Ethernity recently exhibited at the NetworkX conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This event was an excellent melding of three smaller events into a single mega-conference: Broadband World Forum, 5G World, and Telco/Cloud.
We purposely situated our booth on the dividing aisle between the broadband and 5G areas of the show floor, attracting attendees from both areas to discuss our products and solutions that deftly address the data transport needs of each. Whether they were interested in our PON devices to enable broadband and fiber-to-the-room connectivity, our ACE-NIC FPGA SmartNIC to enable disaggregated fronthaul aggregation and/or vRouter (or other virtual applications) offload, or our wireless bonding over our UEP network appliances, we had a solution to fit virtually any attendee’s needs.
The highlight of the show, of course, was our live demo of the wireless bonding technology. Designed by VP of Products and Business Development Oded Bergman, the demo used two compact UEP-20 appliances, each connected to a server from which they would send a live streaming video to the other via a 10Gb point-to-point wireless link that was simulated by another UEP-20 between them. One of the two UEPs would be using Link Aggregation (LAG) to transmit the video, while the other would be using Ethernity’s patented link bonding technology.
Initially, the video was easily transmitted from one UEP-20 to the other, as a 10Gb connection is more than enough to handle video traffic. However, we then introduced an additional 4Gb of interfering traffic via a Xena Ethernet traffic generator, thereby overloading the 10Gb connection.
This caused the video being transmitted by LAG to drop packets and glitch on the screen, as LAG was unable to load balance the excess traffic over smaller 1Gb links. The video being transmitted over our wireless bonding, though, handles the excess traffic without any issues and continues to stream a crisp, clear video image.
Obviously, this is but one potential use case for our bonding. A more likely scenario in the real world is that there is inclement weather that knocks out a 10Gb link, causing severe delays and outages for the LAG-based video stream, while the stream using our bonding seamlessly load balances the lost connection over multiple links to maintain the quality of service.
The demo was well-received, and the wise choice of looped Lord of the Rings trailers as our demo video both drew people’s attention to the screen and provided enough on-screen movement that the dropped packets by the LAG version were painfully obvious.
Perhaps most instructive was an experience we had with one potential customer from Ireland. The man was visiting the conference seeking possible technologies to help his video broadcast company. He told us that he was running a proof of concept demonstration the following week using a different company’s equipment, and that far too often he was experiencing major difficulties.
The man pointed to the LAG screen in our booth and said, “This is what I currently get.” Then he pointed to the Link Bonding screen right next to it and said, “And this is what I want!”
That, in a nutshell, is why we considered NetworkX to be a great success for Ethernity. We successfully promoted our products, we presented our technology in such a way that it was clear to all that they could benefit from it, and we built our brand in so doing.
That’s why we’ve already signed on to attend next year’s NetworkX in October 2023 in Paris. We’re looking forward to creating even more successful leads that we hope to turn into new customers.
