Caspian Networks has been selected by South Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) to co-develop advanced IP flow state solutions for the nation’s Broadband convergence Network (BcN). The project will combine Caspian’s flow state technology with ETRI’s technical expertise in network control and simplified multi-protocol labeling switching (sMPLS).
The BcN project is targeting a goal to build an integrated network in South Korea with bandwidth of 50 ~ 100 Mbps per end user that can offer seamless multimedia services to 20 million Korean subscribers using wired and wireless communications among heterogeneous networks. South Korea already has the highest broadband penetration rate in the world and high-speed residential connections offering tens of megabits of performance have been on the market for some time. The BcN initiative aims to drive connectivity to the next level, offering seamlessly connectivity between services. Network providers benefit with deterministic, guaranteed IP Quality of Service (QoS) offerings, mobility, and security for new and demanding multimedia applications as set forth by the BcN project. Users benefit with cutting edge integrated services, like IP video and music, online entertainment, real-time health and welfare response, Voice over IP, and more, regardless of device or location.
Caspian Networks, which is based in San Jose, California, has been developing flow-based routing since its founding in 2002 by Dr. Larry Roberts. In flow-based networking, packets are routed as whole flows, i.e. streams of related packets, rather than as individual packets as in current IP/MPLS networks. Caspian’s existing “Apeiro” platform examines each packet entering the router, identifies flows, and then stores to memory the flow’s relevant routing information as well as its QoS, loss, delay and jitter characteristics. Flows are identified by the combination of source address, destination address, source port, destination port, and protocol. Subsequent packets in the flow are switched based on the “flow state” data already in memory. By tracking potentially tens of millions of microflows per 10 Gbps interface per second in hardware, Caspian said its Apeiro platform provides deterministic QoS for premium IP traffic that is equivalent to ATM. The ASIC-driven platform is capable of handling flow set-ups significantly faster than the circuit set-up rates typical of ATM and MPLS.
Caspian will establish an R&D center in Korea to support the co- development efforts with ETRI and to serve as a technical support hub for the Asia Pacific region. Initially, Caspian expects to hire about 15 engineers.
http://www.caspian.com
http://www.etri.re.kr
- In Sept. 2004, the government of South Korea picked 3 consortia to conduct Broadband Convergence Network (BCN) trial operations scheduled for this year. The consortia are led by led by Korea Telecom, SK Telecom and Dacom. The goal of the BcN is to build an integrated network supporting bandwidth of 50 ~ 100 Mbps to 20 million subscribers via wired or wireless access.
- In January 2005, Northrop Grumman awarded a multi-year contract to Caspian Networks for joint development of a critical element of the space communications system payload for the Air Force’s Transformational Satellite Communications System (TSAT) Space Segment.
