Sandvine
Encyclopedia
Sandvine Incorporated is a networking equipment company based in Waterloo, Ontario
, Canada
.
Sandvine network policy control products are designed to implement broad network policies, ranging from service creation, billing, congestion management, and security. Sandvine targets its products at consumer Tier 1
and Tier 2 network
s including cable, DSL, and mobile.
.
An initial round of VC
funding launched the company with $20M (Cdn). A subsequent round of financing of $19M (Cdn) was completed in May 2005.
In March 2006 Sandvine completed an initial public offering on the London AIM exchange under the ticker 'SAND'. In October 2006 Sandvine completed an initial public offering on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticker 'SVC'.
Initial product sales focused at congestion management as operators struggled with the high growth of broadband. Many operators have shifted focus to revenue generating services and reducing operational expenditure.
In June 2007 Sandvine acquired Israel
i company CableMatrix Technologies and turned into its Israeli R&D center. Sandvine Israel developes advanced, PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM)-based software solutions that enable broadband cable operators to increase subscriber satisfaction while delivering media-rich IP applications and services such as SIP telephony, video streaming, on-line gaming, and videoconferencing.
Rather than identifying individual messages, spam control is based on identifying sources of spam from behaviors such as using multiple SMTP servers, using multiple source (EHLO) domains and large address books.
Quality of service control is provided for a range of media applications including video conferencing, VoIP and gaming.
The P2P path optimizer focuses on Gnutella, and uses a path cost algorithm to reduce congestion while still delivering the same content. Stateful Policy Management uses stateful deep-packet inspection and packet spoofing to allow the networking device to determine the details of the p2p conversation, including the hash requested. The device can then determine the optimal peer to use, and substitute it for the one selected by the P2P algorithm, by "[sitting] in the middle, imitating both ends of the connection, and sending reset packets to both client and server."
The usage-based-billing includes pre-paid and post-paid 3G and 4G mobile access, as well as all fixed access.
in the United States to manage Internet traffic generated by peer-to-peer file sharing software. Sandvine's current congestion management product, Fairshare, is described in detail in an RFC.
According to independent testing, Comcast injected reset packets into peer-to-peer connections, which effectively caused a certain limited number of outbound connections to immediately terminate. This method of network management was described in the IEEE Communications, May 2000 article "Nonintrusive TCP Connection Admission Control for Bandwidth Management of an Internet Access Link".
A product whitepaper published by Sandvine confirms that its products are configurable to use "Session Management" capability to prevent customers using BitTorrent from providing uploads to peers who are not close to them on the network. This affects all uses of BitTorrent (such as open-source project distribution, patch distribution and illegal downloads).
Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the smallest of the three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo, and is adjacent to the city of Kitchener....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Sandvine network policy control products are designed to implement broad network policies, ranging from service creation, billing, congestion management, and security. Sandvine targets its products at consumer Tier 1
Tier 1 network
A tier 1 network is an Internet Protocol network that participates in the Internet solely via settlement-free interconnection, also known as settlement-free peering.-Definition:...
and Tier 2 network
Tier 2 network
A Tier 2 Network is an Internet service provider who engages in the practice of peering with other networks, but who still purchases IP transit to reach some portion of the Internet....
s including cable, DSL, and mobile.
Company history
Sandvine was formed in August 2001 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, by a team of approximately 30 people from a recently closed Cisco acquisition, PixStreamPixStream
PixStream was a media player company based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. They also manufactured hardware for delivering digital video over an ATM transport. PixStream was acquired by Cisco Systems on August 31, 2000 then promptly shut down...
.
An initial round of VC
Venture capital
Venture capital is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund makes money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as...
funding launched the company with $20M (Cdn). A subsequent round of financing of $19M (Cdn) was completed in May 2005.
In March 2006 Sandvine completed an initial public offering on the London AIM exchange under the ticker 'SAND'. In October 2006 Sandvine completed an initial public offering on the Toronto stock exchange under the ticker 'SVC'.
Initial product sales focused at congestion management as operators struggled with the high growth of broadband. Many operators have shifted focus to revenue generating services and reducing operational expenditure.
In June 2007 Sandvine acquired Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i company CableMatrix Technologies and turned into its Israeli R&D center. Sandvine Israel developes advanced, PacketCable Multimedia (PCMM)-based software solutions that enable broadband cable operators to increase subscriber satisfaction while delivering media-rich IP applications and services such as SIP telephony, video streaming, on-line gaming, and videoconferencing.
Technology
Sandvine's technology focuses on policy management, including the control of spam, usage-based billing, quality of service, and P2P path optimisation.Rather than identifying individual messages, spam control is based on identifying sources of spam from behaviors such as using multiple SMTP servers, using multiple source (EHLO) domains and large address books.
Quality of service control is provided for a range of media applications including video conferencing, VoIP and gaming.
The P2P path optimizer focuses on Gnutella, and uses a path cost algorithm to reduce congestion while still delivering the same content. Stateful Policy Management uses stateful deep-packet inspection and packet spoofing to allow the networking device to determine the details of the p2p conversation, including the hash requested. The device can then determine the optimal peer to use, and substitute it for the one selected by the P2P algorithm, by "[sitting] in the middle, imitating both ends of the connection, and sending reset packets to both client and server."
The usage-based-billing includes pre-paid and post-paid 3G and 4G mobile access, as well as all fixed access.
Comcast Controversy
Sandvine products are used by ComcastComcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
in the United States to manage Internet traffic generated by peer-to-peer file sharing software. Sandvine's current congestion management product, Fairshare, is described in detail in an RFC.
According to independent testing, Comcast injected reset packets into peer-to-peer connections, which effectively caused a certain limited number of outbound connections to immediately terminate. This method of network management was described in the IEEE Communications, May 2000 article "Nonintrusive TCP Connection Admission Control for Bandwidth Management of an Internet Access Link".
A product whitepaper published by Sandvine confirms that its products are configurable to use "Session Management" capability to prevent customers using BitTorrent from providing uploads to peers who are not close to them on the network. This affects all uses of BitTorrent (such as open-source project distribution, patch distribution and illegal downloads).
In cases where a subscriber is a “seeder” and uploads content to an off net “leecher”, session management is an effective strategy... the subscriber may be session managed without negative impact. This is the default behaviour for Sandvine’s session management policy and limits external leechers from connecting to internal seeds.