Expand
Networks
Accelerates
Science
from
the
Sea
Bed
for
Scripps
Institution
of
Oceanography
April
21st
2010
Expand
Networks
announced
that
its
advanced
WAN
Optimization
technology
is
supporting
satellite
communication
services
for
one
of
the
world’s
most
important
centers
for
global
science
research,
Scripps
Institution
of
Oceanography
at
University
of
California,
San
Diego.
Deployed
across
one
of
the
largest
U.S.
academic
fleets,
Expand’s
Accelerators
are
improving
the
performance
of
critical
applications
and
communications
over
low
bandwidth
–
high
latency
satellite
links,
enabling
fast,
reliable
and
cost-effective
communications
between
the
ships
and
shore.
Steve
Foley
is a
network
engineer
at
the
Institute
of
Geophysics
and
Planetary
Physics
at
Scripps
Oceanography:
“Our
research
vessels
need
to
squeeze
every
bit
of
bandwidth
out
of
those
fixed
satellite
links.
The
more
data
we
can
send
home,
the
better.
The
more
satellite
images,
phone
calls,
support,
etc.
that
the
scientists
on
the
ship
can
get
from
shore,
the
better
they
can
do
their
science.”
However,
satellite
bandwidth
covering
the
world’s
oceans
is
not
only
limited
in
terms
of
data
capacity,
it
is
also
extremely
expensive.
Foley
explains,
“Satellite
is
notoriously
problematic
for
bandwidth
acceleration,
and
we’d
resigned
ourselves
to
sufficing
with
what
we
had.
It
was
a
case
of
‘if
only
network
accelerators
weren’t
so
ineffective
over
satellite
links.’
Then
we
found
Expand.”
Foley
evaluated
Expand
Accelerators
as
well
as
Riverbed
technology
in
the
hope
of
overcoming
these
performance
challenges.
“We
found
that
Expand
was
the
only
one
that
had
the
features
geared
towards
making
our
low-bandwidth
satellites
useful.
Our
issues
aren’t
about
running
CIFS
across
our
high
delay
links,
but
we
really
care
about
things
like
UDP
acceleration,
SCPS,
and
auto
fragmentation.
We
were
also
impressed
when
Expand
didn’t
look
at
us
funny
when
we
said
we
wanted
to
put
their
gear
on
ships!
To
them
it
was
the
norm.”
Initial
roll-out
was
accomplished
smoothly
on
the
two
initial
platforms,
Scripps’
research
vessel
Roger
Revelle
and
Woods
Hole
Oceanographic
Institution’s
vessel,
Atlantis.
Since
then,
additional
devices
have
proved
themselves
to
be
truly
‘plug
and
play.’
“Non-IT
folks
have
been
receiving
accelerators
straight
from
Expand,
popping
them
in
the
ship’s
equipment
racks,
setting
IP
addresses,
then
walking
away
while
we
do
the
rest
remotely.
The
amount
of
management
control
we
have
from
shore
is
very
impressive.”
Combining
integrated
Space
Communication
Protocol
Standard
(SCPS)
with
compression,
byte-level
caching
and
layer
7
QoS,
Expand’s
technology
is
extending
‘virtual
capacity’
to
staff
working
onboard
and
onshore,
enabling
Scripps
to
pass
substantially
more
data
across
its
fixed
bandwidth
satellite
links.
“Bandwidth
was
costly,”
stated
Foley.
“Now,
with
the
savings
in
bandwidth
our
Expand
Accelerators
are
paying
for
themselves
within
nine
to
18
months.
We
estimate
we
are
saving
over
$600
per
month
for
each
of
our
large
global
ships.”
Howard
Teicher,
VP
Public
Sector
&
Satellite
Markets,
Expand
Networks
concludes,
“At
Expand,
we’ve
been
optimizing
a
broad
range
of
afloat
environments
across
the
world’s
largest
shipping,
naval
and
maritime
organizations
since
2001.
This
is
another
great
example
of
how
Expand
can
bolster
performance
of
satellite
links,
even
in
the
most
extreme
and
remote
environments.
The
Accelerators
tight
integration
and
ease
of
deployment
enable
operations
like
Scripps
to
offer
increased
levels
of
quality
of
service
by
way
of
higher
bandwidth
throughput,
reduced
latency,
and
seamless
delivery
of
critical
applications,
while
reducing
bandwidth
costs.”
