Dyband, a supplier of IP traffic management solutions to service providers, announced the delivery of its IP traffic management solution that promises to deliver effective quality-of-service for satellite access.

by Wayne Kawamoto [August 23, 2002]

Dyband's intelligent IP traffic management software is designed to monitor and control bandwidth usage and manage SLAs in broadband satellite access environments, including residential Internet access; enterprise Internet access; Intranet/LAN/WAN connectivity; air, land, and maritime mobile access; and ISP backbone access (satellite connections between remote ISP POPs and the Internet backbone primarily for service providers in developing countries and remote regions).

According to the company, the Dyband intelligent IP traffic management software enables satellite service providers to tightly control bandwidth consumption (by IP address) for up to 50,000 individual satellite subscribers and/or groups (per unit), define and manage a number of SLAs at distinct price points, and also to view and adjust network performance in real time, while gathering historical statistics for later analysis.

The company also says that Dyband meets several key financial and technical challenges that face satellite service providers today and can provide a rapid return on investment.

First, Dyband is designed to maximize throughput across the satellite link, allowing service providers to add additional users yet provide reliable access service. Dyband may also enhance the efficiency of an Internet connection by reducing packet loss.

Second, it's designed to shape traffic independently of the latency of the medium. This may be a significant benefit for satellite providers, where average propagation delay can be a considerable-500 milliseconds per round-trip.

Third, it should offer flexibility in managing upstream and downstream traffic by providing separate controls for each traffic direction. For a satellite provider, this may mean that a single Dyband software solution can manage its IP traffic, even if the nature of its distribution network (unidirectional vs. bi-directional) changes over time or from one service area to another.

Fourth and finally, Dyband may deliver insight into both the topology and performance of the satellite distribution network. It provides real-time statistics that allow service providers to make SLA adjustments and creates customized historical reports for capacity planning, provisioning, usage-based billing, and customer support.

"With Dyband, ISPs can decrease operating costs by managing their bandwidth more effectively, add new service revenues by offering unlimited service levels (SLAs) and deliver more consistent, reliable service, thereby reducing customer churn," said Tim Welch, Dyband's president and CEO. "And,our studies have shown that Dyband provides a very rapid return on investment, an important consideration in this period of tight capital spending."

"The focus of most satellite players has shifted to include two-way broadband local loop access and complex, end-to-end content distribution solutions," stated Christopher Baugh, founder and principal analyst of Northern Sky Research, an international market research and consulting firm specializing in broadband technology and Internet applications. "These applications demand new solutions that are technically sound, easy to implement and scale with demand."

Availability and pricing
Dyband intelligent IP traffic management software is available today and designed to run on industry-standard hardware platforms and operating systems. The software comes in a broad range of configurations that scale to meet the needs of satellite service providers as they grow-from 1 Mbps to 100 Mbps of managed bandwidth per Dyband unit.

Pricing is based on the amount of managed bandwidth and starts at US$500 for a 256Kbps solution on a 27 Mhz transponder.

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