Continuous Computing Cuts It Both Ways with DPI

Continuous Computing at NXTcomm this week is introducing a new deep packet inspection (DPI) blade for IBM’s BladeCenter solution and, separately, is unveiling a low-profile, ATCA-based 20gbps DPI appliance.

CTO and co-founder Mike Coward said IBM has not traditionally addressed DPI-related functionality required by such services and applications as IPTV, bandwidth shaping, high-speed antivirus prevention and intrusion detection. These features are now available from Continuous Computing on an ATCA platform, but will be available on BladeCenter by the beginning of this year or early next year.

The importance of bandwidth shaping continues to grow as IPTV subscribers multiply, said Coward. In order to handle that growth, service providers need to start shaping traffic to ensure new, bandwidth-intensive applications like video on demand are delivered at the quality customers expect, he said.

Today service providers can add DPI or antivirus functionality, but typically need separate appliances for each time, adds Coward. Verizon calls it “death by a thousand pizza boxes,” he said, but putting it all into BladeCenter makes these features easier to install and more scalable.

Still, some applications call for an appliance-based solution, so Continuous Computing now offers that option as well. This product is aimed at suppliers that want to build solutions to appeal to smaller telcos and central offices, or large service providers that want smaller solutions for pilot tests, Coward explained. This appliance will be available this summer.

A key element of Continuous Computing’s new security appliance, the FlexPacket ATCA-PP50 packet processing blade incorporates two XLR732 multi-core MIPS devices from Raza Microelectronics Inc. that deliver packet processing and security at line rates up to 20gbps.

Continuous Computing is in both the Intel Pod, Booth 4131, and PICMG Pavilion, Booth 4257, this week at NXTcomm.

Continuous Computing www.ccpu.com

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