Westland

Data Integration enabled Westland Helicopters to reduce latency across its international WAN using an optimization solution from Juniper Networks.  The solution increased WAN throughput 92 times and exceeded Westland's requirement to reduce the time taken for large file transfers between UK and US sites.

A world-leading aerospace company

Westland has been associated with aircraft manufacturing since 1915.  In 2000 Westland joined forces with Italian helicopter manufacturer Agusta to create AgustaWestland, whose parent company is Finmeccanica, one of the world's largest helicopter manufacturers.

Today, the company has expertise in rotor blade technology, avionics and mission systems integration, transmissions development, and advanced training services for aircrew and groundcrew.  AgustaWestland has primary operations in the UK, Italy and the US.  

The latency question

Westland needed to transfer vital flight analysis data between its sites in Yeovil in the UK and Victorville, Calif. on the US West Coast.

Roger Pavey, Technical Adviser for Westland explains: "Each flight was to generate about 5Gb of data, which had to be transferred in about 30 minutes.  After budgeting for a 155Mbps line, we still had concerns about latency, which could have jeopardised a potentially lucrative new contract and access to new markets.  A timely telephone call from Data Integration at this point suggested a solution using a Juniper appliance would overcome the latency question."

To achieve the target 30 minute transfer time between Somerset and California would have required a throughput of at least 22Mbps. Even with the proposed 155Mbps link this would have been impossible because with 120ms latency, throughput is a maximum of 480Kbps per session. The Juniper WAN Accelerator increased throughput from 480Kbps to 43Mbps, equivalent to 92 times the throughput.

Testing the solution

Having demonstrated the cost-benefits of the solution on paper, Data Integration set up a proof of concept for Westland.

Data Integration and Juniper were able to prove the concept, using real data and simulated latency, and provided the support required to implement within the short timescales of setting up the project.  Additional devices were also procured to provide resilience and redundancy.

The two sites were connected using a point-to-point 45Mbps link. High performance Cisco 3745 routers were used to provide the connectivity between the two sites. Two Juniper WX-100 Application Accelerators were deployed to provide compression, Packet Flow Acceleration and Quality of Service to ensure data is transferred as quickly as possible.

A quick return on investment

The difference in the rental costs between the proposed 155Mbps line and the existing 45Mbps line alone justified cost of the WX-100 devices and licenses.   Since deploying the Juniper WX-100 platforms, Westland has seen a peak data reduction on its network of 91 per cent, and a near four-fold increase in total WAN capacity.  Remote users have also found that access to services such as e-mail and HTTP has improved to near-LAN speeds.

Pavey concludes: "Data Integration gave me a simple and cost-effective solution to an urgent business problem.  They provided all the evidence I needed to prove the business case and moved very quickly to help us meet our deadlines."

For further information please contact us on +44(0)20 8875 6500 or email info@dataintegration.com