Yesterday, at roughly 2pm EST, the U.S. Justice Department shut down Megaupload, the popular Storage and Back-Up Service which accounts for roughly 1% of total traffic on fixed access networks in North America.  Also involved in the shutdown were Megaupload’s affiliate sites, which included MegaVideo, MegaPix, MegaLive, and MegaBox.

In a controversial, incredibly strange, yet kind of catchy video released last year, Megaupload claimed to have 1 billion users, accounting for 4% of Internet traffic.

Our Global Internet Phenomena Report, which has followed the growth of the service in recent years, confirms that Megaupload was the most popular Storage and Back-Up Service in almost every region. Read the rest of this entry »

=There is considerable confusion in the consumer network access industry regarding the objective of congestion relief (traffic management) and that of market-segmentation and value-definition (usage management). In particular, many players often try to message that they are addressing congestion using volume limits, when in fact this is less effective.

I’ll refer to congestion occurring closest to the subscriber as the “weak link”.  Not surprisingly, the most effective (in terms of relieving the congestion) and most fair (to subscribers) way to manage this congestion is by implementing corrective policies that are localized at the site of the congestion itself. In fact, this precise approach is what the FCC defines as “narrowly tailored”.  Referring to Figure 1 below, if congestion occurs at the weak link (see A*) location and affects only users 1-5, then correcting that instance of congestion is ideal because Internet user traffic in other network locations such as locations B and C need not be touched.

Sandvine manages link congestion by examining, identifying, and prioritizing time-sensitive gaming, VoIP and streaming applications, over non time-sensitive applications such as emailing and browsing, or, alternatively, prioritising the users who are causing the least congestion vs. those who are causing the most in a short time interval.  You and I don’t notice if we get an email 2 or 3 seconds later, but we will be upset if our voice calls are garbled and we can’t understand each other.  Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve seen some recent press stating that WikiLeaks plans to release documents from three Canadian companies named on the SpyFiles website, of which, Sandvine is one (there are many companies on the list, some involved in and some unrelated to the topic).  We’re puzzled why we’re named on this list, and moreover, puzzled as to which documentation could be considered secret files.  What Sandvine does is out in the open and is clearly explained on our website:

Sandvine’s network policy control solutions focus on protecting and improving the quality of experience on the Internet. Our award-winning network equipment and software helps DSL, FTTx, cable, fixed wireless and mobile operators better understand network traffic, manage network congestion, create new services and revenues, mitigate traffic that is malicious or undesirable to subscribers, deliver QoS-prioritized multimedia services and increase subscriber satisfaction.

Our Global Internet Phenomena Report is an example of the type of data that our network equipment enables ISPs to collect.  Many of our customers and many in the industry, find these insights valuable, as they allow for proactive capacity planning of Internet networks, enabling fair use connectivity and a high quality experience for the end subscriber. Download it and read for yourself. Feel free to contact us directly with any comments or concerns, we would be more than happy to discuss.

We’ve long been fans of transparency and are public industry advocates for government proposals that seek open and equitable Internet access.  It’s all there for you to read.  No need to bring a bucket.

Much has been reported about the Egyptian Government’s shut-down of Internet access to its citizens in the wake of civic protests. While all reports properly condemn such censorship, there has been some disagreement on the way it was achieved.

The most credible reports, such as that from The Telegraph explain that the shut down involved the withdrawal of more than 3,500 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes, used by networks to establish routing between one another. When a border router is turned off or removed, its routes are automatically withdrawn, and the networks beyond it become unreachable. Egypt, although a large country, is served by a small number of border routers.

Other reports, such as this Huffington Post story, appear to be misinformed. This article blamed a solution from a U.S.-based company, Narus, whose products incorporate deep packet inspection (DPI) technology. The article then went on to call for Congress to pass rules on the use of DPI. ⁽¹⁾ It also named a variety of companies, including Sandvine, that include DPI in their solution sets.

Read the rest of this entry »