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Internal Use - Confidential
Introduction
ExpressConnect
1
is a software application that is integrated with Dell Optimizer
application installed on the client system. ExpressConnect focuses on network
optimization from a client system view point. The functionality of ExpressConnect
can be categorized into 2 important segments.
1. Best Access Point Selection (BAPS) engine
When there are multiple access points (APs) available to a user, BAPS
ensures that the user is always connected to the right AP, unlike the current
implementation of Windows. Windows chooses the AP by default while
connecting based on proximity (Received Signal Strength Indicator–RSSI).
Windows preserves the connection, even when the network signal becomes
weak, until it is disconnected. In Dell Optimizer 2.0, network optimization is
displayed as Automatic Network Switching.
2. Network traffic shaping (NTS) engine
NTS prioritizes critical applications over noncritical applications in terms
of bandwidth and QoS. Without this feature, bandwidth is equally divided among
all the applications that access the Internet. If the bandwidth is equally divided,
real-time applications, video streaming, and other background downloads are
treated at equal levels of priority. ExpressConnect detects the importance of
applications and allocates higher bandwidth to critical applications. It has four
different levels of classifications, 1 being the highest priority and 4 being the
lowest. This application is developed to provide the best experience to end users
in a dense AP and a limited bandwidth scenario. In Dell Optimizer 2.0, this
feature is displayed as Conference Bandwidth Optimization.
Background
Dell Optimizer is a tool developed exclusively for Dell commercial systems.
ExpressConnect is a part of Dell Optimizer that focuses on network optimization.
ExpressConnect is hardware agnostic and it is targeted towards mainstream
commercial customers
ExpressConnect can do the following:
• Operate over Wi-Fi, ethernet and WWAN
• Detect applications
• Automatically prioritize video stream(s) and VoIP traffic
• Prioritize applications into 4 different priority categories
• Score and rank available Wi-Fi access points (APs)
ExpressConnect Architecture
Below is the high-level software architecture of ExpressConnect.