Targeting the enterprise sector, Polycom and Packeteer
Monday inked a co-marketing deal to help drive interest in video conferencing over IP networks.
While the Voice-over-Internet
That has led Packeteer to include its PacketShaper application traffic management system as an addition for new and existing Polycom IP video systems. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Customers deploying IP-based video conferencing systems require smooth and predictable performance,” Packeteer president and CEO Dave Cote said in a statement. “But video traffic is often impeded by other IP traffic sharing the same network, degrading performance. Packeteer’s PacketShaper allows Polycom customers to protect video traffic and ensure predictable performance by allocating a specific amount of bandwidth to each videoconferencing session.”
Polycom’s ViewStation videoconferencing device combines a camera, microphone, computer network connections, and external audio and video devices. The software lets ViewStation users manage a directory of conferencing locations connecting them using ISDN and Ethernet lines. The company also offers SoundStation — its an audio-conferencing speakerphone system. PolyCom sells its products directly and through resellers including Adcom, Ingram Micro, Siemens, and Wire One Technologies.
Packeteer says its PacketShaper platform will help support ViewStation by allocating bandwidth to IP video sessions while throttling back non-business-critical or recreational traffic so that it does not interfere with video call performance. The technology uses layer-7 classification to identify traffic, analyze performance and measure response times, control bandwidth allocation to align performance with business objectives, and generate reports to validate the results.
“Packeteer’s PacketShaper greatly reduces the jitter caused by competing network traffic by allocating specified amounts of bandwidth to IP video traffic so that performance is ensured,” said Polycom chief systems architect Hans Schwarz. “By combining PacketShaper with our industry-leading video conferencing solutions, our customers will be able to rely on smooth and predictable performance from their IP video conferencing systems.”
