1 SOLUTION BRIEF

Delivering Fine-grained Control and Superior Acceleration

Introduction
The Riverbed Technology WAN optimization solution accelerates data and applications across the entire customer network at the data center, in the cloud, at branch offices, and even for mobile workers. It also enhances visibility into applications over the WAN. Businesses run faster and more efficiently, saving time and cutting the cost of IT infrastructure. A complete WAN optimization solution also needs to identify applications accurately and apply quality of service (QoS) policies that guarantee predictable performance for all business applications. Controlling applications effectively requires visibility to determine which applications need to be protected, which applications should be contained, and how much bandwidth should be allocated to each. Most WAN optimization vendors use a combination of deep packet inspection (DPI) and basic QoS schedulers to understand applications on the network and prioritize them. Even though this approach might hold good for traditional applications, it fails miserably for the modern applications that currently run on most WAN networks. These applications range from business VoIP, video, and interactive Web applications that are sensitive to latency and packet loss, to recreational applications that port-hop, or change/mask protocols and sometimes wreak havoc in a corporate environment, affecting productivity. Organizations need more than DPI and more than traditional QoS.

BENEFITS
The Riverbed AppFlow engine ensures that applications get classified based on type The Riverbed HFSC engine schedules applications based on their latency sensitivity A template-driven user interface simplifies the deployment of QoS configuration across the enterprise

Riverbed QoS delivers a unique combination of best-of-breed classification and an advanced, unique scheduling technique based on Hierarchical Fair Service Curves (HFSC) that addresses the need for accurate classification of applications, the allocation of minimum and maximum bandwidths (as other tools do), and the ability to prioritize applications based on their latency sensitivity (which is not possible with most other approaches). Lets look at how the Riverbed classification and QoS engine delivers the maximum performance to customers, delivering a ROI in about six months, on average.

Riverbed AppFlow Engine: How it Works

The Riverbed classification, or AppFlow, engine utilizes a variety of techniques, often in combination, to maximize the accuracy and efficiency of its ability to provide application visibility into network traffic in real-time, with the most flexibility. These techniques include portbased classification, application signature matching, protocol dissection, and others. Lets looks in detail at what each of these techniques is. Port-based Port-based classification is based on the knowledge that certain applications utilize certain ports. Pattern matching / application signatures - This typically translates to searching the initial traffic for well-known patterns,

SOLUTION BRIEF: Delivering Fine-grained Control and Superior Acceleration

possibly at well-known offsets, or when combined with protocol dissection within specific protocol elements. This could be via regular expression matching and/or byte or string matching. Protocol dissection - This involves having a detailed understanding of the application protocol, and the ability to parse the protocol messages and follow the conversation in order to identify and extract interesting information. Doing so not only ensures accurate classification, but also enables deep contextual sub-classification and protocol attribute extraction. Future flow registration This is the ability to identify and associate a flow that will take place in the future based on a flow that has been identified in the past; it isnt an inspection technique per se, but it is a powerful facilitating tool that ensures accuracy and performance. Behavioral - Behavioral classification relies on the detection of behavioral attributes of the network traffic. The Riverbed engine can utilize packet size, packet inter-arrival time, packet rate, data rate, and entropy calculations in its detection of a behavioral signature for an application. Another behavioral technique involves the contextual understanding of what a particular host has been doing recently, or whom it is or has been communicating with. Decryption / decoding - Some applications utilize encoding, obfuscation, or a simple encryption technique.

Riverbed Hierarchical Fair Service Curve (HFSC) Scheduling How it Works

Riverbed QoS uses a unique scheduler called the Hierarchical Fair Service Curve (HFSC) that addresses not just the allocation of minimum and maximum bandwidths, but also prioritizes and schedules applications based on their latency sensitivity (which is not possible with most other approaches). Imagine, for example, that two different real-time, critical applications such as VoIP and video conferencing were configured with bandwidth guarantees, but without the ability to set priority for each based on sensitivity. During heavy use periods, even jf bandwidth guarantees were honored, queues would become filled with video traffic, causing the rate at which VoIP packets are scheduled to vary, introducing jitter and, as a result, noticeably lower quality calls. Some QoS tools try to work around this drawback by dedicating excess bandwidth, perhaps over-provisioning by 20 percent or more, to certain applications. But this is wasteful, sometimes crude, sometimes complex, and in fact unnecessary. These tools also often encounter problems when trying to prioritize multiple types of traffic at the same time. Riverbed QoS can address these issues smoothly and simply, with distinct controls for both bandwidth and sensitivity. This delivers better, more predictable performance for all-important applications according to their unique needs. Riverbed Steelhead appliances allow the definition of thousands of QoS classes for maximum scalability in controlling application behavior. Each QoS class represents an arbitrary aggregation of traffic that the Steelhead appliance treats the same way for QoS enforcement purposes. Any given QoS class has an associated latency priority and minimum (guaranteed) bandwidth, and can also have an upper bandwidth limit and/or optimized connection-count limit. The Riverbed QoS engine delivers streamlined, application-level control and optimization by delivering the following features: Content-aware application control With content-aware application control, the Riverbed QoS engine can identify and classify 100 of the most common enterprise applications, and is configurable to classify thousands of custom applications as well. This ensures that critical applications like web, voice, and video are protected, while recreational applications are contained.

Figure 1: Classify and prioritize applications

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SOLUTION BRIEF: Delivering Fine-grained Control and Superior Acceleration

Template-driven UI This solution offers simplicity, and the quickest ramp time with respect to QoS policies, by offering built-in policy templates and plug-n-play deployment.

Figure 2: Site-based bandwidth allocation

Latency-aware traffic scheduling With this feature traffic can be scheduled for applications based on their sensitivity, thus eliminating jitter and starvation.

Steelhead appliances are also compatible with QoS enforcement on routers and specialized QoS devices, and can apply the state-of-theart QoS enforcement capabilities weve discussed here.

The Riverbed Advantage

The Riverbed QoS engine delivers the highest level of granularity, performance, and ease of management. With Riverbed appliances, customers get best-of-breed WAN Optimization solutions that deliver fine-grained classification and control over the applications that traverse the network, helping deliver the utmost control and acceleration. This helps organizations work better and faster.

About Riverbed
Riverbed is the IT performance company. WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed liberate businesses from common IT constraints by increasing application performance, enabling consolidation, and providing enterprise-wide network and application visibility all while eliminating the need to increase bandwidth, storage or servers. Thousands of companies trust Riverbed to deliver greater productivity and cost savings by making their IT infrastructure faster, less expensive and more responsive. Riverbed solutions are also available as managed services through select providers. Additional information about Riverbed (NASDAQ: RVBD) is available at www.riverbed.com.

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