Lafayette, Colorado – March 31, 2005 – APconnections, a supplier of plug-and-play bandwidth shaping products, announced today the availability of its AirEqualizer, a self contained power-over-Ethernet (PoE) wireless access point (AP) with built-in APconnections Equalizer technology. AirEqualizer allows organizations to control network congestion at the AP, ensuring high quality connectivity for voice over IP (VoIP) and priority users, thereby dramatically reducing help desk and service calls—without the need for any manual tuning.
“AP brownouts and lockups that are caused by network congestion are a very common problem in wireless networks,” said Mark Pultusker, President of MDU Broadband. “As a provider that serves multi-dwelling units, preventing this congestion is critical to our business success. The addition of AirEqualizer to our network will eliminate this ongoing headache.
We currently use NetEqualizer for our wired traffic,” Pultusker continued. “Prior to its installation, heavy use of file sharing software such as KaZaA and Gnutella, which can generate 200 to 300 sessions per user, forced us to reboot our routers every few days. When that usage is multiplied by twenty to thirty users, routers become easily overwhelmed. Additionally, viruses would create problems, since one user could generate tons of traffic via a virus and totally shut down the network. We’ve found that it is easier to prevent problems like these by being proactive; by using equalizing technology, we have not had to invest any time after the fact finding the offender.”
“With AirEqualizer, we are changing the economics of delivering quality wireless services,” said Art Reisman, CTO and founder of APconnections. “Built-in equalizing eliminates brownouts and lockups, while at the same time allowing 25-40% more users to connect to a single AP.”
In addition to APconnections’ equalizing technology, AirEqualizer comes with standard commercial AP technology, including authentication, billing, re-direction, routing, and firewall protection.
About Air/NetEqualizer
The APconnections family of plug-and-play traffic shaping products delivers automated bandwidth control based on built-in fairness rules. Air/NetEqualizer products make control decisions dynamically, prioritizing and shifting bandwidth between applications depending upon shifts in network usage. During times of peak congestion, equalizing technology portions more bandwidth for latency-sensitive applications such as VoIP and business-class applications, including CRM and ERP, while still enabling non-critical data traffic such as large file downloads to traverse the network. This approach ensures user satisfaction and allows APconnections’ customers to reduce both bandwidth and operational expenses.
Unlike the alternatives, Air/NetEqualizer products install in minutes and do not require the user to build and manage extensive policy libraries. The products seamlessly integrate with existing network infrastructure and do not require router upgrades or other network changes.
In addition, Air/NetEqualizer provides priority for all major IP PBX products and supports recognition, protection and quality guarantees for vendor-specific VoIP applications (VSVA). VSVA goes beyond merely identifying generic VoIP protocols such as SIP, H323 and RTP and allows Air/NetEqualizer to recognize specific VoIP applications from third-party vendors and assures customers that latency-sensitive VoIP traffic will not be impacted by bandwidth-intensive data traffic. Vendors currently recognized include Avaya, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Siemens, Mitel Networks, Tenovis, Alcatel, NEC, Inter-Tel, Toshiba, 3Com, Shore Tel, Vertical Networks, Ericsson, EADS Telecom, Philips Business Communications and Aastra Technologies.
About APconnections
APconnections (www.apconnections.net) is a privately-held company founded in July 2003 and based in Lafayette, CO. The company develops fully-featured, cost-effective and easy-to-install and manage traffic shaping products based on Linux and Open Source technology. APconnections released its first commercial offering in July 2003, and since then over 1000 customers around the world have put the NetEqualizer family of bandwidth shaping products into service. NetEqualizer products can be found at ISPs, WISPs, major universities, Fortune 500 companies, SOHOs and small businesses on six continents.