Last week, I participated in a workshop session called “Deep Packet Inspection: Technology, Promise & Controversy. What You Need to Know.” at the Broadband World Forum Europe 2009 in Paris. The panel discussion with participants from DPI vendors, Internet service providers and net neutrality activists was meant to “foster an open, balanced and rigorous discussion of DPI’s capabilities, benefits, limits and concerns”.

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Many Internet users worry about net neutrality and online privacy these days. And they see deep packet inspection (DPI) as their arch enemy. Common claims are that DPI reads the content of all packets and then decides based on the nature of the content whether to forward, slow down or drop that packet. This is a misconception based on poor understanding how today’s DPI for Internet traffic management works. (more…)

A few weeks ago, American cable operator Comcast was questioned by regulator FCC about the management of its digital voice service and how it may put competing voice services running over Comcast’s network at a disadvantage. This has again sparked the net neutrality debate. We as a company offering traffic management gear are naturally interested in this matter. So should ISPs be allowed to offer a QoS-enhanced IP voice service? (more…)