The software-service combo enables users to see the bandwidth usage of applications in real time. The tool also gives bandwidth utilization precedence to time-sensitive applications, including VoIP and video calls. Lower-priority applications, such as file transfers, run in background.
A Propel PBM subscription provides updated traffic shaping policies, protecting high-priority network applications, such as Skype, against current and new software applications. Propel PBM also includes a network traffic monitor that displays bandwidth utilization in real-time, enabling users to monitor their bandwidth usage, as well as to detect potential malware.
For example, a Skype call taken during a file upload can result in outgoing voice traffic suffering significant time delays or blockages as the two tasks compete for outgoing network bandwidth. The Skype traffic is higher priority because interfering with its packets can degrade the call quality. In contrast, the file upload is lower priority, since the file transfer will not break if preference is given to the Skype traffic. While an individual can attempt to protect high-priority networking applications, such as Skype, from low-priority traffic by turning them off manually, this is often inconvenient and time wasting.
A typical PC has dozens of programs that access the network. Propel PBM aims to prioritize all of this traffic automatically so that time-sensitive packets get higher priority than other traffic. The company states that Propel PBM's automatic behavior is based on policy definitions that are updated automatically, much in the way a virus protection program periodically downloads new virus definitions.
Propel PBM is targeted at the rapidly growing market of individuals who use network-intensive, time-sensitive applications, says David Murray, president and CEO of Propel, which is based in San Jose, Calif. "We've developed an easy-to-use, powerful application for helping individual PC users get the most from their network connection," he notes. "By using Propel PBM, PC users for the first time can be assured their high-priority, time-sensitive applications will run simultaneously with low-priority applications and maintain optimal performance in any given network condition."
Propel is privately funded and claims to be profitable. The company has raised three rounds of financing since its 1999 founding by a team led by Murray and Steve Kirsch, the company's chairman.
