netVmg Routes 100,000 Flows Simultaneously, Earning Tolly Group Up-to-Spec Certification for Scalability and Visibility

Business Wire, Oct 7, 2002

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 7, 2002

Tolly Group Tests Confirm Performance, Scalability, and Reporting

Metrics for netVmg Flow Control Platform

Delivering unprecedented scalability in intelligent route control, netVmg today announced the results of independent testing by The Tolly Group confirming that netVmg's Flow Control Platform(TM) (FCP) Release 2.2 can provide predictable, consistent Internet performance for up to 681 Mbps of live customer traffic routed to 100,000 destinations simultaneously -- with no link or latency overhead. In addition, the tests showed the FCP provides comprehensive real-time and historical visibility into the characteristics of all customer Internet connections, including per-flow and per-link performance and usage, route changes implemented, and projected monthly billing.

"Companies that use the Internet for strategic business purposes need three things: control over WAN costs, consistent WAN performance, and clear reporting to verify the performance, usage, and cost metrics of any of their provider links at any time," said Eric Wolford, senior vice president of marketing and business development at netVmg. "In other words, they want the same kind of predictability and control from the Internet that they currently enjoy from their private network connections. The Tolly Group tests provide third-party validation that netVmg can optimize Internet performance for even the largest customer environments, while giving customers a robust reporting module to prove network performance, improve network planning, lower WAN costs, and enable SLA enforcement."

"Our testing showed that the netVmg FCP is more than capable of making route updates in real time, based on prevailing network conditions and customer policies," said Kevin Tolly, president and CEO of The Tolly Group. "The netVmg FCP can optimize Internet routes based on performance and cost, as determined by customer-defined policies, and can make tradeoffs across these metrics simultaneously and dynamically. Equally important, the FCP offers in-depth visibility through its comprehensive reporting capabilities."

Benchmark Test Details

The Tolly Group benchmark tests focused on these key aspects of the netVmg FCP:

-- Processing throughput and scalability

-- Real-time, dynamic response to baseline performance policies

-- FlowView(TM) real-time and historic reporting capabilities

The primary function of the FCP is to choose the best Internet route for application traffic based on customer-defined criteria for performance, latency, and cost. The Tolly Group tests confirmed that the FCP can passively process up to 681 Mbps of live customer traffic to as many as 100,000 simultaneous destination networks without adding any traffic or latency to the wire. The FCP can accurately determine both the volume and the end-to-end latency and loss of traffic to any destination in real time, and can update the route based on predefined criteria, or create dynamic update policies. In the latter case, the FCP performs an automatic baseline of the prevailing link conditions (latency, packet loss, and volume) to 'self-configure' its policies, based on behavior of flows to a particular destination. No other route control product on the market today offers dynamic performance baseline policies.

To improve the scalability of its intelligent route control dramatically, the platform distinguishes healthy traffic from traffic that does not meet performance criteria, and works only to find new routes for the ill-performing (or "sick") traffic. For those links exhibiting performance degradation or those designated as "important" by the customer, the FCP sends out lightweight probe packets to other available links, to determine the best transport characteristics for a desired endpoint. If a better performing path is found, the FCP updates the sick traffic to the new route using an iBGP peering session established with the customer's border router(s).

Throughout the course of The Tolly Group testing, netVmg's FlowView tool accurately monitored link usage and end-to-end performance across the Internet via a mirrored port(s) at the switch(es), linking the network to the border router. FlowView enables customers to compare real-time performance with historical trends; project usage costs for the month; compare-and-contrast performance of different service provider links; determine how much traffic has been optimized by the FCP; and assess the overall performance improvement of the network due to intelligent route control.

For More Information

Customers seeking more information about The Tolly Group findings can obtain a four-page summary of the FCP benchmark tests from netVmg. See the netVmg Web site for more details (www.netvmg.com).

About The Tolly Group

The Tolly Group, an independent testing and strategic consulting organization based in Manasquan, N.J., offers a full range of services designed to furnish both the vendor and end-user communities with authoritative and unbiased information. Additionally, The Tolly Group is recognized worldwide for its expertise in assessing leading-edge technologies. For more information on the Tolly Group's services, visit its Web site at http://www.tolly.com, E-mail inquiries to info@tolly.com, or phone at 732/528-3300.