Bruce
June 1st, 2005, 12:33 PM
Here's a nifty little product I just read about:
http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-18192-2056-x-x-x
The Ubicom Traffic Accelerator promises to turn any router into a gaming router.
By Tracy Baker
Posted Tuesday, May 31st 2005
The biggest problem with broadband, once you have it, is that everybody wants it. Your roommates want it, your little brother wants it, your parents want it--and anytime they jack in, it affects ping times and data throughput in your online games.
http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/hardware/previews/streamengine/18192_20050531_embed001.jpg
The prototype unit has an open hardware design.
The big companies have ways of dealing with this that are finally starting to trickle down into the consumer market in the form of routers and other products designed to maintain QoS (Quality of Service) for everyone sharing a connection. These products analyze different types of traffic passing through the connection and maintain a clear path for time-sensitive transmissions, like game data and VoIP (Voice-Over Internet Protocol) calls, even if there are many nonpriority tasks like FTP uploads and Web page requests happening at the same time.
Some companies have added QoS technology to their high-end consumer routers, but not everyone has the money or expertise to upgrade their existing router. Ubicom thinks it has come up with an ideal solution with its StreamEngine Traffic Accelerator, a stand-alone QoS product that sits between your broadband modem and the rest of your network to keep games running smoothly no matter how many other people are using your connection. This is the same technology D-Link uses in its GamerLounge line of routers, which performed very well in our tests. However, the new Traffic Accelerator is a standalone product that lets you add QoS functionality to any router.
One of the nicest aspects of the unit is that it automatically finds out how fast your broadband modem can upload data, and it will never send the modem more data packets than it can handle at a time. With most consumer broadband offerings--particularly cable modems--data can only be uploaded at a fraction of the speed that it can be downloaded, and all of the data the modem can't immediately send is stored in a memory buffer until data packets ahead of it in line are kicked through to the Internet. Lag in games is increased tremendously if game data gets trapped in this buffer, and the Traffic Accelerator is designed to eliminate the buffer from the equation whenever possible by only feeding the modem data that it can send immediately. Since gaming data is prioritized during this process, lag is theoretically reduced.
Ubicom sent us a preproduction model to test out, and the product lives up to its claims. Installation couldn't be easier, requiring only that users unplug their modem and router, connect the Accelerator between the two devices using standard Ethernet cables, and then plug everything back in. The device then measures the speed of your connection to get a reading on how well your modem works, and that's it...traffic going to and coming from the Internet is optimized.
We tested the unit by uploading files from one PC via FTP transfer while simultaneously playing Day of Defeat on another computer attached to the same network. We played only on servers that traditionally provided the test PC with short ping times and minimal latency, and we kept an eye on ping times while playing the game. Normally in this setup, uploading files in the background from another PC is disastrous, and it can saturate nearly the entire connection until the upload is complete. But that wasn't the case with the Traffic Accelerator attached. Ping times and latency didn't increase at all during the file uploads, and it was also unaffected when users at the other PC browsed the Web and downloaded files. We also tested it with Xbox Live, where it worked just as well, and since it sits between the router and the modem, it is compatible with both wired and wireless routers.
There's no guaranteeing how the final production hardware will work, but it's safe to assume that it will be just as easy to set up and be of interest to gamers who want to maintain the best possible connection to their favorite servers. Ubicom hasn't announced hardware manufacturing partners yet, but we anticipate that the usual networking manufacturers will jump on this technology. Ubicom expects the final product to retail for under $50 when it is released later this year, which should provide a much cheaper alternative to purchasing an expensive new router that has integrated QoS technology.
http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-18192-2056-x-x-x
The Ubicom Traffic Accelerator promises to turn any router into a gaming router.
By Tracy Baker
Posted Tuesday, May 31st 2005
The biggest problem with broadband, once you have it, is that everybody wants it. Your roommates want it, your little brother wants it, your parents want it--and anytime they jack in, it affects ping times and data throughput in your online games.
http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/hardware/previews/streamengine/18192_20050531_embed001.jpg
The prototype unit has an open hardware design.
The big companies have ways of dealing with this that are finally starting to trickle down into the consumer market in the form of routers and other products designed to maintain QoS (Quality of Service) for everyone sharing a connection. These products analyze different types of traffic passing through the connection and maintain a clear path for time-sensitive transmissions, like game data and VoIP (Voice-Over Internet Protocol) calls, even if there are many nonpriority tasks like FTP uploads and Web page requests happening at the same time.
Some companies have added QoS technology to their high-end consumer routers, but not everyone has the money or expertise to upgrade their existing router. Ubicom thinks it has come up with an ideal solution with its StreamEngine Traffic Accelerator, a stand-alone QoS product that sits between your broadband modem and the rest of your network to keep games running smoothly no matter how many other people are using your connection. This is the same technology D-Link uses in its GamerLounge line of routers, which performed very well in our tests. However, the new Traffic Accelerator is a standalone product that lets you add QoS functionality to any router.
One of the nicest aspects of the unit is that it automatically finds out how fast your broadband modem can upload data, and it will never send the modem more data packets than it can handle at a time. With most consumer broadband offerings--particularly cable modems--data can only be uploaded at a fraction of the speed that it can be downloaded, and all of the data the modem can't immediately send is stored in a memory buffer until data packets ahead of it in line are kicked through to the Internet. Lag in games is increased tremendously if game data gets trapped in this buffer, and the Traffic Accelerator is designed to eliminate the buffer from the equation whenever possible by only feeding the modem data that it can send immediately. Since gaming data is prioritized during this process, lag is theoretically reduced.
Ubicom sent us a preproduction model to test out, and the product lives up to its claims. Installation couldn't be easier, requiring only that users unplug their modem and router, connect the Accelerator between the two devices using standard Ethernet cables, and then plug everything back in. The device then measures the speed of your connection to get a reading on how well your modem works, and that's it...traffic going to and coming from the Internet is optimized.
We tested the unit by uploading files from one PC via FTP transfer while simultaneously playing Day of Defeat on another computer attached to the same network. We played only on servers that traditionally provided the test PC with short ping times and minimal latency, and we kept an eye on ping times while playing the game. Normally in this setup, uploading files in the background from another PC is disastrous, and it can saturate nearly the entire connection until the upload is complete. But that wasn't the case with the Traffic Accelerator attached. Ping times and latency didn't increase at all during the file uploads, and it was also unaffected when users at the other PC browsed the Web and downloaded files. We also tested it with Xbox Live, where it worked just as well, and since it sits between the router and the modem, it is compatible with both wired and wireless routers.
There's no guaranteeing how the final production hardware will work, but it's safe to assume that it will be just as easy to set up and be of interest to gamers who want to maintain the best possible connection to their favorite servers. Ubicom hasn't announced hardware manufacturing partners yet, but we anticipate that the usual networking manufacturers will jump on this technology. Ubicom expects the final product to retail for under $50 when it is released later this year, which should provide a much cheaper alternative to purchasing an expensive new router that has integrated QoS technology.