Blue Coat PacketShaper 900
Visibility and Optimization for Networked Applications

Packeteer PacketShaper 900 Overview:

Visibility and control of network applications

Blue Coat PacketShaper delivers integrated visibility, control and compression capabilities in a single appliance. With PacketShaper, IT can identify all the applications on the network and monitor response times and utilization at the application level. In addition, IT can optimize application performance by using granular quality of service (QoS) controls to regulate traffic and increase WAN capacity through application-specific compression techniques.

In addition, PacketShaper enables you to:

• Discover and monitor 600+ applications with exceptional granularity.
• Replace probes with intelligent monitoring and optimization on one platform.
• Deliver voice and video conferencing with per-call QoS and MOS reporting.
• Identify and control recreational applications on the WAN.
• Optimize performance of real-time applications like thin client, transactions and voice.

Features:

• Application-Intelligent Traffic Classification: Monitor over 600 applications with Layer 7 Plus visibility for an accurate picture of network traffic.
• Network and Application Monitoring/Analysis: Look deeper into application traffic network utilization and response times, performance diagnostics, connection profiling and forensics as well as SLA tracking with proactive altering and management.
• Traffic Shaping and Quality of Service (QoS): Go far beyond routers with unparalleled QoS and traffic shaping with simple prioritization to ensure critical applications (including bandwidth max or min per application, user or flow). Also, limit or block recreational and malicious traffic.
• Centralized Monitoring and Reporting: Deploy and control multiple units with centralized management and reporting features that leverage the capabilities of every PacketShaper on the network
• Traffic Marking: Mark packets with prescribed DiffServ, IPTOS/Precedence, MPLS tags, VLANs and others. Tie applications to correct IP VPN class of service; compare performance between applications with different Type of Service (ToS) settings.

Components:

Build the perfect PacketShaper to match your organization's goals and needs. Designed as a scalable, flexible platform, PacketShaper can be easily configured for additional functionality with a flexible range of appliances that can be enhanced by software modules or hardware components.

Monitoring Module | Shaping Module | Compression Module

Blue Coat PacketShaper solutions provide visibility and control over network traffic to improve application monitoring and performance for any user, anywhere, across the networks of distributed enterprises.

Blue Coat PacketShaper Monitoring Module:

Get an accurate picture of network traffic. Blue Coat's Monitoring Module provides deep insight into application traffic-making it easy to identify and measure all traffic types-mission-critical, recreational and miscellaneous. Track, troubleshoot and manage all networked application environments.

Top 10 applications consuming bandwidth over a one week period. The most business-critical applications consume the smallest amount of bandwidth-dwarfed by Web browsing.

• Identify Applications - Classify applications on your network with Layer 7 Plus technology, which automatically identifies applications and allows you to separate business from pleasure.
• Monitor Utilization and Performance - Audit utilization and performance by links, users or applications-such as business critical, recreational and unsanctioned traffic types.
• Track Application Response Time - Track application response times, isolate performance issues and identify server- or network-related issues.
• Monitor Service-Level Agreements - Monitor service-level agreements (SLAs) for critical applications or links.
• Access Performance Diagnostics - Access performance diagnostics including connection profiling and server responses (TCP Health), traffic captures, traffic forensic history and more.

Blue Coat PacketShaper Shaping Module:

Shape traffic, ensure Quality of Service (QoS) and provide latency-sensitive, business-critical applications with the bandwidth they need to perform at their peak using flexible policy-based control.

With flexible parameters such as priority, minimum and maximum bandwidth and per-session guarantees, PacketShaper ensures QoS for business-critical applications.

• Allocate Bandwidth - Fix critical application performance issues by appropriately allocating bandwidth.
• Secure the WAN from DDoS - Stop the cycle of bandwidth upgrades and streamline the network by controlling recreational and malicious traffic.
• Minimize Network Congestion - Minimize network congestion, queuing latency and inefficiencies that hurt application response times between remote locations.

Shape traffic, ensure Quality of Service (QoS) and provide latency-sensitive, business-critical applications with the bandwidth they need to perform at their peak using flexible policy-based control.

• Recreational Application Capping/Blocking - Simply move the recreational applications into a fold and partition the bandwidth as you see fit. It's that easy to curb malicious traffic!
• DDoS, Virus and Worm Propagation Suppression - Enhance the security of your network and application infrastructure by finding and stopping infected PCs and tracking every flow through the network.
• Critical Application Performance Assurance - Ensure business-critical applications have the resources they need to operate effectively over the WAN and Internet.
• Bandwidth Allocation for Remote Sites with Inbound QoS - With patented TCP rate control, PacketShaper determines the sending rates of computers at the far end of the network-delivering bi-directional QoS.
• Application Prioritization and Session Provisioning - Prioritize more important applications over less important ones thanks to PacketShaper's application-intelligent QoS technologies. Also, provision sessions for critical applications.

Blue Coat PacketShaper Compression Module:

Quickly increase WAN capacity, improving application performance and user response times with Blue Coat's application intelligent Compression Module. Reduce bandwidth usage and minimize WAN latency using the optimal compression algorithm for each application.

Our Compression Module ensures that added capacity from virtual bandwidth goes to your applications with the highest priority.

• Increase WAN Capacity - Increase WAN capacity over the same physical links with application-specific compression.
• Improve Application Performance - Improve application performance and responsiveness-applying the best-suited compression algorithm for each application.
• Prioritize Critical Applications - Prioritize business-critical applications by giving them increased network capacity.

Quickly increase WAN capacity, improving application performance and user response times with Blue Coat's application intelligent Compression Module. Reduce bandwidth usage and minimize WAN latency using the optimal compression algorithm for each application.

• Low-Latency, Advanced Compression Technologies - Multiple compression technologies including high efficiency, low-latency algorithms, packet packing, MTU management and header compression increase WAN capacity.
• Application-Intelligent Selective Compression - Intelligently select what traffic to compress and which technology to optimize-to increase capacity from two to 100 times.
• Active Tunnel - Automatically set up tunnels between devices and maintain reliability of compression exchanges.

Specifications and Model Comparison:

From 2Mbps to 1 Gbps of throughput, there's a PacketShaper to meet your specific deployment requirements at any location—data center to network edge.

Note: Not all capacity specifications can be maximized simultaneously

* PacketShaper can support more hosts and flows; these figures represent ideal maximums for producing optimal results; numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest thousand. These maximums represent concurrent flows. Performance may vary due to the number of new flows, traffic type, traffic mix and other conditions unique to each deployment.

** Refers to post-compressed traffic rates - maximum compressed throughput specifications for PacketShaper are lower when compression is enabled due to the extra processing power required to compress traffic.

***PacketShaper 10000 has a configuration option for ISP loads. Previously, ISP editions had been offered as a separate product with unique SKU. Now, the ISP load, which adds class capacity, is available as a configuration option. Note: The ISP load increase capacity for classes and flows, but does NOT provide certain features including compression and response time statistics, among others.

Deployment:

• Scalable: PacketShaper is available in a variety of performance and price points to meet deployment requirements.
• Simple Deployment and Auto-Discovery: PacketShaper is easy to install and works immediately once deployed to discover, classify and measure traffic.
• Transparent to Existing Infrastructure: Operates as an in-line bridge, transparent to your router, switch and application infrastructure.
• Flexible Topology: Support for multiple LAN and switched environments with LAN Expansion Modules (LEM) available for connecting multiple LANs or switch ports to a single appliance, including DMZ configurations.
• High Availability: Automatic hardware bypass, Direct Standby mode and access link monitoring prevent traffic blocks from occurring in the event of failure and provide automatic adjustment of policies when a backup link is activated and active adjustment of traffic rates based on link congestion.

Main Site Internet Link Deployment

PacketShaper monitors and shapes traffic flowing through Internet service links, enabling you to view link usage, design application-based protocols and protect VPN and other Internet traffic that is backhauled through the corporate WAN.

Main Site WAN Link Deployment

In hub-and-spoke topology where application traffic flows to and from multiple sites through a single, central "hub" site, PacketShaper solutions provide network-wide application performance and ensure QoS at all locations.

Distributed Branch Deployment:

In a distributed branch topology where applications are distributed to multiple main sites or branch offices, PacketShapers solutions can be deployed at multiple locations to monitor and shape meshed application flows and provide compression.

Documentation:

Download the Blue Coat PacketShaper DataSheet (PDF).

Download the Blue Coat PacketShaper Application List (PDF).