Bell Canada is turning to a third-party Ottawa software developer to help its wholesale ISP customers smooth out the bumps in their IP network traffic.
Dyband Wednesday said it had
signed a contract with the carrier for an undisclosed sum whereby Bell would resell its Dynamic Traffic Shaping product. The technology allows ISPs to better monitor the performance of their networks and manage bandwidth appropriately.
Jon MacDonald, associate director of IP and broadband at Bell Canada, said the carrier turned to Dyband because it was looking for a product that would help it differentiate itself from the largely commoditized Internet transit service market. IP traffic management, he said, could be highly attractive to many of its ISPs.
“”It really can affect or impact an ISP’s overall profitability,”” he said. “”Bandwidth requirements are growing, and customers are starting to use the Internet for more intensive applications. The costs on the ISP side can be a significant part of the equation.””
ISPs can also potentially generate new revenue by creating service-level tiers which will more effectively shape the traffic, MacDonald said, and isolate the “”sweet spot”” of what customers are willing to pay for.
Tim Welch, executive vice-president at Dyband, said ISPs want real-time reporting of who is using bandwidth, so that they can assign more to business customers when necessary and minimize congestion. It also means ISPs can maximize the throughput of their network. Dyband estimates that up to 25 per cent more customers could use the same Internet connection once its software is in place.
“”A router is really good as a traffic cop. It’s not very good at queueing and prioritizing traffic,”” he said. “”We offload the queing from the router. We spool exactly at the router where it’s expecting to get and send out.””
ISPs typically manage bandwidth to its peak, Welch said. “”They effectively paying for twice as much bandwidth as they need,”” he said. “”Our software more evenly distributes bandwidth so that the bursting nature of IP traffic is reduced.””
Bell will be offering Dyband’s product on a per-month basis, so it will only be used as needed, MacDonald said.
“”The individuals who start up ISPs are very technically savvy, so they can do different types of tests and find out this information,”” he said. “”This tool has it all in one place, and you can generate reports and make it easily available within your company. It doesn’t have to be a techie that’s doing the testing.””
Bell recently began promoting Dynamic Traffic Shaping as part of a road show that stopped in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.
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