Want to know the application, source, and destination of every packet sent and received by 500,000 customers? Just install this box on your network.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [January 26, 2007]

Well, it's not quite that easy. The ISP would need to have a good OSS system and an Oracle database (or similar) to handle the data generated by 500,000 customers, but Merrimack, N.H.-based Ellacoya Networks' new e100 box, announced yesterday, can manage up to 500,000 simultaneous customers through its paired 10 gigabit Ethernet ports (with an additional pair of 10 gigabit ports for redundancy).

Deep Packet Inspection
Matt Burke, communications director for Ellacoya Networks, says that his company's core competence, deep packet inspection (DPI), is already in demand at ISPs worldwide, and that the demand will only grow. Telecoms news outfits such as Light Reading, he says, have said that demand for the technology from wireline ISPs could triple by 2010.

But these analysts have neglected the wireless market (both cellular and wireless broadband), where Ellacoya expects to see demand rise from negligible today to several hundred million dollars by 2010. The total DPI market, Ellacoya predicts, will by $1.1 billion by 2010.

Ellacoya has large ISP customers, but its boxes are in deployments at ISPs of all sizes. Two years ago, for example, we talked to independent ISP Plus.net, based in the UK (see Knowledge of the Network is Power). Burke says that in the U.S., municipal wireless networks are deploying Ellacoya too, citing the case of Chaska, Minn. (.pdf), but of course, the deployment uses Tropos equipment and Tropos' CEO Ron Sege was once CEO of Ellacoya.

Ellacoya has high quality data showing that bandwidth usage will increase (see Related articles, below).

Applications such as VoIP and gaming will fill the pipes, and Ellacoya recommends brokering usage, because building more infrastructure doesn't solve the problem. "I can tell you the story of a wireless company that spent $1 billion on infrastructure, and within a few months, it was all pegged at the maximum. That's why companies are talking to us."

A box is part of a network
The e100 doesn't work alone. It's part of a network, part of a team of boxes. It drinks from the data firehose and passes relevant information to threat analysis engines. It passes activity data to a robust database. In can interact with an ISP's billing and OSS system.

It can be used to deploy value-added services.

It can work with the company's proprietary applications such as Service Logic Software, VoIP Quality Reporter, and Multimedia Service Manager.

It has many capabilities. It's a flexible engine. What about VoIP intercept? "We could plug intercept into our policy based mirror port and we could facilitate the intercept, within the letter and the spirit of the law, without requiring major network surgery," Sammartino notes.

The box is a 5U chassis. It has a control module, two 10 gigabit DPI modules, a 10 gigabit I/O module, and an additional slot for modular customization.

Pricing and availability
The Ellacoya e100 is available now. Because it's modular, pricing depends on hardware and software options chosen. "The price per subscriber is similar to the current generation of DPI equipment, between $1 and $2 per subscriber," Sammartino says.

—End