Packeteer's OC-3 Class PacketShaper 8500 Series is designed to address the needs of service providers by offering application-intelligent bandwidth management at WAN speeds up to 200 Mbps.

by Wayne Kawamoto [December 17, 2001]

Packeteer, Inc., a provider of Internet application infrastructure systems, recently announced its PacketShaper 8500 series—a gigabit Ethernet-based system that provides application-intelligent bandwidth management at OC-3 speeds (155Mbps) and higher. The PacketShaper 8500 series is specifically designed to address the performance, capacity and availability needs of such high-bandwidth environments as service provider hosting centers and points-of-presence, large enterprise data centers and college and university networks.

Specific features of the PacketShaper 8500 include:

1. Gigabit Ethernet—The device supports both copper and fiber gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
   
   
2. Expandibility—The 8500 architecture is designed to accommodate future needs with two externally accessed expansion slots for added gigabit and 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports or future feature cards, and expandable memory up to 1GB.
   
   
3. High-Performance—The PacketShaper 8500 offers up to 200Mbps throughput, as well as support for up to 5,000 classes and more than 500,000 simultaneous flows. Packeteer says that service providers will benefit from the company's Dynamic Subscriber Bandwidth Provisioning (DSBP)—a dynamic bandwidth allocation technology that enables controlled, over-provisioning of IP services to support populations of several hundred thousand subscribers with up to 20,000 concurrently active.
   
   
4. High-Availability—With dual, load-sharing, multi-sourced and hot-swappable power supplies, and redundant cooling fans, the PacketShaper 8500 Series promises high reliability and serviceability. Support for up to three pairs of gigabit Ethernet connections with built-in automatic bypass should also enable high-availability topologies.

The PacketShaper 8500 has been specifically designed for service providers or enterprises seeking to deliver differentiated, application-intelligent and service-level agreement (SLA)-clad services in wireline and wireless environments.

"The increase of power on the desktop, network and Internet user numbers, application types and file sizes requires that bandwidth management be used at large links," said Lawrence Orans, senior analyst at Gartner, Inc. "This is increasingly important in two areas. The first is in large enterprises and universities, where large user populations and disparate application and file types compete with mission-critical applications for bandwidth. The second is in service-provider networks, where the ability to manage shared connections on a per-subscriber basis drastically affects user satisfaction and, ultimately, the bottom line."

"With multiple T3 lines now common at small- and-medium-sized service providers, large enterprises and universities, the PacketShaper 8500 is a natural extension to the existing product line," said Todd Krautkremer, vice president of marketing for Packeteer. "The PacketShaper 8500 is the next step up in performance, breaking the 100Mbps barrier and giving Packeteer customers the ability to scale as they upgrade their networks."

Availability and pricing
The PacketShaper 8500 with copper gigabit Ethernet interfaces and running PacketWise Enterprise or ISP Edition software is scheduled for release later this month. A fiber gigabit Ethernet interface module will be available in first quarter 2002. United States list prices will range from $22,000 to $49,000.

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