College wins big with optimized bandwidth control.

Network planning, management and security are at MIS' fingertips.

When Joe Turner came into $2.7 million, he had not on the lotto, but for the associate MIS director of small New England college, a network-upgrade appropriation of that size produced similar euphoria for him and the rest of his team.

Finally, the vision of wiring the entire campus of Fitchburg State College would become a reality. Every classroom and dormitory would have Internet access, as would a host of administrative offices, labs and on-campus organizations. In all, the entire faculty and 1,400 students would enjoy a high-speed connection to the campus's broadband network and, in turn, the Web. The scenario seemed perfect, but there were potential pitfalls.

For one, while Turner's wide area network (WAN) was now blessed with enough fiber to keep everyone in broadband bliss for a considerably long time, the local loop was Still an expensive problem. While the college had 10T-1s to support its voice system, its new bandwidth-rich data network was ultimately relegated to a single T-1 out to the local central office. Turner knew it was only a matter of time before that imbalance caused a bottleneck.

"We could see our network traffic growing exponentially. In a short period of time, Internet access across campus went from a novelty to a necessity," recalls Turner. "We were watching our utilization stats grow without any way to recognize or manage the trends behind the growth."

Soon enough, Turner's phone began to ring. People had complaints over slow connections. He considered asking for more T-1s, but leased lines were a daunting, recurring expense and, Turner speculated, a short-term solution to a bigger problem. The network traffic needed to be managed.

Turner met with Top Layer Networks of Westboro, MA, which had engineered a Layer 7 device called AppSwitch. Top Layer offered to make Fitchburg State College the beta site for the latest release of its technology.

POINTING TO POINTCAST

The device was installed on the edge of his network, in front of his firewall. Turner then fired-up the accompanying software and, via a Web-based GUI (graphical user interface), saw his network for the first time. On the screen before him, neatly displayed as bar graphs, were the exact applications flowing at that very moment through his network.

The AppSwitch identified that the PointCast application (subsequently acquired by EntryPoint) was a voracious consumer of bandwidth on campus. On Turner's screen, a colored bar identified the percentage of the network being used by the service. IP addresses of users accessing the service were attained in a few keystrokes. As far as bandwidth munchers go, PointCast was particularly gluttonous, since the application automatically refreshes on the desktops of end users at regular intervals. The regularity in which the application constantly extracted data from the Internet to stream news and stock information in a screen-saver format was reserving a permanent chunk of Turner's network, 24x7.

In real time, the device was identifying not only the contents of data packets coming in and out of his network but also analyzing--at wirespeed--packet flows end-to-end. Simply put, the device could look into the scrambled river of flowing, seemingly random packets and, by determining their relationship to one another, effectively identify the particular application the data emulated.

"It isn't about just looking at an isolated sampling of packets. Instead, the device recognizes packet flow history and application characteristics," says Mike Paquette, vice president of engineering at Top Layer Networks. "That information is then intelligently characterized and displayed via our Web-based GUI onto the network operator's desktop. From there, the operator can visually see the traffic and use the GUI to make changes and configure the network."

Turner wasted no time configuring his. Using the pull-down menus featured in the application switch's browser, Turner instructed the switch to limit the bandwidth allocated to the PointCast program. Users of the streaming news service were not denied the ability to run PointCast, but the automatic streaming slowed down considerably.

From the beginning, Turner did not want to use the technology to impose restrictive policies on how people should or should not use the network. Instead of creating prohibitive usage policies, the AppSwitch helped prevent him from having to impose blanket limitations or complete denials on certain applications.

"Without it, I would have had no choice but to impose restrictive policies on network users," explains Turner. "I have a responsibility to the college that if a prospective student comes to look at the website, the bandwidth will be available."

TOP TALKERS

The new GUI is always "open" on Turner's desktop, neatly minimized in the corner of his screen for quick and easy access. These days, the phone calls from end users complaining of network slowdowns are few and far between. If the phone does ring, though, Turner maximizes his GUI and has answers on-the-ready.

One screen that Turner refers to as his "Top Talkers" visually shows--to the second--which exact applications are absorbing the preponderance of the campus's network at any given moment. To demonstrate, Turner brings up the usage graph. The monitor fills with colored bars, each labeled with the application's name.

"The GUI can even show the network operator different transaction types," adds Paquette. "For example, if a user was buying a book on Amazon.com, the AppSwitch can be configured to differentiate between a user simply reading a book review vs. a book being placed in someone's virtual shopping cart."

Turner is not concerned with that level of detail, but admits that having a picture of what is going over his network at his fingertips is an advantage in terms of network planning, management and security. "I can use the GUI to set up policies on-the-fly based on real-time network activity. It has more than once helped us understand the effect a given application is having on our network. Now we can plan, and be proactive."

www.toplayer.com

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