Allot debuts content filtering DPI app

At times controversial, deep packet inspection is at its heart a neutral technology – whether it draws attention from critics is a function of how a service provider applies it.

Use it for managing traffic on your network, and – fair or unfair – and a provider is likely to draw attention or in some cases criticism from customers or even regulators. Other applications – such as blocking clearly illegal content such as child pornography – are harder to find fault with.

That’s the target of Allot Communications’ new WebSafe solution, which uses the vendor’s core DPI platform to help mobile and fixed carriers block illegal Web (ie, http) content at the network level.

WebSafe is offered as an integrated service within Allot’s DPI platforms, including the Allot Service Gateway.  It uses URL filtering technology at the network level based on blacklists (ie, lists of URLs to explicitly block) that can be automatically or manually updated – with no network downtime.  Packet inspection comes in by helping to separate http traffic from other protocols on the network, which reduces the overall amount of traffic that needs to be checked against a blacklist – improving performance enough to enable the solution to scale across large service provider networks, said Jonathon Gordon, Allot’s director of marketing.

“This is the type of content that pretty much every country in the world considers illegal. Blocking this kind of content can’t possibly be seen as impinging upon somebody’s rights,” Gordon said, adding that ISPs have banded together already to help block such content, while in some regions pending legislation could make providers take an even more active role in blocking things like child pornography. “

WebSafe includes built-in opt-in/opt-out functionality that makes it easy for network providers to keep their blacklists up to date via feeds from regulatory bodies or law enforcement agencies, including the Internet Watch Foundation, which focuses primarily on child sexual abuse images.

WebSafe is the latest solution to run on Allot’s 400 Gbps-capable Service Gateway Sigma box, including MediaSwift, which helps providers manage and monetize video services; service tiering; quota management; and customer self-management.

The technology underlying the WebSafe solution could be extended for additional applications, though for now, Allot’s Gordon stressed, the vendor chose to start with helping carriers filter content that would raise little, if any, concerns from net neutrality watchers.

For instance, the platform could be used to track pirated copyright content, though stolen movies for example are more often delivered via protocols other than http. The underlying technology could also be used to implement parental controls, though Allot has not yet released such a solution.

“We do see this kind of technology taken farther down the line,” Gordon said, noting however that market and in some cases regulatory concerns must be taken into account before a service provider can deploy DPI to such ends.

The WebSafe solution is available now and already deployed by several service providers, Gordon said.