CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Deep packet inspection (DPI) has taken off in the market, but appliance vendors are finding that they need to step it up in order to differentiate their services from every other DPI offering, according to the latest report from Heavy Reading Insider (www.heavyreading.com/insider), a paid research service of Heavy Reading (www.heavyreading.com).

DPI Appliance Vendors Face an Off-the-Shelf Challenge goes under the hood, looking at the technologies that DPI component and building block vendors are providing that will underpin the next wave of DPI technology deployments. It reviews where their DPI is starting to be embedded, and what the implications are for the vendors of DPI solutions – including specialist vendors and the major NEPs.

For a list of companies covered in this report, http://img.lightreading.com/lri/pdf/hri1011_companies.pdf

"DPI and systems using DPI technology are increasingly common within telecom operator networks," notes Simon Sherrington, research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. "A range of specialist vendors sell solutions that use DPI as a base to enable traffic management, traffic shaping, creation of sophisticated charging packages, quality of experience management and improved network protection, and they have been joined by the biggest telecom network equipment providers (NEPs) that are providing similar solutions."

The emergence of an ecosystem of DPI building block vendors is enabling the deployment of DPI technology by more NEPs and other infrastructure and technology providers than ever before, Sherrington says. "DPI appliances will still have a place in the market, and indeed will account for the majority of sales for the medium term, but appliance vendors will have to work harder to demonstrate their specialist capabilities and to differentiate their solutions," he adds.

Key findings of DPI Appliance Vendors Face an Off-the-Shelf Challenge include the following:

DPI Appliance Vendors Face an Off-the-Shelf Challenge is available as part of an annual single-user subscription (12 monthly issues) to Heavy Reading Insider, priced at $1,995. Individual reports are available for $900 (single-user license).

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