iSpeedbump

iSpeedbump is a hardware device that is deployed at the network gateway, between an organization's Internet access point and their LAN. It watches all traffic to and from the Internet and enables the application of bandwidth limiting and prioritization features; providing higher priorities to delay sensitive traffic such as VoIP or limiting overall bandwidth usage in an attempt to remain within contractual agreements.

The device itself is deployed as a Layer 2 Ethernet bridge; a pair of 10/100 Ethernet ports facilitate connectivity to the LAN on one side and the Internet access point on the other. A 3rd 10/100 port and a serial port are also available to facilitate management of the appliance (the device includes a DHCP client which is used by default to obtain an appropriate network address; static IP address assignments are also supported). Gigabit interfaces are not included; and the vendor stats that the maximum packet rate supported by the appliance is 10,000 packets/second. VLANs, jumbo packets, and PoE are also not supported.

Two flavors of the appliance are offered by the vendor: iSpeedbump for the Office, and iSpeedbump for the Colo.

iSpeedbump for the Office is targeted to SOHO or branch office deployments, and primarily acts as a traffic prioritization device, allowing sensitive (or otherwise important) traffic to receive higher transmission priorities than other traffic. The administrator can choose from (currently) four pre-defined traffic profiles provided with the device:

- OFFICE-1, which gives priority to users of the LAN at the expense of external users (such as outside Web site visitors reading pages from a LAN-hosted Web server). Time critical traffic (SSH, VoIP) gets "high" priority, while Web traffic (HTTP and HTTPS) from internal users is given "preferred" priority.

- OFFICE-2, which is similar to OFFICE-1 but with the addition of LAN initiated IMAP, IMAPS, POP3S, SMTP, SMTPS, and POP3 (I.E., E-mail) traffic to the "preferred" category (these all receive "standard" priority in OFFICE-1).

- VOIP-1, which attempts to identify VoIP traffic and give it priority over all other forms of traffic.

- VOIP-2, which is similar to VOIP-1 with the exception that traffic QoS markings are honored only on UDP packets of 512 bytes or less (VOIP-1 honors QoS markings on all UDP packets).

The second flavor of iSpeedbump offered by the vendor is targeted specifically to customers of co-location facilities. This version of the iSpeedbump specializes in measuring the rate of traffic to and from the customer's co-lo servers over time and instituting traffic throttles should bandwidth begin to be consumed too quickly. The vendor stresses the product's ability to measure traffic utilization over time; using a "bucket" analogy to describe the overall process (traffic periods that are beneath the contractual limits tend to fill the bucket, while traffic periods that are over the contractual limits tend to drain it). In this manner, if there are plenty of credits "in the bucket" then short traffic bursts can be tolerated without the need to throttle traffic.

iSpeedbump is available now, with a price tag of $499. Visit the iSpeedbump Web site for further information.