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Fixed
Wireless Equipment
Propel Delivers Wireless Acceleration
It was an elaborate demo but it made its point. The technology
allows ISPs to deliver VoIP and web service even over congested networks.
And it works on other forms of broadband too.
The ISPCON booth of San Jose, Calif.-based
accelerator Propel had several laptops
set up to demonstrate the company's latest technological advance. ISP-Planet
has been following the accelerator industry for some time now and it remains
interesting because each company has a slightly different technological
approach. In most of the industries we write about, there's only one core
technology, but in acceleration, capitalism prevails, providing several
different approaches.
Propel's latest product is called Propel
Accelwize and is designed for wireless ISPs. The product manages bandwidth
to prioritize important traffic, such as VoIP. The setup at Propel's booth
allowed the company to demonstrate a voice call over an increasingly congested
network.
Dave Murray, Propel's president and COO, acted as our tour guide. He
started a VoIP call from one laptop to another. Next, he added traffic
in the form of a TCP dump from another laptop, to simulate network congestion.
Skype started dropping packets. Then he ran several bandwidth-intensive
apps from the original laptop, all the while running a Propel web page
test that keeps reloading one website. Traffic all but stopped.
Then, he turned on Propel's technology. The interfering traffic slowed
and the web and VoIP traffic went through.
Opportunities
Murray is enthusiastic about the technology. "Cisco and other router makers
can prioritize specific traffic flows," he says. "But they find it tough
to prioritize encrypted or non-standard traffic like VPNs or Skype. We
do this at the endpoint. We use a lightweight client (under 1 MB). The
endpoint is under 200 K."
He's enthusiastic about opportunities with WISPs, municipal Wi-Fi, WiMAX,
and EV-DO. "I'm using EV-DO in my hotel. The ISP in the hotel is losing
customers to the wireless networks," he notes.
Propel can advise an ISP how to write their AUP to allow the sort of
bandwidth management that Propel provides.
Pricing and availability
The product is being demonstrated now. Pricing has not yet been announced.
Like many bandwidth shaping manufacturers, Propel says its technology
saves ISPs by money by delivering happier customers and by allowing ISPs
to better use their current infrastructure and delay the upgrades that
would be necessitated by unlimited file sharing.
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