The consumer-friendly version of DPI

Deep packet inspection has come under fire from consumer groups, Net Neutrality proponents and even members of the U.S. Congress. But one UK ISP is using DPI in a way intended to improve customer service - with its customers' permission. PlusNet is a BT-owned ISP with about 120,000 that began using Ellacoya's IP Service Control System - now part of Arbor Networks since its acquisition of Ellacoya - in 2006 to launch a Subscriber Service Portal that allows its customers to monitor their own usage, among other things. After first using DPI as a way to inspect and prioritize traffic to protect services such as VoIP and gaming from latency caused by network congestion, PlusNet took things to a new level. The company decided to offer four different classes of service for residential and business customers - or eight classes total - and to further allow customers to customize their particular service when they signed up.