blip is drawn on the strip chart when there is 100% packet loss of all tests in a sample. You will always see a corresponding blip on the strip chart health line and the Details page Failures line for 100% packet loss.Health:
blips on the strip chart replicate the Failures line on the Details page, colours being:Response:
on the strip chart corresponds to the plots from the performance chart on the Details page
Colour: | Blue | Blue-Green | Green | Yellow | Orange | Red | Magenta |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
% Packet Loss | 5% | 10% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 80% | 100% |
Performance Tests - HTTP and HTTPS tests
A strip chart for a performance test is a summarised version of a performance chart. There are 3 metrics on the vertical axis: Stability, Health and Response.
You can click on a strip chart from Status Heat Tiles or a Reporting Network report to open the Details page and compare with the performance chart. Note: There may be time variations depending on time zone selected. Strip charts use the source location time zone.
Stability:
on the strip chart shows the blips from the performance chart Failures line on the Details page. See the table below for details on what each colour means. Application failure, HTTP response 4XX or timed out affects stability (see the heat tiles page).Health:
blips are drawn on the strip chart when HTTP page load response is near or above the target, the colours indicating severity with green when measurements approach the target (>80%) turning to yellow when measurements significantly exceed the target (≥130%). Blips are green or yellow only.Response:
on the strip chart corresponds to the plots from the performance chart on the Details page
Colour | Black | Light blue | Blue | Red | Orange | Purple |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Issue | Unknown / general Error* | DNS Timeout | DNS Error | TCP Timeout | HTTP Timeout | HTTP Error |
Performance Tests - Precision Delay
A strip chart for a performance test is a summarised version of a performance chart. There are 3 metrics on the vertical axis: Stability, Health and Response.
You can click on a strip chart from Status Heat Tiles or a Reporting Network report to open the Details page and compare with the performance chart. Note: There may be time variations depending on time zone selected. Strip charts use the source location time zone.
Stability:
a red blip is drawn on the strip chart for 100% packet loss. When partial packet loss occurs you will see corresponding lime green blips on the strip chart health line but nothing in stability.Health:
blips are drawn on the strip chart when response is near or above the target, the colours indicating severity with blue when measurements approach the target turning to green when measurements exceed the target. In the example above, the lime green health blips on the strip chart correspond to the red plots on the performance chart. When response is well within target, no health blips are drawn. Blips will be shades of blue to lime green only.Response:
on the strip chart corresponds to the plots from the performance chart on the Details page
Jitter is not represented on the strip chart.
Hosts
The hosts (server) strip chart is a combined view of other charts. There are 3 metrics on the strip chart vertical axis: Stability, Health and Load.
Stability:
replicates bearer availability of the parent watchHealth:
for Memory or Disk. If utilisation exceeds the customisable threshold, a red blip is displayedLoad:
CPU


Switches
There is a strip chart for switches available from a heat tile on Status Heat Tiles which is a combination of critical port strip charts (visible on the Details page for the switch), and it is referred to as an aggregated strip chart. Switches are not currently available in Reporting so it has no switch strip charts visible.
There are 3 metrics on the strip chart vertical axis: Stability, Health and Load.

There are also individual strip charts available on each port, critical or otherwise.

Stability Blips
- When a critical or non-critical port is down, a magenta/red blip is shown on the individual port strip chart
- When a critical port is down, the aggregated Switch strip chart (displayed when you click on a heat tile), will display a red blip
- When a port comes back up critical and non-critical ports will stop the red blips on the strip chart. There will be a single blue blip at the end to denote the end of the outage.
- When a critical port comes back up, the aggregated switch strip chart will no longer plot the red blips.
Note:
a switch port that is disabled behaves the same as if the port is down (red blips etc.)
Health Blips
Colour | Meaning |
---|---|
Blue | up to 25 errors per 1000 packets |
Green | up to 50 errors per 1000 packets |
Yellow | up to 100 errors per 1000 packets |
Red | more than 100 errors per 1000 packets |
Load
Load on the Heat tile strip chart shows the maximum of the IN and OUT loads of the critical ports – i.e. it is designed to show when there is a severe load condition, regardless of direction or port.
Wireless Access Points
For WiFi, there is a placeholder, blank strip chart for the controller. There are strip charts for each WAP which show combined data from the charts on the Details page.
Stability
Blue, Red and Deep Red blips from the Availability line (on the Access Point Health chart, Details page) are shown on the Stability line.
Health:
Coloured blips from the Signal and Congestion lines (on the Access Point Health chart, Details page) are shown on the Health line. However, these are only shown on the aggregated strip chart when the number of client devices exceeds the minimum (currently set to 5).
Load
The Client Count graduated vertical lines are shown on the Load section of the aggregated strip chart. Note: Traffic Load (if available) impacts load on a heat tile but is not included in the aggregated strip chart.
