Fixed Wireless Equipment

Dyband Gets IP Traffic to Shape Up

This intelligent IP traffic management solution measures and controls subscribers bandwidth usage, allowing WISPs to control aggressive users, minimize network congestion, reduce packet loss, and more.

by ISP-Planet Staff [April 10, 2002]

Dyband Corp. officially acquired the intellectual property and physical assets of Orchestream Holdings, an IP traffic management solutions provider. By doing so, the Ottawa-based company has the opportunity to build better wireless IP traffic management solutions, at least according to Michael Howard, Infonetics Research co-founder and principal analyst.

"With this buyout and incorporation, Dyband now has the opportunity to steer its own course," Howard said. "And the market timing is right for any product, such as the Dyband solution, that can reduce operating costs, provide a rapid return on investment, and solve key problems facing ISPs such as scaling and bandwidth issues."

Traffic jam in the sky
Dyband's current products are applicable to multiple narrowband and broadband access markets, but the company will initially focus on fulfilling the business and technical needs of wireless ISPs and the satellite service market segment.

Dyband intelligent IP traffic management software enables Internet service providers to control bandwidth consumption by IP address. Netowrk administrators can define and manage a virtually unlimited number of service level agreements (SLAs) at different price points, and view bandwidth consumption in real-time, while gathering comprehensive historical statistics for later analysis and billing.

These capabilities are relatively important to wireless ISP operators that face a market characterized by pricey operating costs, competitive broadband rivals, and high levels of customer churn, all of which impact the WISPs bottom line. According to Dyband, WISPs can decrease operating costs by managing their bandwidth more effectively, add new service revenues by offering metered bandwidth programs, and deliver more consistent and reliable services, which all work to reduce customer churn.

How it works
Dyband's current traffic management software is the result of a multi-million dollar research and development effort and has been shipping since June 2001. Dyband products are currently in use worldwide by international, national, and regional service providers. Several systems integrators are incorporating Dyband software into their access solutions, and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are testing the product for inclusion in their core products.

The Dyband intelligent IP traffic management solution measures and controls the bandwidth usage of individuals and groups, allowing WISPs to control aggressive users, minimize network congestion, reduce packet loss, and eliminate congestion-related outages.

Easily configured, Dyband allows WISPs to define and manage a wide range of service levels at distinct price points, allowing them to gain incremental revenue without purchasing additional bandwidth. Dyband allows ISPs to monitor access services in real-time while gathering historical data for analysis to improve service management.

When Dyband is deployed in a wireless network, the IP traffic shaper is installed between the distribution network and Internet router (left). It is responsible for shaping all subscriber Internet traffic and collecting all real-time statistics. Since the Shaper has no user interface, a separate application, called CMon, is used to configure and manage the Shaper. With CMon, the network administrator can view and modify the topology of managed objects, manage the profiles of service levels and view real-time statistics.

Dyband uses an intuitive tree-oriented display to represent all managed objects. The system automatically discovers new subscribers, as they become active on the network and places them appropriately in the topology tree. The system resolves the names of newly discovered subscribers using DNS, LDAP, or RADIUS, and immediately begins shaping their traffic based on inherited SLA profiles.

Field work
International Datacasting isn't wasting any time putting Dyband's IP traffic management solution to work. The company provides advanced systems and services for broadband wireless infrastructure networks that distribute multimedia data. Gary Carter, International Datacasting vice president of sales and business development, said the Ottawa-based firm

"We are offering Dyband traffic management software as part of every IP-based satellite datacasting solution we sell," Carter said. "In order to effectively utilize DVB IP systems today, customers need quality of service, and we have found the Dyband product to be excellent."

—End