Reviewing Packet Shaping Products

Packeteer PacketShaper v. Allot NetEnforcer

In August, 2002, the Carnegie Mellon Network Group conducted a review of two packet shaping products: the Packeteer PacketShaper, and the Allot NetEnforcer. The purpose of packet shaping units, in a nutshell, is to prioritize classes of traffic over others and enforce administrative policy for network usage. The intended result is an increase in the perceived bandwidth available for critical applications without increasing the bandwidth available.

To conduct these tests, we received demonstration units from both companies, connected them to live networks, and implemented various policies and controls. The result of our testing was a strong preference for the Allot NetEnforcer unit, as described in our review document.

We hope that our review provides insight into what features we considered important and the results of testing these features. We recommend thoroughly testing these units in your environment prior to purchase. Unlike other network gear (routers, switches), there are fundamental differences in the methods the units use for controlling bandwidth usage. Each unit certainly has its strengths, and matching those to your needs can only be done by testing them in real-world applications.

Prior to publication, we provided each company with the opportunity to review our document and comment on factual errors.

Packeteer

Our Packeteer engineer was concerned with the lack of testing of the unit's Rate Policies. The following was recommended as an insertion to the document:

"During ALL tests Rate Policies on the PacketShaper were NOT tested. This technology is where Packeteer has most of its patents ... Other items not even considered were classification (which again is typically a strong feature for the PacketShaper, particularly in P2P traffic types) and application monitoring ( ... the PacketShaper tracks over 55 performance metrics with many of them very focused on health not just throughput)."

NetEnforcer

Our NetEnforcer engineer reviewed the document but had no requested changes.

Quality of Service Policy Enforcement Review

September 30, 2002 Editor's Note: This page has been slightly revised since initial publication. Some comments and original text has been moved to the Comments page.