EDPnet has announced that it has adopted Packet Design’s (News - Alert) Traffic Explorer integrated routing and traffic analysis (Netflow) system. EDPnet has done so to be able to better manage its transcontinental IP network, which it uses to provide clients with IP transit and retail broadband services.

The adoption of Traffic Explorer by the Belgium-based EDPnet, an international service provider, has significantly improved its capacity planning. EDPnet uses Traffic Explorer’s extensive analysis capabilities daily to be able to determine which traffic destinations and sources are growing, with the intention of continuously being able to optimize the network to handle growth.

Traffic Explorer, a key offering from network-appliance supplier Packet Design, provides service providers with end-to-end views of traffic operations and network-wide IP routing. This solution is composed of a small set of appliances which collect traffic-flow data (such as Netflow), determine how these flows make their way across the network, and examine how loads and traffic paths change as routing changes. This solution stores routing and historical traffic data in databases in order to enable modeling, analysis, diagnosis and planning. It helps users uncover network problems and plan network capacity very accurately.

Traffic Explorer is the only IP network-management system that combines path awareness across the entire network with traffic flow data in order to determine the effects of routing changes for service and application delivery.

Its use has enabled EDPnet’s network engineers to be able to properly monitor existing peering relationships to check that egress and ingress traffic is correctly balanced; to derive more accurate traffic requirement analysis, and to be able to negotiate more favorable traffic contacts based on it; and to identify settlement-free peering opportunities.

Daan Kerkhofs, EDPnet network operations manager, says that out of all the tools that the company uses, only Traffic Explorer has managed to provide detailed traffic statistics and insights required for accurate business decisions. Without this data, Kerkhofs said, it is quite difficult to make correct choices concerning transit traffic relationships and peering.

Kerkhofs said that thanks to Traffic Explorer, EDPnet has managed to shift around considerable amounts of traffic in order to achieve a better combination of transit links and peering. Because the company deployed this solution, he said, its engineers are now able to determine precisely which upstream service providers serve large concentrations of traffic, and can propose private peerings with these providers to move traffic away from expensive transit relationships. Traffic Explorer, Kerkhofs concluded, helps users see where the money flows are taking place, and then allows these users to determine where changes can be made to reduce these expenses.