F5 tunes traffic switch for mobile network needs

F5 Networks (NASDAQ:FFIV), whose platform helps service providers improve the performance of various network-based applications, released a new version of its Big-IP switch today designed to help mobile operators scale their emerging 4G networks.

In the big picture, F5’s new Big-IP 10.1 release gives mobile operators new tools to scale existing mobile services and applications while also preparing for increased traffic loads brought on by next-generation LTE (Long Term Evolution) and 4G wireless network traffic. The platform provides tools for helping carriers manage their IP traffic, including load balancing, packet inspection, redirection, high availability and network scaling.

For example, operators could use the platform to better manage the increasing amounts of layer 7 network traffic expected from 3G/4G networks in and out of their AAA (Authentication, Authorization and Accounting) servers, allowing them to avoid replacing or upgrading those critical platforms.

Today, about a quarter of F5’s revenues are service provider-related – it sells its application optimization technology both to network equipment vendors, which use it to optimize parts of their solutions, or directly to providers, who typically apply the technology to a particular problem, said Mike Krasnow, F5 product manager. Users can write so-called “iRules” to apply the Big-IP’s traffic and application management capabilities to a wide array of problems, Krasnow said.

That makes the Big-IP platform very useful and relatively widely deployed, if not especially closely associated with telco networks.  Claiming it has platforms deployed in the top 10 fixed and mobile providers, Krasnow said, “Chances are, when you make a call or do something online, that traffic is passing through a Big-IP box – or several.”

Key capabilities of the new Big-IP platform that will appeal to mobile operators in particular include support for Diameter and Radius protocols for interfacing with back-office systems; new high-capacity server blades for F5’s Viprion chassis, boosting on-demand capacity; carrier-class availability with Fast Failover capabilities; and capabilities for growing the Big-IP installation as IP, and in particular, IPv6, traffic grows.

BIG-IP v10.1 and all associated product modules are available today.