Deep packet inspection, or DPI, has been under something of a cloud lately because of concerns from regulators and consumers alike that Internet service providers are using the technology to block some peer-to-peer traffic in the name of network management.

Into this environment, Allot Communications is unveiling an upgrade to its NetXplorer Centralized Management System that is designed to let carriers more efficiently manage traffic and deliver more upscale services with the kind of service guarantees that consumers want, said Cam Cullen, director of product management, Americas, for Allot. In the process, the company also wants to paint a better face on DPI as a force for good, not evil.

“As service providers are delivering more bandwidth into the home, the infrastructure is enabling them to offer more rich communications and a better user experience,” Cullen said. “But all of these different services consume more bandwidth, and there is a need to deliver them without allowing one service to interfere with another. That requires prioritization.”

DPI is capable of providing that prioritization, and, if properly deployed, can actually ensure that all services play nicely together and no one is disadvantaged, Cullen said. “Used properly, DPI is a great tool for service providers because it allows them to integrate services over a broadband pipe, and by knowing who the subscriber is and what application is running, offer a better performance package.”

The upgraded NetXplorer CMS is a scalable management system for Allot’s other systems, the Allot Service Gateway, the Allot NetEnforcer and the Allot Subscriber Management Platform. The new release allows the system to scale up to 15 million consumers and adds a Linux OS platform and open interfaces to allow external systems to access the NetXplorer database for accounting, billing and provisioning purposes.

Other new features include an enhanced quota-management feature, which enables the provisioning and enforcement of customized service plans based on time and volume usage quotas, and a NetPolicy provisioner that allows service providers to enable their users to monitor and provision their own services. The latter is aimed at broadband wholesalers and at ISPs offering virtual private network services.