Bandwidth-Management Devices

Just as LAN speeds have been increasing steadily, so has usage. Traffic management vendors have solutions to aid you in your quest to manage your bandwidth effectively. Whether you need to manage a T1 or T3, solutions are available to create and enforce bandwidth management policies.

We tested Check Point Software Technologies' FloodGate-1 4.1, Lightspeed Systems QoS Control for e-Business 2.60, Nortel Networks Content Networking's Alteon AceDirector 4 and Sitara Networks QoSWorks 10000 1.7, and found a wealth of differences in configuration and management styles, as well as implementations. We looked at performance in terms of the effect of our policies on response times for interactive traffic (HTTP) and jitter rates for latency- sensitive traffic (VoIP and streaming media), as well as the ability to smooth out bursty traffic (FTP). We also examined the methods of configuration, management, and how much effort was involved to insert a traffic management device into our network. We split our review into two categories -- one for devices managing E1 speeds and lower, and one for devices managing 10 Mbps and above.

Check Point's FloodGate-1 took the prize in our 2-Mbps-and-below category by offering excellent performance, as well as the ability to dig into encrypted VPN traffic and correctly categorize the traffic inside. Lightspeed Systems QoS Control for e-Business screamed to the top of the 10-Mbps-and-above category, performing speedily and offering a plethora of features and configuration options.