Data Expedition, Inc. (DEI) provides products and services based on MTP/IP; or Multipurpose Transaction Protocol. MTP, says Data Expedition, is a replacement protocol for TCP that operates at the transport layer of the network stack and therefore can be implemented over existing IP-based infrastructures. MTP is based on UDP and can use already available UDP firewall ports for communications, or the administrator is free to define and open new UDP ports for MTP communications.

According to Data Expedition, MTP is a more efficient transfer protocol for IP-based transmissions; typically providing from 2-7 times the throughput across high speed WANS of TCP and 2-10 times as many transactions per second. The technology achieves its performance gains not by forcing traffic to move quicker (it is still limited by the available bandwidth of the hardware itself), but rather making more efficient use of "bandwidth gaps" inherent in TCP-based communications, especially when those communications can become congested as may be typical in Internet traffic. In layman's terms, the core methodology of MTP provides for more efficient flow-control of the data transfer speed itself; rather than being based on an oscillating send-and-wait traffic pattern, MTP "... observes network behavior to find the maximum sustainable data rate of the current path, and constantly adjusts as network conditions change from moment to moment." (Company white paper.) Unlike core UDP, MTP does ramp its transfer rate downward as errors begin to occur (so as not to contribute adversely to the congestion itself), but recovers its speed following the completion of TCP traffic oscillations. Though MTP works over existing IP infrastructures, both the sending and receiving nodes in an MTP-based transmission must be MTP-aware; hardware needn't be modified to allow for MTP-based communications, but the software on both ends must be compatible.

DEI offers their technology in both finished products for immediate use and software development kits for the addition of MTP capabilities to custom applications.

Currently available SDKs include a Core SDK for implementing base MTP functionality, and higher level APIs specifically tuned for document exchange (XML, bulk data, backup services, file sharing, etc.) and a Stream SDK which emulates the sequential nature of TCP for MTP integration into existing TCP-based applications. An ExpeDat SDK facilitates the creation of custom ExpeDat (see below) clients for connection to an ExpeDat server.

On the product side, DEI offers HyperGate, which allows existing Web servers to deliver documents to end-user browsers via proxy-based MTP transmissions (both a server and client component are required; MTP-enabled transmissions are facilitated by means of specific URL designations which route the documents through the MTP enabled server/client); ExpeDat, which is billed as a drop-in replacement for FTP; and the newest product, SyncDat, a file synchronization utility that is billed as an alternative to rsync or CIFS-based synchronization tools especially over WAN communication links.

The MTP technology is available now; free trial versions of HyperGate, SyncDat, and ExpeDat can be downloaded at the DEI Web site.

Contact DEI for further information.