Dear MyAdsl Colleagues –
This is a bit of a market survey on a provisional DSL modem patent we have taken out (proudly South African) to improve the QoS on small user created and managed DSL VPN Networks – although this may upset Telkom, I doubt they can do anything about it (except give a couple of million rand to go away?).
Although our firm mainly provides products and services to financial trading rooms, and this patent was primarily aimed at improving triple-play QoS of DSL-VPN sub-networks in the financial trading arena, we believe that this type of modem enhancement will have a much wider appeal.
The challenge we are faced is to create a sub/VPN network within a Telco (Telkom) supplied DSL network capable of self monitoring on a 24/7 basis with any errors being reported to a central point on an ‘as and when’ occurrence basis. In addition, periodic (heartbeat) statuses from each of the modems on the network are required to ensure individual modem operability within the network.
The only practical way of achieving these objectives is to have the sub-network monitor itself from the ‘inside out’, i.e. the components comprising the network (DSL modems) inform a designated central point that something is wrong, either by ‘omission or commission’ (‘omission’ – the central monitoring point ‘misses’ a heartbeat, ‘commission’ – the modem detects a reportable situation or erroneous condition and relays a ‘Status IP Data Packet’ to the central monitoring point).
For the above to function properly (and this is the essence of our patent) the DSL modem modems require a small degree of enhancement - we also believe that it should be possible to incorporate these enhancements within the majority of the existing DSL modem’s chipsets.
These enhancements are primarily the addition of a ‘Status IP Address’ – this address is set to point to a central monitoring point (the Network Status Server – NSS (OK so this IP needs to be a fixed IP address)) and is the address to which a ‘Status IP Data Packet’ will be sent.
In addition a number of selectable ‘triggers’ need to be added to these modems, e.g. – Enable Heartbeat (with an associated time interval selector), Detect DHCP IP Change, Denial of Service Attack, Modem Temperature, Enable Network Sniffing, etc., etc, (lots of things can be added here).
Given this group’s involvement in the DSL arena, I’m sure you get the general picture. The aim is to make ISP’s/DSL VPN supplier’s masters of their own universe – and remove (or circumvent) a very large degree of Telkom interference.
Any feedback will be appreciated – and if more elaboration is required I will willingly provide it.
Bill Thomson
This is a bit of a market survey on a provisional DSL modem patent we have taken out (proudly South African) to improve the QoS on small user created and managed DSL VPN Networks – although this may upset Telkom, I doubt they can do anything about it (except give a couple of million rand to go away?).
Although our firm mainly provides products and services to financial trading rooms, and this patent was primarily aimed at improving triple-play QoS of DSL-VPN sub-networks in the financial trading arena, we believe that this type of modem enhancement will have a much wider appeal.
The challenge we are faced is to create a sub/VPN network within a Telco (Telkom) supplied DSL network capable of self monitoring on a 24/7 basis with any errors being reported to a central point on an ‘as and when’ occurrence basis. In addition, periodic (heartbeat) statuses from each of the modems on the network are required to ensure individual modem operability within the network.
The only practical way of achieving these objectives is to have the sub-network monitor itself from the ‘inside out’, i.e. the components comprising the network (DSL modems) inform a designated central point that something is wrong, either by ‘omission or commission’ (‘omission’ – the central monitoring point ‘misses’ a heartbeat, ‘commission’ – the modem detects a reportable situation or erroneous condition and relays a ‘Status IP Data Packet’ to the central monitoring point).
For the above to function properly (and this is the essence of our patent) the DSL modem modems require a small degree of enhancement - we also believe that it should be possible to incorporate these enhancements within the majority of the existing DSL modem’s chipsets.
These enhancements are primarily the addition of a ‘Status IP Address’ – this address is set to point to a central monitoring point (the Network Status Server – NSS (OK so this IP needs to be a fixed IP address)) and is the address to which a ‘Status IP Data Packet’ will be sent.
In addition a number of selectable ‘triggers’ need to be added to these modems, e.g. – Enable Heartbeat (with an associated time interval selector), Detect DHCP IP Change, Denial of Service Attack, Modem Temperature, Enable Network Sniffing, etc., etc, (lots of things can be added here).
Given this group’s involvement in the DSL arena, I’m sure you get the general picture. The aim is to make ISP’s/DSL VPN supplier’s masters of their own universe – and remove (or circumvent) a very large degree of Telkom interference.
Any feedback will be appreciated – and if more elaboration is required I will willingly provide it.
Bill Thomson