Zeugma Systems, a start-up based in Vancouver, Canada, has enhanced its Zeugma Services Node (ZSN) broadband edge aggregation device with new “SmartMeter” capabilities to help service providers define and enforce fair and flexible broadband policies.
Zeugma’s hardware platform integrates routing, subscriber, and service management in a single platform powered by high-performance, multi-core packet processors. The new Smart Series applications run within the Zeugma Open Application Sandbox (OAS) to provide granular choices for defining basic and advanced broadband services.
SmartMeter delivers more granular usage tracking and more dynamic bandwidth management through a combination of deep session inspection (DSI), policy, traffic quantification, and bandwidth shaping.
Zeugma said SmartMeter now enables usage policies to be defined in the following ways:
- Time of day. SmartMeter allows service providers to tailor usage packages that are time-of-day specific. With this capability, service providers can provide incentives for consumers to move traffic from heavily congested peak usage hours to lightly congested off hours, thereby improving network efficiency without the need for capacity upgrades.
- Traffic type. The requirement for both basic and advanced service policies means service providers need ways to treat certain traffic differently. An example would be the exclusion of all communications-oriented traffic–VOIP, IM, and possibly email–from the monthly usage cap of a basic service package. Since these services tend to be light consumers of bandwidth, such a usage package would improve customer satisfaction at little or no cost to the operator.
- Special handling of video traffic. For consumers opting for video services such as IPTV, video on demand (VOD), and premium internet video, service providers also need a mechanism to enforce appropriate bandwidth parameters to ensure a quality video experience. Since these services encourage the consumption of bandwidth it is arguably necessary that the network exclude fee-based video traffic from the usage cap.
- Customizable behavior. In order to improve customer satisfaction and reduce the likelihood of unusually high usage bills, service providers can, for example, reduce peak downstream bandwidth once a usage limit has been reached rather than apply overage charges. It is even possible to forecast usage and begin to take corrective action before the usage limit is reached.
- Zeugma Systems is led by Andrew Harries, co-founder, President and CEO and who previously co-founded Sierra Wireless Inc.; Siegfried Luft, founder, CTO and formerly a senior development executive at Redback Networks; Jeff Dillabough, VP Engineering, formerly at PMC-Sierra; Tom Meehan, VP product management, previously at Redback Networks; Wayne Shackelford, SVP Worldwide Sales, who formerly led sales at several startups and at Newbridge Networks USA; and Kevin Walsh, VP of Marketing, who previously was VP of Corporate Marketing at Calix.
- The name Zeugma refers to an ancient city located in the Gaziantep Province of Turkey that was named for the bridge of boats, or zeugma, which crossed the Euphrates there. During the Roman Empire, the city held strategic importance due to its location on the Silk Road.