Hughes Announces New Converged WAN Solution that Delivers Cost-Effective Alternative to MPLS

HS1200 Appliance delivers end-to-end QoS over affordable broadband networks maximizing performance and delivering significant savings for distributed enterprises

Germantown, Md.—Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, and a leading provider of managed network services, today announced a new WAN solution that delivers MPLS-like network quality and performance over broadband IP networks.

The new solution, comprising the Hughes HS1200 Broadband Optimization Appliance, data center gateway, and management system, supports end-to-end Quality of Service (QoS) over broadband, such as DSL and cable. It enables large distributed enterprises to take advantage of Voice-over-IP (VoIP), video and real-time data applications at their many branch sites.

The HS1200 is a key new component of the Hughes Converged Broadband Architecture (CBA), which delivers strong QoS, scalable bandwidth, security and high reliability at a price point much lower than MPLS solutions.

Hughes CBA offers an attractive solution for distributed enterprises, such as those in the retail, hospitality, food, retail petroleum, and financial sectors, which are challenged by increasingly stringent WAN requirements and the need to control costs. It fills an unmet market need between the large carriers who offer expensive MPLS networks and lower cost WAN broadband providers who offer connectivity, but cannot support the quality needed for rich applications.

The HS1200 incorporates several Hughes innovations:

• Hughes ActiveQoSTM, which delivers end-to-end QoS through a tightly integrated combination of network capacity monitoring, prioritization and dynamic rate limiting. The result is that even stringent real-time applications can be supported with the required quality of service across ordinary broadband networks;

• Powerful two-stage Hughes ActiveCompressionTM technology incorporating long-range and short-range compression with dynamic real-time selection of the optimal algorithm. This approach delivers superior bandwidth gains, while being computationally efficient to be implemented in a low-cost processor platform;

• Smart application classification mechanism that automatically analyzes and classifies source IP flows.

The system delivers comprehensive centralized network management for deployment, monitoring, and operations of large distributed networks supplied by any broadband network provider.

"The branch of the future will need to converge all network elements into a single seamless network that is fast, reliable, and secure,” said Sampath Ramaswami, senior director of Strategic Planning at Hughes. “The HS1200 Broadband Optimization Appliance, a key enabling element of the Hughes CBA, will help achieve this objective very cost-effectively for the distributed enterprise."

The new solution will be available by Q3 2012.

Hughes will be exhibiting at Interop 2012, Las Vegas, exhibit booth #904, May 8-10, 2012. To schedule an interview with a Hughes executive, please contact Jill Searl, Brodeur Partners, at (603) 559-5824.