Deep packet inspection (DPI) has been used to detect and manage peer-to-peer traffic in the network but is now moving into more mainstream usage as a means of prioritizing traffic to support more advanced services. Now the Yankee Group, working for DPI vendor Allot Communications, has developed a tool that enables service providers to project potential revenues and profits from setting up a tiered service infrastructure, using DPI to deliver different quality of service grades depending on the application and customer subscription.

The tool enables service providers to plug in their own numbers, including subscriber numbers, to determine their specific potential, said Yankee Group analyst David Vorhaus.

“Basically the tool tells you--if you buy a DPI solution and use its intelligence to create a tiered service model that can appeal to more segments of the population--how much you can expect in terms of revenue in a three-year time frame,” he said. “We look at the total subscriber base but also revenue per subscriber. That additional revenue is measured against the cost of the technology but also opex costs that we know of from previous research on how a solution of this kind needs to be implemented and work in conjunction with other elements.”

The projections are conservative in that they don’t factor in the additional potential savings that network operators get from their earlier uses of DPI technology, including more efficient use of network bandwidth and resources, that DPI can provide, Vorhaus said. “The role it plays in security and the difficult-to-quantify-but-evident value of knowing what is going to happen in the network--these are sources of value and revenue that aren’t captured in the tool.”

As DPI vendors produce newer systems that capitalize even further on the technology’s ability to detect the specifics of IP traffic--knowing what application or content is being used--Yankee is expecting more widespread deployment of DPI systems, Vorhaus said. That is already true in Asia and Western Europe, where there is much less concern over network neutrality, he added. In the U.S., service providers are deploying the technology but not talking much about it.

Service providers like the ability to create a tiered service set that appeals to customers because it gives them the chance to both move up the value chain and generate new revenues, plus satisfy customers, said Azi Ronen, executive vice president of corporate development for Allot.

“The most appealing services for which residential subscribers are willing to pay extra relate to voice, video and gaming,” he said. “This is the first type which are applications which the DPI equipment lets you detect and, once they are detected, enforce QoS to assure quality.”