Our product and technical experts are attending Mobile World Congress this year. They will be available to solve your network problems with in-depth, on-the-spot discussions.

• Find out why hardware acceleration is a must for packet processing applications, including DPI.

• Learn why network Policy engines depend on DPI for QoS delivery.

• Discover why true high-performance media processing needs scalable, reliable hardware – and why software is not the only answer.

• See STM1 to 40Gb/s high-speed media and packet processing cards in convenient PCIe form factors

• Discuss high-density media, IVR and signaling solutions for deployment in NGN / IN networks

Why not arrange a meeting with our consultants so we can discuss your needs and apply our expertise to solving your network challenges? Simply pre-book a meeting or call Callum Rasmussen on +44 1258 486518 to arrange a meeting.

Quality of Service (QoS) used to be a simple matter. In today’s IP-enabled world with a profusion of applications and vastly differing bandwidth requirements, it’s become a lot more complicated.

This makes life difficult for network operators – and the fact that demand is surging complicates matters further. Network operators are faced with the twin challenge of both massively increased demand and increasing application requirements. Delivering QoS to all users fairly and equally is tough.

Until recently, they have relied upon packet inspection solutions based on CPU power to ensure that problems can be identified and resolved. But keeping pace with demand makes this increasingly expensive. With core packet transport moving to 10Gb/s, 40Gb/s and beyond, the load on CPU-based systems will grow. This will dramatically increase the cost of such systems, increasing both CAPEX and OPEX and reducing profitability.

A better approach is to offload the pre-processing task to dedicated hardware resources. This reduces the load on the CPU and ensures that the system can scale effectively to cope with increased bandwidth in the future. There can be significant cost benefits – we estimate by as much as 50% at transmission rates of 40Gb/s. What’s more, the adoption of hardware acceleration solutions can ensure the QoS delivery across an entire network.

This is essential, as QoS is the key to customer satisfaction. If customers can’t access the services they want, or if they don’t perform as expected, they will migrate to networks that offer better performance. QoS is going to become a differentiator for network operators and increasingly selective users will search for solutions that deliver what they need.

A recent article has highlighted some of the problems that Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) face when attempting to manage traffic in their network.

Traffic management is needed for a variety of reasons. First, quality of service needs to be maintained – both for the network overall and for individual customers. Secondly, with MNOs increasingly offering packages that set limits to data consumption, they need to be able to monitor usage of individual users to ensure that they do not exceed a given quota or that they are billed appropriately if they do so.

Thirdly, there may be restrictions on the use of certain applications, because the MNO or regulator has a specific policy or because there is a legal reason preventing access. Fourthly, there may be specific policies that need to be enforced – for example, if users pay for a high-performance service, the MNO must be able to deliver the required level of performance to the subscribers. And, fifthly, users need fair access to bandwidth – those that over-consume may be subject to temporary restrictions, ensuring that bandwidth is available for other users. We could go on, but it’s clear that traffic management is absolutely critical to the smooth operation and performance of the network.

And that’s why MNOs need the tools to ensure that they can review traffic and manage network demands in real-time. Deep packet inspection technology is critical to this. And with transmission rates increasing all the time, it’s a struggle to keep up. MNOs need DPI solutions that can scale effectively and cope with continually increasing traffic flows.

The volume of data and the rate at which it is transmitted just keep on growing. Traditional DPI equipment will be overwhelmed by this flow of data, as it relies in CPU-based technology for processing the data. A better solution is to perform the pre-processing at the level of hardware, ensuring that only packets of interest are sent to the control application. This means that the pressure on CPUs is alleviated, ensuring the DPI application can perform as expected.

After all, DPI is now fundamental to ensure network performance, to meet customer expectations and to ensure fair access to data for all. Quite simply, without DPI, MNOs would be unable to manage their networks.

Until relatively recently, networks used a wide range of signaling protocols – and achieving interoperability was often a considerable challenge. Today, networks are migrating towards an all-IP architecture and SIP has emerged as the standard protocol for control of media sessions.

Unlike SS7 in the circuit switched world, it’s not just deployed in the core. It reaches directly to the enterprise, thanks to SIP trunking and IP call control products. But IP connections are vulnerable to attack in a way that circuit switched networks were not. But service providers and their customers – enterprises and consumers alike – both expect and demand the same levels of security. Just because the transport and architecture is different, there’s no reason why networks should be less secure.

But they are, as IP is vulnerable to all manner of threats. This is why technologies such as Deep Packet Inspection have become essential, as a recent article points out. In order to protect networks, the ability to inspect and authorise packets is mandatory and this can only be achieved by looking directly at higher-layer packets conveyed in IP streams.

DPI has been much misunderstood. In reality, it’s an essential tool that helps protect network integrity and prevent malicious attacks such as denial of service. With all SIP networks, DPI is a key tool to ensure that customers enjoy the service they expect.

And of course, the rapid growth in SIP traffic means that there are more and more packets to consider. 10Gb/s and 40Gb/s optical transport networks convey significant volumes of data. The integrity of each packet must be checked in order to ensure the security of the network. This flow is beyond the capability of first-generation software-based DPI engines. To cope with these volumes of traffic, only hardware-based DPI solutions have the capacity to ensure 100% data capture and zero packet loss.

It’s that time of year when forecasts are made and one theme that has popped up in several articles is that of Customer Experience Management. 2012, it seems, is going to be the year when the CEM bandwagon accelerates. But CEM encompasses two elements – experience of the network; that is, how it performs; and contact with the service provider; that is, how the provider deals with the customer and handles that interaction.

Network performance is always a challenge. Operators must constantly be vigilant, ensuring that traffic flows smoothly and without disruption. But to achieve this is no simple task. Operators are reliant on Deep Packet Inspection capabilities to monitor traffic and generate essential data. Is traffic flowing at the desired rate? Are latency, jitter and other key metrics being maintained at the appropriate levels? Can the network cope with peaks and troughs, caused by irregular usage patterns?

Today’s DPI solutions risk being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data traversing the network. Traditional, CPU-based solutions lack the scale and performance to cope with the huge surge in user traffic and the high-speed links that are now migrating to 40Gb/s and beyond. That’s why dedicated hardware is required.

By performing packet-processing, the core task of DPI applications, hardware-based solutions can ensure that all traffic is inspected with no packet loss. Instead of flooding CPU-based equipment, hardware solutions can scale to meet growth in traffic and ensure that DPI functions can be performed consistently and reliably. And this is essential – to deliver on CEM promises, the network must be able to provide the information operators need to ensure smooth operation.

Both elements of CEM are important and both present challenges, but ensuring that the network performs as expected is fundamental. Operators need the confidence that scalable, hardware-based packet processing engines can provide if CEM is really going to take off this year.

Find out how hardware acceleration solves packet processing issues in network trouble-shooting and DPI applications

Network delays can have a significant impact on customer experience. As more and more users take advantage of services that have increasing demands on network bandwidth, the issue of network delays that impact service performance will become increasingly important.

That’s why network operators are deploying sophisticated DPI solutions to troubleshoot network issues. But, today’s 10Gb/s and emerging 40Gb/s networks can overload traditional host-based DPI solutions. That’s why hardware acceleration is required, to offload host processor requirements. Find out more by downloading our new white paper – Using Hardware Accelerated 10-40Gb/s Packet Analysis in IMS Policy Applications.

Network delay problems affect all users. For consumers, rapidly adopting services that require real-time performance – such as online gaming, for example – network delays will disrupt and damage their experience, leading to dissatisfaction.

For enterprise users, the adoption of cloud services – of which more and more will have real-time performance requirements, such as video conferencing and collaboration – delays will degrade service and impact the efficiencies and cost savings that such cloud services are supposed to introduce.

In both cases, there is the additional complication of user expectation. People expect services to work in both a mobile and fixed environment, seamlessly. Their perceptions have changed and people don’t expect there to be a difference between what they can do on their mobile device and on their fixed terminal.

This means that network operators have to be able to identify and resolve delay issues before they have a significant impact on service performance and delivery. Customer dissatisfaction leads to churn – and with customer acquisition costs so high, it makes sense to focus on strategies to retain customers.

But where is the delay to be found? Does the problem occur in the access network? In the cable head-end? In the cell-site? The backhaul? The core? Network operators have to be able to identify problems wherever they occur. They have to be able to sample traffic, selectively filter media streams and run analysis to determine if a problem exists and isolate the area in which it is found so that they can take action.

With NGN networks running at 10Gb/s, 40Gb/s and beyond, this is not a trivial issue: there is simply a vast trove of data to be processed – and it has to be analysed in real-time. It’s a real-time world now and that demands high-performance network processors and monitoring systems for DPI applications.

In an ideal world, there would never be any problems; there would always be sufficient bandwidth to cope. But it’s not an ideal world – problems occur on a regular basis, despite best efforts and advances in network provisioning and planning. That’s why network operators need the ability to perform DPI, monitor traffic flows at all points in the network and aggregate results so the full picture can be realised.

Investing in high-speed monitoring capabilities for DPI applications is essential to ensure that existing customers receive the quality of service they expect. And, if you want to add customers, being able to differentiate on service quality may just be a significant asset. The benefits of being able to monitor traffic throughout the network are clear – and it’s a fundamental requirement to be able to adapt to the next generation of transmission speeds. The message is clear: if you want to find hidden delays, you need the right equipment and the ability to cope with the faster line rates delivered by core transmission solutions.

Find out how to build and deploy advanced solutions to manage and monitor your network by contacting Telesoft Technologies today.

Networks are subject to peaks and troughs of traffic as demand rises and falls. It’s difficult to ensure smooth and even flow of traffic at all times. Like a road transport system, there can be blackspots that tend to suffer worse from congestion, or there can be peak intervals when traffic surges and then periods when traffic drops to negligible levels.

Anticipating such uneven demand is challenging. Managing it when it happens is doubly difficult. Network planners can take steps to ensure that blackspots are eliminated, but there’s a strong likelihood that they will occur elsewhere at a different point in time. Real-time events influence user behaviour, increasing demand and, inevitably, exceeding estimates.

That’s why network engineers need to be able to respond to traffic ebbs and flows in real time, adjusting network policies and effecting traffic shaping plans in order to ensure that things go smoothly – and customers are kept happy.

To achieve this requires constant monitoring of the network, observing traffic and checking against key performance metrics to ensure that variables such as latency and jitter are kept within desired target ranges. Network engineers need to be able to spot traffic and to benchmark performance – as traffic enters, transits and exits the network. Performance monitoring has to be accomplished at the edge, the core and at egress points.

One traffic reaches the core, it can be checked to be sure that it maintains performance levels – but this requires the insertion of tools that can cope with the vast flows of traffic that pass into and through networks. If latency from a specific area suddenly jumps, action needs to be taken. If congestion suddenly occurs, rerouting or dynamic capacity allocation must take place – immediately, not in six months time.

Reliable monitoring solutions are required in order to ensure that networks respond in real-time to changes in demand. This needs high-performance, optimised hardware and software, capable of interfacing to the range of optical and Gb/s transmission interfaces deployed in the evolving NGN. Without such equipment, integrated to the control platforms, network management becomes an impossible task. To solve a problem like congestion – or indeed, any of the problems that can confront network traffic, network operators must diligently monitor traffic at all points of the network and be ready to respond.

With continued growth in IP traffic forecast – set to reach the milestone of one zettabyte according to Cisco’s annual Visual Networking Index – it’s worth considering how the mix of that traffic will reflect user application consumption.

In the consumer world, the traffic will include data from a range of sources – including gaming, video, VoIP and so on. But the strongest growth will come from internet video and online gaming. These are applications that demand high-performance, as users increasingly shift to a real-time experience. A multi-player game needs optimal performance in terms of latency, round-trip delays – if it doesn’t meet minimum performance standards, then it ceases to be a viable proposition.

The network operators who carry the traffic for such games and video content have a responsibility to ensure their networks can meet user expectations. This isn’t easy – they need to be constantly alert to ensure that traffic flows smoothly and that bottlenecks and congestion is rapidly alleviated.

This requires constant monitoring and sampling of traffic from across their entire network. To achieve this, they have to deploy solutions that can collect, sample and filter traffic. High-performance monitoring systems must be deployed in order to ensure that users obtain the quality of service that they expect.

With faster and faster network infrastructure being deployed – moving from 10Gb/s to 40Gb/s and, soon, up to 100Gb/s in the core – this demands solutions that can cope with monitoring data at these rates. Hardware acceleration provides a convenient, scalable solution to this problem, ensuring that the control systems can cope with the rapid growth in data traffic.

By using hardware acceleration solutions for packet filtering, network operators can confidently ensure that user expectations are met and that potential problems are identified and eliminated before network degradation occurs.

GTP – or GPRS Tunneling Protocol to give it its full name – has been around for some time. Originally created to allow IP sessions to be conveyed across circuit-switched GPRS networks, it remains the core protocol behind data transmission in mobile networks and is fundamental to the success of UMTS (3G) and emerging LTE (4G) networks.

Although the network architecture continues to evolve, GTP is responsible for the transport and control of user data in packet format between the various nodes. As such, it’s essential that GTP flows proceed smoothly and accurately, ensuring that data is delivered correctly and at the correct need.

This is particularly important when we consider the massive growth in mobile data traffic that has already taken place – and that is forecast for the coming years. According to Cisco, mobile data traffic will grow at a CAGR of 92% between 2010 and 2015.

What’s more, the volume of mobile video traffic will grow at the highest rate for any specific application covered, accounting for 2/3rds of all mobile traffic by the end of the period covered. This will not only place a strain on network capacity, but it will demand high performance – users will want to be able to watch, download and, significantly, upload more and more video content in real-time.

Mobile network operators (MNOs) need to plan for this – and some have taken steps to introduce video optimization and buffering solutions, but the smooth management of the network demands more. MNOs have to be able to monitor network performance and troubleshoot issues. They have to be able to proactively manage user experience and that means accessing the vast and growing volume of data traversing the network so that they can identify problems before they have an impact on the network.

GTP is critical to this – MNOs have to be able to access GTP streams, a task made more complex by the fact that there are actually three protocols within the GTP family. GTP-C conveys signaling information between core nodes; GTP-U carries user data; and GTP-P provides charging data for sessions.

MNOs must be able to passively connect to all of these interfaces in order to obtain the information they need to identify and resolve issues. This demands high-performance, specialized hardware solutions, so that the control applications can be focused on reacting and controlling the resulting flow of information. In evolving mobile networks, the ability to access GTP information is crucial to an optimized user experience.

For more information - read our white paper.

Hardware packet processing to accelerate the performance of DPI applications.

Blandford, UK, 13th December 2012 – Telesoft Technologies announced today the availability of a new range of high-speed packet processing cards that have been designed to significantly accelerate the performance of deep packet inspection applications.

Processor intensive DPI applications need to be able to selectively process packets from high-speed electrical and optical networks. Delegating the task of packet processing to specialised resource cards significantly reduces the demands on the host CPU and accelerates deep packet inspection processes. By offloading the packet processing function, the new MPAC-IP cards help to reduce the packet-processing overhead and improve the throughput of deep packet inspection applications.

Using dynamic filtering, the MPAC-IP cards can be configured in real-time to only select the packets that are of interest, eliminating the need for applications to identify and discard irrelevant packets. Advanced buffering ensures that 100% of packets can be captured, with zero loss, in real-time and at transmission rates of up to 40Gb/s from each input source.

More than 32,000 dynamically configurable filters are available to provide complete user control of a range of applications that depend on line-rate deep packet inspection such as QoS/ QoE monitoring, packet monitoring, policy management and cyber security.

Andy Evripides, Senior VP Sales and Marketing at Telesoft Technologies, said, “The new MPAC-IP cards will help developers to create line-speed packet processing applications that miss no data during packet flow analysis. The size of the buffer ensures that 100% of traffic can be captured in real time at 40Gbps rates and with 32,000 dynamically configurable packet filters, the new MPAC-IP range provides industry leading flexibility and performance.”

“By using our technology to offload packet processing, developers and OEMs can significantly reduce costs and enhance the efficiency of their solutions”, he added.

The full range of MPAC-IP packet processing hardware is available today enabling developers to leverage a new standard of packet processing in the DPI applications.