Continuous Computing Optimizes Trillium SCTP FastPath to Achieve Unprecedented 10X Performance Improvement

April 13, 2010 – Continuous Computing, the global provider of integrated platform solutions that address the mobile broadband capacity challenge, today announced that its Trillium Stream Control Tr

April 13, 2010 – Continuous Computing, the global provider of integrated platform solutions that address the mobile broadband capacity challenge, today announced that its Trillium Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) FastPath software has achieved a 10X performance improvement over generic user-space SCTP implementations. Trillium SCTP FastPath leverages the leading 6WINDGate packet processing software suite from 6WIND and its optimized performance is delivered via the FlexPacket ATCA-PP50 Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) blade from Continuous Computing featuring dual NetLogic Microsystems (NASDAQ: NETL) XLR732 multi-core processors. By delivering a 10X advantage over generic SCTP performance, Trillium SCTP FastPath software enables network equipment providers to allocate a higher percentage of system processing capacity to customer traffic instead of signaling overhead, thereby freeing up valuable payload slots for customer-bearing traffic.

The growing challenges of increased utilization of data services on wireless networks combined with the move to smaller cells in 3G and future Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks are unique and cannot be met by broad, general and disjointed hardware and software solutions. While providing a proven and reliable method of transport, the choice of SCTP as the Internet Protocol (IP) transport layer for mobile data networks has placed a huge strain on SCTP processing that was not envisioned when the SCTP protocol was defined. Massive growth in smart phone usage is consuming signaling resources and impacting throughput in the signaling plane, while rapid gains in the number of connected devices and base stations limits scalability because each reliable connection requires significant signaling capacity. This strain will be felt in the femtocell market where hundreds of thousands of connected femtocells will be managed by a single Femtocell Gateway (FGW), as well as in the LTE market where the Mobility Management Entity (MME) in the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) will face similar challenges from the multitude of small cell deployments.

“Continuous Computing is the only company with the combination of hardware and software expertise as well as the right technology portfolio to achieve the exceptionally high performance of Trillium SCTP FastPath,” said Manish Singh, vice president of product line management at Continuous Computing. “This solution – which includes high-performance hardware and accelerated wireless-specific software functions that address the particular needs of wireless equipment providers – is critical to both our LTE and femtocell strategies as it solves the scalability and performance problems of the Femtocell Gateway and the LTE EPC network elements.”

Benefits of Trillium SCTP FastPath software include:

• Moves SCTP into the native execution environment on the PP50 to yield unprecedented scalability; achieves a 10X improvement over generic user-space implementations of SCTP
• Supports over 1 million packets per second and over 60,000 associations of SCTP traffic on just three of the 16 available processing cores of the PP50 blade
• Leverages fast path Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for integration with the SCTP transport and slow path management APIs for control, configuration and Operations, Administration and Maintenance (OA&M)
• Leverages more than 10 years of Trillium SCTP software which has been integrated, deployed and tested by over 70 customers; complies with all 3GPP specifications required for SCTP

“By collaborating closely, 6WIND, Continuous Computing and NetLogic Microsystems have delivered impressive software performance gains that will be necessary for network equipment providers to keep up with LTE and 3G smart phone growth,” said Eric Carmes, CEO and founder of 6WIND. “It is extremely important that we are able to provide our customers with solutions that have the ability to scale and can stand up to the increasing pressure being placed on wireless networks.”

“We have had a long and successful collaboration with both Continuous Computing and 6WIND and we are excited to see the incomparable performance that is achieved with 6WINDGate and Trillium software running on our industry-leading family of multicore, multi-threaded XLR processors,” said Behrooz Abdi, executive vice president and general manager at NetLogic Microsystems. “We believe this optimization raises the bar in packet processing performance and underscores NetLogic Microsystems’ commitment to the telecom market as networks transition to 3G and 4G.”

Additional information describing the optimization process and performance results of the Trillium SCTP FastPath solution will be discussed during a 3-way webinar conducted by Continuous Computing, 6WIND and NetLogic Microsystems and moderated by analyst Joseph Byrne from The Linley Group. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, April 20 at 9:00 a.m. PT / 12:00 p.m. ET / 5:00 p.m. London BST. To register for the free webinar, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/688336848.