General

P-Cube Shapes Up Broadband Traffic

Do broadband service providers need real-time intelligent provisioning tools to shape mission critical applications? One software developer with two solutions thinks so.

by ISP-Planet Staff [May 3, 2001]

California-based P-Cube Inc., an IP engineering specialist, recently unveiled its flagship product suite, which included P-Cube Service Engine 1000 (SE1000) and P-Cube Service Management Platform (SMP). The complete solution was crafted to allow broadband service providers total traffic control of their networks.

It enables service providers to view all services, applications, and subscriber traffic in real-time so they can make intelligent provisioning decisions to create differentiated service packages, manage and shape applications for each subscriber, and report activities to billing and other network business support systems. Service Providers may be able to use P-Cube's IP Service Engineering solutions to increase revenue and network performance, while provisioning new applications like tiered services, network hosted security, and digital rights management.

Testing, testing
The first customer trials the IP management bundle is UK-based telecom powerhouse Interoute Telecommunications. Interoute is currently deploying a state-of-the-art pan-European fiber optic network, over 18,000 km across 9 countries. A key element of Interoute's strategy is to create a "service aware network."

Ohad Finkelstein, Interoute chairman and chief executive officer, said that, together with P-Cube, his company has developed ways to manage traffic that derive added value for its customers.

"Our goal is to build a service creation environment that allows us to provision networks for our customers based on their business needs, rather than on the way the network is put together," Finkelstein said. "P-Cube's IP Service Engineering, for us, means being able to offer customers a network solution which more closely matches the value of the network to their business."

Lee Doyle, IDC vice president of network infrastructure, said that IP-based firms will eventually find a way to transform the Internet into an entirely new business model dependent on the ability to generate revenue from content and services. As a result, the ability to provide predictable levels of performance in a "best efforts" IP environment becomes a necessity for service providers.

Where ROI meets TCO
Yuval Shahar, P-Cube Inc. chief executive officer, said its IP Service Engineering also delivers accelerated return on investment (ROI) and lowered total cost of ownership (TCO) for service providers.

"With even a fraction of concurrent subscribers paying an additional $3-5 per month for optional premium services, broadband providers utilizing IP Service Engineering can expect total return on investment in as little as 12 months, using their existing infrastructure," Shahar said.

The SE1000 is a purpose-built service aware network element designed to enhance service provider networks by creating, analyzing and actively controlling value-added service packages, thereby increasing subscriber revenues and enhancing profit margins.

Housed in a compact 19-inch rack-mountable form factor, the SE1000 seamlessly interfaces with existing network access, aggregation, and transport elements and OSS/BSS systems using standard interfaces and communications protocols. This inherent interoperability leverages both existing network infrastructure, avoiding forklift upgrades, and also positions the SE1000 to work with the next-generation of optical transport and service equipment as it is deployed.

The SE1000 actively analyzes and manages traffic at Gigabit wire speeds, and is managed through a 10/100 Fast Ethernet console port. An optical bypass is internally integrated into the SE1000 for standby and fail-over operating modes. The SE1000 is targeted for use in ISP POPs to serve as many as 100,000 concurrent subscribers at any data rate, and is ideal for the backbone provider serving millions of concurrent IP traffic flows to its service provider and enterprise customers.

Applications enabled by the SE1000:

• Access control for services such as web browsing, streaming audio and video, Voice over IP (VoIP), and an unlimited variety of generic application protocols.
• Session control for application bandwidth management, which enables providers to manage application speeds, volume of traffic and concurrent sessions.
• Custom applications such as tiered levels of service, network hosted security and digital rights management may be quickly and easily developed and deployed working with P-Cube's platform management tools.

The P-Cube Service Management Platform (SMP) is a carrier-class software platform that is hosted on a provider's management workstation. The SMP integrates a graphical man-machine interface that controls subscriber provisioning, manages applications and collects usage and billing information and provides a flexible API to existing OSS/BSS systems. The SMP also includes a reporting client for application layer analysis of network traffic and optimization of the active traffic management capabilities of the SE1000.

Pricing and availability
The complete system, P-Cube SE1000 and SMP is available for purchase today. Pricing varies, but a complete solution that could manage 100,000 subscribers would also cost about $100,000 US. Of course, less extensive bundleds from P-Cube are less expensive and currently available as customized solutions.

—End