When a federal judge last month dismissed the lawsuit against file-sharing services Grokster and StreamCast Networks, it sparked the introduction of products to help broadband service providers accommodate P2P use. P-Cube has recently announced what it calls the SmartStart-P2P Program, which includes products and services to allow providers to "understand the impact" of P2P use on their networks and to optimize network usage.

P-Cube, in Sunnyvale, Calif., also develops programmable IP Service Control Platforms. The SmartStart-P2P Program consulting service helps providers address problems like network congestion, poor quality of service, and high latency. According to P-Cube, SmartStart enhances operational efficiency by identifying the effect that large volumes of traffic have on networks.
 
Vikash Varma - vice president of worldwide sales, service and business development for P-Cube - said in a statement that the company's customers have made it clear that P2P applications are affecting their network operations and business models. P-Cube obviously saw a business opportunity to address these concerns.

The SmartStart Program offers consulting and network inspection services, using P-Cube Engage software to generate network reports for service providers. The report details network behavior and performance information, including statistical charts of current traffic, interpretation of the data, and recommended actions to be taken by the provider to address network issues.

P-Cube reports that Engage is now used in the production networks of broadband providers around the world, including SingTel, Telenor, @NetHome, KT, and Interoute. These providers are using Engage to analyze P2P traffic patterns and implement P2P traffic management policies that control bandwidth at the user and application level. In terms of specific controls, Engage lets users set upstream/downstream limits on P2P traffic, enforce consumption quotas and implement time-of-day qualification criteria.

P-Cube says customers use Engage to make better-informed decisions about network operations, growth, and expenditures. P-Cube's identification of a market niche for this type of product indicates the continuing shift from efforts to block file trading (or purchasing more bandwidth to accommodate it) to more efficient management of P2P traffic. With the continuing increase of P2P users on provider networks, there will be a growing demand for tools that help providers run efficient and economically viable networks.