While the Test Center hasn't given this is a test run (yet?), it certainly sounds like Roberts's company, Anagran, has developed a highly sophisticated and innovative piece of network hardware that's primed for efficiently handling the increasing swells of rich media that now course through networks, such as video and voice, as well as data and wireless applications. Thus it was with great interest that I took a briefing about Roberts’s newest project, the Anagran FR-1000 Flow Router, which is being announced today. (The fact that the company touted this as a green networking product also peaked my interest, given my green-tech interests.) While the Test Center hasn’t given this is a test run (yet?), it certainly sounds like Roberts’s company, Anagran, has developed a highly sophisticated and innovative piece of network hardware that’s primed for efficiently handling the increasing swells of rich media that now course through networks, such as video and voice, as well as data and wireless applications.Rather than processing and routing data as a “disjointed succession of individual packets” like traditional routes, the Layer-3-compatible FR-1000 employs Fast Flow Routing architecture to intelligently watch, evaluate, and route packets collectively as entire flows, according to the company. This approach, Roberts says, boosts efficiency, especially when dealing with the likes of video, voice, and other such data. Traditional routers waste 40 percent of their power repeating the same operation to route every packet in a flow, according to Roberts. Another 40 percent of the power goes toward queuing and delaying packets, he says. “Unfortunately, large fixed-rate flows like video are not supported well with current-day routers which have freeze-frame, jitter, and general scalability challenges under even the most moderate levels of network congestion,” says Roberts. “As the traffic changes, we can’t rely on this last-generation packet technology, which has essentially remained unchanged for 40 years, to power Internet performance.”To ensure sustained performance and quality for real-time applications such as video and voice, the router uses Behavioral Traffic Control (BTC), which prevents any flow from using more than its designated share of network resources, according to the company. It also ensures that mission-critical apps like VOIP can have top priority.BTC works by digging down into the data flows for statistics to define their nature and health, in real time. Stats include the source, destination, the amount of traffic running, and the duration. The FR-1000 sports Intelligent Flow Discard (IFC), which, according to Anagran, represents a new approach to traffic control and congestion management. The IFC feature is designed to eliminate large delays and packet losses caused by large queues under overload, both for file transfers and streaming media. By doing so, the company says, the FR-1000 maintains output capacity to a sustained 90 to 95 percent.The FR-1000 also appeals to organizations’ increasingly expanding green sensibilities: According to the company, it requires 80 percent less power than traditional routers, which reduces energy costs, both for the system and for cooling. Additionally, the one RU system is 80 percent smaller than any other Layer-3 router of similar capacity out there, the company boasts. That means it can free up valuable real estate in the datacenter or server room.The FR-1000 resides at or just before the network edge, and according to the company, drops into any existing IP network infrastructure. It’s compatible with other routers, as well as any WAN optimization or deep-packet inspection product, according to the company. Available now, the Anagran FR-1000 is priced at $70,000. For more information go to anagran.com. Technology Industry