Satellite communications in Antarctica NZ, the Crown Entity responsible for developing, managing and executing New Zealand Government interests in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will be improved following a contract with Expand Networks for its WAN optimisation platform.
Antarctica NZ manages Scott Base, New ZealandÃ's Antarctic research station, hosting up to 83 visitors at any one time. Located nearly 4,000 km from Antarctica NZÃ's headquarters in Christchurch, Scott Base is highly dependent on its Telecom NZ satellite connection to connect with colleagues and family. Antarctica NZ implemented ExpandÃ's Accelerators to maximise its 64/256K frame relay connection, combating WAN latency issues with its Citrix-based applications and remote web browsing.
Mike Mahon, IT administrator for Antarctica NZ comments; "The clever combination of compression, acceleration and caching that goes on within the Expand Accelerators has considerably reduced our latency issues, both within Citrix and with web browsing. Despite a 600ms latency on our satellite link the data speeds we are experiencing are markedly improved, and are now really rather impressive for a 7,600 km round trip just to reach the internet connection! Saving $2,000 per month on 8Kb in effective additional bandwidth also gave us an ROI in just four months."
Steve OÃ'Brien, Vice President of Expand Networks APAC explains; "A remote site in one of the worldÃ's most desolate locations, Scott Base has incredibly limited options to increase the bandwidth available to scientists and Antarctica NZ base staff. Buying more capacity from the satellite is a costly option, so it makes sense for Antarctica NZ to optimise the bandwidth they already have within the WAN. When every application or web browsing session is important, prioritising data is not enough. Our Accelerators ensure every the application can run unimpeded on the WAN, decreasing congestion, managing QoS and rate control."
Expand NetworksÃ' Accelerators use low latency, lossless techniques that work on all applications to consistently deliver average bandwidth increases between 100 per cent and 400 percent. Expand's Quality of Service (QoS) enforcement also ensures that applications run unimpeded on the WAN. This is not just prioritisation, but also includes sophisticated algorithms to combat congestion, mark packets for downstream QoS handling and rate control shaping to make sure data flows get the bandwidth they need.
Posted to the site on 10th November 2008
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/34562.php