Expand Networks, www.expand.com, a leading provider of application acceleration solutions over the Wide Area Network (WAN), today announced that the Expand Networks Accelerators have won the Network Testing Lab´s World Class Award for Best Satellite Link Performance Enhancement, clearly beating out Packeteer (recently acquired by Blue Coat), ViaSat, iDirect, and Comtech in an independent testing conducted by Network Testing Labs. The award was given to the product that was best able to optimize communications over the WAN for latency–challenged, low bandwidth satellite links.
Network Testing Lab put each vendor´s products through rigorous tests, funneling several different application protocol streams, singly and in various combinations. Expand´s accelerator appliances consistently and reliably sent the most data across high latency, low bandwidth satellite connections in all areas measured. With its advanced caching and compression techniques, Expand also came out ahead in terms of throughput, and showed the best control of network traffic with its Layer 7 Quality of Service (QoS).
Expand also excelled in VoIP performance testing, achieving the highest mean opinion scores (MOS). Overall, Expand has developed the industry´s best performing Performance Enhancing Proxy (PEP) to mitigate satellite network TCP/IP latencies. Expand Networks has advanced the NASA designed Space Communications Protocol Standard (SCPS) TCP acceleration and combined it with next generation WAN acceleration technology. It´s much more than a simple PEP, providing best–in–class Layer 7 QoS, patented byte–level caching, compression, centralized management and reporting, and object level caching that clearly shows Expand as having the world´s best satellite acceleration technology available today.
Expand´s extremely portable code, which works well in both physical and virtual environments, allows customers to maximize their infrastructure investments. As a result, Expand accelerators scored high points for having the most flexible form factors and more deployment options than any other company´s, including appliance based, virtual appliance based, non–hard drive based, Softwoc, and now PC–104+ based. It is also currently the only solution that provides a central management console for satellite links, easing management, configuration, and deployment.
Expand just recently launched the Accelerator 1610 in a PC–104+ form factor. The unique ability to provide flexibility and scalability in such a condensed form factor"”and to live in a host device without space or power challenges in harsh or space constrained environments"”makes it ideal for integration into mobile communications that use the PC104 stack.
As a result of increased demand and restricted supply, satellite communications is more expensive, with bandwidth upgrades more difficult to get because of the limited availability. In the midst of these challenges, Expand offers return–on–investment in 3 to 6 months as well as the only real option for most users: significantly accelerated communications on these high latency, low bandwidth links.
Overall, Expand proved to have the richest feature set, using the best optimization techniques given the specific traffic in question and in a variety of form factors.
Barry Nance, author of the report, concluded, "Without question, the Expand Networks´ Accelerators turn a satellite link from a necessary evil into a useful, productive data communications medium. They reduce application response times and reduce costs. Its high–tech management of the satellite link dramatically accelerates traffic, and the devices are reliable, scalable, easy to install and easy to use."
For more general resources as well as a copy of the report, please go to Expand Networks Satellite Knowledge Center: http://www.expand.com/satellite
