Taking stock of 2023

Overview of key features and updates for the current year

We’ve been working hard to expand the functionality of our products and want to share the most important features introduced this year.

On-stick implementation: It is now possible to save physical ports in the network core by using the new On-stick port switching scheme. The Stingray Service Gateway can separate inbound and outbound traffic by VLAN on a single physical port. Considering the asymmetry in the channel (incoming traffic is 5-9 times more than outgoing traffic), On-stick mode can fully utilize physical ports compared to in-line mode.

VRF (Virtual Routing and Forwarding) support: VRF Lite allows to isolate the services provided between each other and optimize routing when using different links. The ‘Lite’ prefix indicates that the Stingray SG only separates the routing tables without putting the traffic of an individual VRF into a unique tunnel (MPLS, VXLAN).

Session Policing: Introducing session policing ensures independent control over each session, expanding the range of policing scenarios. For example, you can control the download speed from specific resources and the resolution (bitrate) of a video stream.

Overriding traffic classes: Initially 8 classes are used for partitioning. This set is usually enough to implement polysing scenarios according to tariff plans, but in order to expand the possibility, a mechanism is provided to override the traffic class for a particular channel or subscriber. This approach allows to implement the provision of personalized services to subscribers.

Transition to VEOS

An important step was the transition to VEOS – the OS designed for use with VAS Experts products.
As a reminder, Red Hat ended support for its free Linux distribution CentOS Linux 8 as of the end of 2021, so we decided to develop our own distribution.
VEOS is distributed and supported by our company.

New product launches: LBS and EPDG

This year, we introduced two new products for mobile operators: Location-Based Services (LBS) and Evolved Packet Data Gateway (EPDG)

These products not only empower carriers but also open up new perspectives in the provision of location and data services.

Successful Installations

We don’t want to brag, but Our team has successfully completed installations of the Stingray Service Gateway on the networks of two major telecom operators with traffic of more than 1Tbps. This confirms the reliability and efficiency of our solutions in high-traffic conditions.

Participation in Telecom International Events

Our team attended EXPO ISP (Brazil) and GITEX (Dubai), where we met with partners and customers, shared experiences, and participated in discussions on current telecom industry topics.

What are the plans for 2024?

BRAS

• Support for MPLS label-based routing. LDP protocol and segment routing;
• Further development of ON-STICK, VRF, LAG/LACP;
• Support for L2TP and L3VPN.

DPI

• Support for different prefix lengths for IPv6;
• Development of custom signature service;
• Traffic redirection by specified criteria;
• DSCP tag mapping;
• Implementation of ACL analog.

CG-NAT

• Support 64.

Extras

• Joint development with Kaspersky;
• Support of 5G network core;
• Diameter protocol support (Gx, Gy, Gz interfaces);
• Development of services: DDoS, Botnet, SPAM detection.

The full version of VAS Experts’ product Road Map for 2024 can be found in our knowledge base.