Expand Networks Integrates Rocket Science to Improve Application Performance Over Satellite Communications

Expand Networks,  is addressing application performance issues over satellite links enabling global enterprises to reliably deliver all business applications.

With increasingly dispersed offices in remote locations, satellite networks have become common practice to assist organisations in business agility. However, the design limitations of high latency and packet loss over satellite networks severely affect application performance resulting in delayed file transfer, slow response times and reduced remote user productivity. By deploying the Expand Compass platform with integrated Space Communications Protocol Standards (SCPS), all applications are accelerated over satellite networks guaranteeing workforce productivity and end user satisfaction.

SCPS is a collection of standards-based TCP enhancements designed and developed by NASA to overcome the shortcomings of TCP in the stressed environment of satellite communications. Expand has truly integrated SCPS with the multiple technologies of the Expand Compass platform in a single platform, to mitigate against the negative impact of satellite and accelerate applications to remote users, guaranteeing improved performance and productivity.

“When SCPS is combined with compression, byte-level caching, QoS and other forms of caching techniques integrated in the Compass, it ensures that Expand delivers as much ‘virtual’ capacity as possible while mitigating the effects of TCP latency, and gaining complete control with the QoS, and crucially, all in one device, ” said Adam Davison, VP Sales, EMEA, Expand Networks. “ Compass excels in satellite environments with the ability to accelerate all business applications ensuring they achieve maximum potential resulting in improved end user productivity and reduced network costs. ”

When deploying Compass, compression features increase network capacity on average by as much as 100-400% removing congestion, and acceleration rates of 300-500% address protocol limitations, reducing chattiness and lessening latency. In addition, QoS services prioritise business over non-business and other web traffic to eradicate congestion for mission critical applications.

Many organisations around the world have already experienced the tremendous improvement in application performance and capabilities over satellite links when deploying the Expand Compass platform such as Boeing Integrated Defense. According to Dennis Watts, project manager, “ Efficiency is an integral part of our evaluation and it is important to have strong compression functionality along with QoS. Expand’s Compass Platform possesses a robust architecture in addition to their experience in government satellite markets.”

In addition, Kenn Devine, Project Team Leader and Manager of Information Systems, Burns and Roe Services Corporation said “ On average, we experience about a four-fold average bandwidth acceleration across the 512Kbps satellite link, with peaks of 1,200%. Across the DSL sites, we experience an average of about 300% with peaks to 800%, depending on the site. There was also a 400% increase in network throughput, 100% for speed performance (back-up, file transfers) and a 50% bump to the positive in network capacity.”