Larry Roberts, part of the research team that created ARPANET, the origin of Internet, has launched a startup named Anagran and its first product, FR-100, which he says can eliminate network performance issues in applications like telepresence, Internet Protocol TV, and voice over IP, and consumes 80% less power than traditional Layer 3 routers.

“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. 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”

Anagran FR-1000 Flow Router is totally compatible with a standard Layer 3 router but intelligently watches and constantly evaluates all flows traveling through it. Rather than only being able to process and route a disjointed succession of individual packets, Anagran’s Fast Flow Routing architecture looks at each packet as part of its higher level flow and based on specified priorities, intelligently delivers the most critical information at the highest quality of performance.

The FR-1000 keeps critical statistics on each flow in real time—the source, destination, the amount of traffic running, the duration, and other key statistics that define the nature and health of the flow. To ensure sustained performance and quality for critical “real time” services like video and voice, the router uses Behavioral Traffic Control to prohibit any flows from using more than their appropriate share of network resources by adjusting every flow’s class, rate, or route to control P2P or any other traffic type.

By optimally rate-limiting all flows at the network edge or access layer, the FR-1000 provides an immediate performance and utilization boost to the entire network, including the core.

Anagran FR-1000 was designed with today’s green requirements in mind. Its design requires 80% less power than existing routers. This translates into not only lower energy costs, but frees up valuable rack space with much higher performance per rack unit to complement reduced energy consumption levels.

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