Unsnarling the Network Traffic
Penn’s
routing guru monitors networks by getting inside the
black box. BY GEORGE BESCHEN
Roch Guerin, professor
of electrical and systems engineering, is recognized
as a pioneer in the telecommunications industry. The
Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication
Networks since 1998, he holds 23 patents and serves
on the Scientific Advisory Boards of France Telecom
and Samsung. Recently, this teacher, researcher, and
advisor, added entrepreneur to his titles—co-founding
a start-up company that markets software he developed
as a solution to a growing networking problem.
Guerin’s solution is a model in ingenuity, and
also provides a case in point illustration of how research
worked on at Penn can go on to affect the marketplace.
The problem Guerin addressed concerns Internet Protocol
networks. IP networks are attractive to companies and
users because they don’t rely on a central computer
and are therefore more resistant to attacks and failure.
They divide data into tidy packets, which are addressed
and then transmitted by way of a series of routers.
These routers communicate with each other to get the
packet to its appropriate destination. It’s a
flexible and robust system —but maddeningly opaque.
None but the few know where the problem lies when
it fails.
“Managing an IP network is now a laborintensive
art rather than an automated science,” says Guerin. “Making
matters worse, corporations can lose literally millions
of dollars for every second their IP network is down.”
Many companies have employed large staffs of “routing
gurus” just to monitor and repair glitches. But
this manual approach is slow, costly, and dependent
on scarce expertise. The on-line world is eager for
an easier, cheaper way to address dreaded bottlenecks
that cut off or degrade access to information.
Guerin’s novel solution is Route Dynamics, software
now available through Ipsum Networks. (The name was
chosen primarily because it started with the letters
I and P, says Guerin. That ipsum is a piece of the
Latin maxim “know thyself ” was a happy
coincidence.)
Route Dynamics works by monitoring the real-time communication
between routers as well as communication between entire
networks. Guerin uses a traffic analogy to explain
the benefit: “Other management systems only see
the physical elements of a network. They can’t
see the traffic patterns, or the rules of the road.
What streets are one-way? What bridge is closed and
how does it affect traffic coming in and going out?
“It provides not only more information but what
that information means. ‘Why is this router using
this information this way?’” says Guerin. “The
network is a black box. We lift the box so you can
see—and understand—the maze.”
Ipsum Networks won $6 million in new venture funding
from New York-based Rho Ventures and Sevin Rosen of
Dallas and Palo Alto, CA. Today, Guerin is helping
to manage the company’s transition from development
phase to evaluations and marketing. “It’s
the next level of maturity for a company, and is a
different mindset than just developing a novel way
of doing things,” he says. “Now we have
to understand how to be successful with customers.”
Guerin credits Penn with creating the kind of environment
such ventures need to thrive. “Penn provided
incredible freedom and flexibility,” he says. “At
a university, you can be a sponge. You can talk to
other universities and companies…you don’t
have that kind of collaboration anywhere else. I learned
a lot that I can bring back to Penn and its students.”
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