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80 Gbps Deep Packet Inspection Hardware Announced
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that Procera Networks is launching a new weapon on the deep packet inspection (DPI) front. At $800,000 these 80 Gbps tanks aren't going to be sitting in everyone's closet, but it could mean that more traffic shaping is on the way. "The PL10000 can handle up to 5 million subscribers and can track 48 million real-time data flows. That's certainly a potent piece of hardware, but larger ISPs will need more. That's why Procera designed the new machines with full support for synchronizing traffic flows where return traffic might be routed to a different PacketLogic machine. The machine receiving the return traffic can make the machine monitoring the outbound traffic aware that it sees the other half of a TCP/IP conversation, for example, giving the devices more accuracy than those which might only have access to one side."
At almost a million dollars a pop, is it really saving money for ISPs to use these? How many would a major ISP need to shape all of their traffic?
No, but if they wanted to be pricks they could identify p2p users and give THEIR encrypted traffic a very low priority.
Even if you ran with full encryption and encrypted the communication with the tracker it's still trivial to identify you as a p2p user -- not many VPNs make connections with dozens (or hundreds) of remote hosts.
The only way around that would be to VPN somewhere and use that VPN link to pass all your p2p traffic -- but if you have the means at your disposal to set that up then you likely have the means to find an ISP that doesn't throttle your p2p traffic.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
$800,000/5 million subscribers = $0.16 per subscriber.
Expect to see the surcharge in your next bill!!!
Investing in more capacity means a linear increase in customers and profits. Investing in network anti-neutrality, OTOH, means new and lucrative pricing structures for various services. They're just putting money where it stands to return the greater profit.
If my ISP is going to inspect my packets to the point of identifying their content as p2p, then they should be 100% responsible for any and all illegal activities I may or may not conduct on their connections.
The entire concept of the DMCA safe harbor clause was founded on the understanding that it would be virtually impossible for providers to monitor and filter illegal or unlawful activities and data. However, now it has become perfectly reasonable that they can identify and reroute or slow this traffic. This clearly nullify's the safeharbor provisions.
The ISP's need to realize they cant have it both ways.
If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
It looks like a disaster in a box to me: not only does it allow anyone with the price of the machine to monitor and inspect each and every packet you exchange, it also is capable of destroying the legal protections that ISPs currently enjoy.
The ISPs are treated like common carriers and are exempt from many liabilities because they carry all traffic equally and don't know or control the content of that traffic. Now that they're insisting that they need to "prioritize" some traffic at the expense of others, monitor and drop traffic because of its content, and are installing machines like these that further refine their ability to monitor and control what traffic you'll be allowed to transmit - well, their "safe harbor" exemptions are based on them not doing any of this.
Just the existence of this machine will be the undoing of many...