Sockeye tunes up route-control gear

WALTHAM, MASS. - Upgraded equipment from Sockeye Networks gives customers employing lines from more than one service provider the potential to save more money on Internet access bills.

The company last week rolled out Version 3.0 of GlobalRoute, the upgraded route-control software that runs Sockeye's route-control appliances. Version 3.0 takes into account the multitiered billing schemes ISPs use in determining how much to charge customers.

Route-control technology uses information about congestion, network failures, quality requirements, cost and other factors to divide WAN traffic among two or more carriers. Usually residing on a specialized appliance and sometimes enhanced with monitoring services, it can help companies, hosting providers and other users save money and get the network performance they want. In this case, by using actual billing criteria in setting GlobalRoute policy means the device can make better pricing decisions. Previously, GlobalRoute would accept only a single price per link regardless of how many tiers made up the price structure.

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WALTHAM, MASS. - Upgraded equipment from Sockeye Networks gives customers employing lines from more than one service provider the potential to save more money on Internet access bills.

The company last week rolled out Version 3.0 of GlobalRoute, the upgraded route-control software that runs Sockeye's route-control appliances. Version 3.0 takes into account the multitiered billing schemes ISPs use in determining how much to charge customers.

Route-control technology uses information about congestion, network failures, quality requirements, cost and other factors to divide WAN traffic among two or more carriers. Usually residing on a specialized appliance and sometimes enhanced with monitoring services, it can help companies, hosting providers and other users save money and get the network performance they want. In this case, by using actual billing criteria in setting GlobalRoute policy means the device can make better pricing decisions. Previously, GlobalRoute would accept only a single price per link regardless of how many tiers made up the price structure.

No fudge

"Before, we could get [GlobalRoute] to do what we wanted, but it required more effort and tweaking," says Josh Richards, CTO of Digital West Networks, a hosting provider that uses four ISPs to connect its San Louis Obispo, Calif., data center to the Internet. "You kind of had to fudge your numbers a little bit. Now we can set different tiers and put in exactly what prices we've contracted for."