Stallion corrals remote office links

SOQUEL, CALIF. - Stallion Technologies is introducing gear to give branch offices fatter Internet connections and to provide back-up links if primary connections fail.

Stallion's epiPe 2344 device bonds multiple types of Internet connections - such as DSL, cable modem, ISDN and dial-up modem - into a single logical link, so users can sign up for whichever connectivity services are available in their particular areas.

The device can load balance among as many as seven connections and if any fail, will use the rest to continue sending and receiving traffic. Users can configure epiPe to call up extra bandwidth for user-selected applications and turn off the extra bandwidth when the application isn't being used.

The epiPe 2344 device is intended for sites that do not warrant relatively expensive T-1 lines or frame relay services, the company says, but that need fast access to corporate networks. The company is looking to entice cost-conscious Internet VPN users that want to boost performance on tight budgets.

More and more users are looking to bond access lines, according to unpublished research by Infonetics Research. "It used to be once you exhausted a T-1, the next step up was a T-3. With bonding, you get more bandwidth at a lower cost," says Jon Cordova, directing analyst with Infonetics.

Users want to make sure they buy business-class DSL if they use DSL because that comes with better guarantees and symmetrical upload and download speeds, Cordova says. And they must also check whether DSL is available in the locations where they want it.

Having multiple lines as backup is important as well, Cordova says, citing the recent demise of some DSL providers that left corporate sites without high-speed Internet access.

Stallion uses technology called multilink IP that fragments and distributes Internet traffic among as many as seven separate links.

A second epiPe at the receiving end collects the traffic as it arrives from the multiple routes it takes and reassembles it.

The idea of bonding access lines is also known as inverse multiplexing - taking a traffic stream and breaking it up to run over multiple lines, then multiplexing it back together at the receiving end. Multilink Point-to-Point protocol and multilink frame relay are examples.

Vendors such as Copper Mountain and Netopia support DSL bonding. Siemens is introducing business-class routers to which it plans to add bonding capabilities, Cordova says.

EpiPe, scheduled to ship before July, will cost $1,600.