Procera presents largest server for internet traffic inspection
Procera Networks has presented new hardware that performs deep packet inspection of network traffic in real time at speeds of up to 80Gb/s. The flagship model is the $800,000 Packetlogic PL10000, aimed at tier-1 ISPs.
The PL10000 offers can accommodate 5 10Gb and up to 9 1Gb channels and can handle up to 48 million simultaneous connections. All Procera servers are equipped with the proprietary ‘Datastream Recognition Definition Language’ engine, which makes it possible to identify and classify network traffic. The company also has a smaller model of the PL10000 in its range for companies and network providers. The PL5600, PL7600 and PL7620 can examine network traffic at speeds ranging from 4Mb/s to 4GB/s. However, the top model is reserved for tier-1 ISPs, network providers that are linked to other providers via peering, but do not purchase data traffic from other providers. According to Procera, the new equipment can examine network traffic with an accuracy of up to 96 percent. Prices for the new hardware start at $7,000.
The software that comes with Procera’s equipment can generate a variety of comprehensive summaries and statistics of tracked network traffic. For example, the data traffic and the number of connections can be viewed for each IP address. You can also see which protocols are used the most and how much data traffic they consume. The software also keeps track of which protocols have been used by which IP addresses and which IP addresses have been consulted by which protocols.
Deep packet inspection makes it possible to examine the data and header of packets sent over the network. The data read from the packets contains information about where the packet is coming from, where it is going and what kind of information is being sent. Internet service providers can use dpi to see which programs and protocols used by customers account for the largest share of bandwidth usage and consume the most data traffic.
The further development of dpi further opens the door for allocating data traffic at isp level. With dpi, internet providers can request statistics of network traffic in real time and give preference to, for example, game traffic at certain times, while at the same time slowing down p2p traffic.
This kind of bandwidth management has already caused quite a stir: Comcast was suspected of blocking and slowing down p2p traffic and a Canadian provider indicated that p2p traffic was being throttled during peak hours.