TESTIMONIALS: What They Said
 |
 |
Locating the Global Locator: Coyote Point's Distributed Load Balancing Solution, Envoy, Reduces Network Latency for A-GPS Pioneer Global Locate.
Question: what can global load balancing do for a mobile network operator that uses Assisted Global Positioning (A-GPS) to improve the speed and accuracy of the network's Enhanced 911 (e-911) capabilities?
Answer: a) make a fast system even faster, and b) provide failover capabilities, ensuring that if a server or server cluster goes down, the network will continue to identify the location of cell phone users.
San Jose, California-based Global Locate, a pioneer in A-GPS technology, uses Coyote Point Systems' Equalizer load balancing appliances and Envoy global load balancing software to distribute traffic between the Hubs of its operational network, one located in Silicon Valley, one on the East Coast.
The result: the time required to pinpoint the location of any caller on the network is reduced by hundreds of milliseconds, thanks to reduced latency in the signal relays required to complete the global positioning equation. "That time savings could be doubled on a network that deploys A-GPS server clusters half a globe away from each other," adds Tor Amundson, Network Manager at Global Locate.
A-GPS technology improves the performance of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers by providing the data that would otherwise have been downloaded directly from the GPS satellites. Global Locate's A-GPS technology provides a shortcut by tracking all GPS satellites all the time, and calculating their locations for many days into the future. Instead of actually locating the satellites to calculate a cell phone user's location, an A-GPS enabled network can use its prior knowledge of the satellites' location. Global Locate is also the sole provider of IndoorGPS™ technology leveraging a unique signal processing technique that allows users to be located in non-line of site environments, such as indoors.
In addition to producing A-GPS Servers and the Indoor GPS chipset, Global Locate operates a data collection network that provides A-GPS service directly to location-based service providers and mobile network operators. It was on this network that Global Locate identified a need for global load balancing capabilities in January 2001.
Failover and Reduced Latency
The baseline traffic management need was failover. The federal government mandates that cell phone service providers maintain E-911 capabilities, ensuring that dispatchers can physically locate callers who dial 911. Coyote Point's Equalizer, while distributing traffic among a cluster of servers, detects server failure and automatically bypasses the affected unit. Envoy, a software plug-in, extends this capability to server clusters located anywhere in the world. If an entire data center goes down - whether because of power failure, natural disaster, or terrorist attack - all traffic is routed to the nearest available location.
The second need was for speed. When it comes to E-911 delivery, speed is not a luxury - it's a federal mandate. Global Locate's A-GPS technology is a major accelerator for E-911. And while Global Locate sells A-GPS products directly to service providers, the company also models and installs complete service delivery infrastructures. "A service provider has to have the load balancing component in place to reduce latency and thus maximize the time savings offered by A-GPS," said Mr.Amundson.
Equalizer/Envoy combination meets this requirement via intelligent global load balancing. Equalizer intelligently distributes traffic among clustered servers using multiple criteria — server response time, active sessions, direct server measurements, server weighting - to determine which server should receive each request. Envoy adds network observed latency to the mix, directing users to the geographically nearest server cluster when appropriate.
The advantage of reducing the physical distance a cell phone signal must travel is multiplied by the relays required to obtain a location "fix" from a GPS device. At a distance of 3,000 miles, each relay can add many milliseconds to the time required to get the fix. If a caller is halfway around the world from the data center receiving the signal, the delay per relay can be a significant portion of a full second.
After a competitive review of global load balancing products, Global Locate selected Coyote Point on the basis of price/performance and ease of use. "Coyote Point's Equalizer/Envoy combo gave us exactly the failover capability and traffic acceleration we needed - at a fraction of the price that competitors' solutions would have cost us," said David Lundgren, Director of Program Management at Global Locate. Tor Amundson adds, "Equalizer and Envoy were incredibly easy to configure - we just slapped them in place and had them installed in minutes. Other vendors required on-site installation and extensive support plans, but Coyote Point's installation has been maintenance-free. We can sleep knowing that the network has never gone down, and will never go down, due to localized server failure. We can rest assured that traffic is being routed with maximum efficiency."
Global Locate recommends purchase of Equalizer and Envoy to those of its customers who utilize the firm's consulting and network-building capabilities. "Equalizer/Envoy installation provides an unequaled bang for the load balancing buck," Mr. Lundgren concludes.
|
|
If you'd like to know more, you can reach us weekdays at (877) 367-2696 between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm PST.
Or write sales@coyotepoint.com
We look forward to hearing from you.
|
|
|
Resource Den
Product Demo
Coyote Point Products
White Papers
|
|
