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General Information
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March 21, 2008
• Vol.30 Issue 12
Page(s) 16 in print issue
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Rein In Your Internet Bandwidth
NetEqualizer Provides Bandwidth Shaping For Voice & Data Networks
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Is your network constantly absorbing too much Internet traffic? Do you periodically send out company memos asking your staff to ease up on nonwork-related Internet surfing? Do you wish you had something in place to help prioritize your company’s bandwidth? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you are not alone. Network administrators from around the globe are dealing with competing demands for network resources and congestion. If this is true in your case, your small to midsized enterprise may be in need of a bandwidth shaper (also known as a traffic shaper).
Enter NetEqualizer APconnections (800/ 918-2763; www.netequalizer.com), a traffic-shaping solution provider, has stepped up with its NetEqualizer appliances, which optimize critical network bandwidth resources. In a nutshell, the NetEqualizer gives priority where it is due: to your high-priority business applications, including VoIP, CRM, and ERP. APconnections says it is a turnkey traffic-shaping solution that is affordable and easy to install.
Art Reisman, APconnections’ CTO, says most IT managers start with, “I need to know what traffic is on my network, and I want a tool to tell me.” Reisman elaborates, “What they may not realize is that network traffic applications change every day, and if they pay $10,000-plus for a tool that can find 70% of their traffic accurately, that is not what you would expect for that kind of investment. That is why we don’t pretend to find everything. What we do promise is that we will fix congestion issues and keep customers happy with our simple, yet effective, methods of traffic by fairness.”
Reisman says APconnections has been refining its techniques for four-plus years and continues to receive validation every day (“from IT managers that have tried everything else under the sun”) that the company’s bandwidth-shaping solution(s) is the “way to go.”
Mark Sunner, chief security analyst for MessageLabs (www.messagelabs.com), says bandwidth shaping is necessary in a dynamic protocol environment. He explains, “An example of this is VoIP, which is extremely time-sensitive. By using bandwidth shaping, it is possible to guarantee a fixed amount of bandwidth and network resources to VoIP calls, thus removing latency issues. Within the corporate environment, it may be desirable to control or throttle the use of other protocols (like P2P networking) as part of an overall corporate policy.” Sunner says by increasing the priority of relevant business-critical traffic through their networks, enterprises can ensure that required central processing is done in a timely manner—without timeouts.
David Novak, co-author of “A Traffic Shaping Model for Optimizing Network Operations” and assistant professor at the University of Vermont, says the primary reason for employing traffic shaping is to facilitate the management of scarce network resources. He comments, “Traffic shaping can allow network managers to set policies that control traffic flows and regulate access by different applications and user types to a finite amount of bandwidth. Managers can prioritize specific applications and types of traffic, and they can do this in a very granular way that corresponds to the different layers of the OSI model. Traffic shaping allows network managers a great deal of control in setting and enforcing specific policies they feel are critical in effectively managing network resources.”
 Affordability Meets Quality
According to Sunner, nowadays there are approximately 30 companies delivering bandwidth-managing solutions in the market. So how does the NetEqualizer differ from its competitors? Reisman answers, “We base our traffic-shaping decisions based on usage patterns and human factors which do not change. For example, we know what a VoIP call looks like in general, so we give it priority. We also know what BitTorrents or viruses look like in general, so we put the brakes on them.” Reisman says the benefit of the NetEqualizer is that it works today, tomorrow, or three years from now, without constant license upgrades.
Is the NetEqualizer unique in any way? Yes, Reisman says, “The price point, for starters. It bridges the gap between the very basic tools and the higher-end tools without the high-end prices. Our product also comes with some of the brightest engineers in the industry behind it. I would highly recommend that you chat with them first, before making any important decisions. It is important to note that our company does not employ any commissioned sales people.”
The NetEqualizer appliances are designed primarily for voice and data networks and are available in configurations ranging from 2Mbps up to 300Mbps. They can be deployed in corporate or service provider networks. Reisman says IT managers will be happy to know that they literally install in minutes. He says they shape traffic based on built-in fairness rules, which balances network traffic without managing policy libraries or requiring any changes to existing network infrastructure.
Bandwidth-Shaping Tidbits
Novak says there is a great deal of discussion in the industry around bandwidth-intensive applications (especially about P2P applications), the ports these applications use, and the characteristics of these traffic types. He comments, “Network engineers do not have to spend as much time trying to identify and classify various types of unknown traffic. It appears that in most cases, the focus of the management team has moved away from the reactionary panic of simply keeping the network operational to a focus on improving and hopefully optimizing network operations through traffic shaping. This is a result of a better understanding of how many of the newer Internet-based applications work and the risks associated with unrestricted access.”
According to Sunner, bandwidth-shaping solutions date from when QoS was first defined in 1994 in the field of telephony and extended to data networking in 1998. He says the first companies to start implementing bandwidth shaping started to appear in the mid-’90s.
So why should small to midsized enterprises seriously consider APconnections’ NetEqualizer appliances? Reisman is quick to reply, “If they manage a network that is constantly sucking up Internet bandwidth, they should give us a serious look.” 
by Chris A. MacKinnon
APCONNECTIONS NETEQUALIZER
 Description: Bandwidth-shaping appliances designed for voice and data networks
Interesting fact: Customers can build a redundant configuration by configuring two NetEqualizers running parallel.
(800) 918-2763
www.netequalizer.com |
BANDWIDTH LIMITING
NetEqualizer limits bandwidth by:
• Favoring bandwidth for Web browsing, chat, and email
• Host (supporting up to 4,000 individual hard limits)
• Subnet
• MAC address
• Port
• VLAN
NetEqualizer also provides control and containment for all common P2P applications, including Bearshare, ftp, Gnucleus, IMAP GNUTELLA, LimeWire, live365, Morpheus, Musicmatch, Phex, POP3, SMTP, Swapper, XoloX, and KAZAA.
SOURCE: APCONNECTIONS |
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