BIG-IP^® Feature Modules

Advanced Client Authentication^™

Managing authentication individually across applications is costly. The Advanced Client Authentication Module allows for top-level client authentication of HTTP and other traffic types to LDAP, Radius, TACAS, and other centralized authentication devices. This saves money and improves performance by stopping unwanted traffic, reducing managements costs, and decreasing server and application load.

Advanced Routing^™

BIG-IP Advanced Routing Modules allow BIG-IP to manage the routing information used by traffic traversing networks and to share it with other devices. BGP, RIP, and OSPF Modules all enable better interoperability within the corporate network, saving money while improving availability and performance.

Fast Cache^™

The BIG-IP Fast Cache Module prevents servers from having to handle repetitive requests for identical content, cutting server loads by up to 50%. This reduces server costs, speeds end-user performance for frequently requested content, and improves overall server and application performance. The Fast Cache Module targets performance intelligently, on a per-application basis, providing superior flexibility and control.

Intelligent Compression^™

The BIG-IP Intelligent Compression Module dramatically reduces the volume of traffic sent to the user, with up to 15x compression that overcomes poor Web application performance caused by WAN latency and connection bottlenecks. This reduces bandwidth consumption and speeds end-user download times over slower or low-bandwidth connections. The module typically pays for itself in under two months.

IPv6 Gateway^™

Demand for IPv6 is increasing, with many sites facing new requirements to handle IPv6 traffic. The BIG-IP IPv6 Gateway Module gives you a clear and seamless strategy for staging network migration as IPv6 traffic grows. The pooling of mixed IPv4 and IPv6 host resources allows for an easy, cost-effective transition, without wholesale network and application upgrades.

L7 Rate Shaping^™

Contention for shared bandwidth often degrades application performance, and most organizations can't guarantee that high-priority traffic is passed ahead of low-priority traffic. The BIG-IP L7 Rate Shaping Module gives you fine-grained bandwidth control to better manage application bandwidth usage and traffic spikes, controlling traffic spikes and providing priority to traffic classes based on any L4 or L7 parameter.

Message Security Module^™

The BIG-IP Message Security Module is the industry's first reputation-based, perimeter anti-spam solution integrated into the application delivery control network. That means it can extend security for message applications to the edge of the network, stopping up to 70 percent of unwanted e-mail. This keeps illegitimate messages from clogging up bandwidth and frees up capacity on existing anti-spam solutions.

Protocol Security Module^™

BIG-IP Protocol Security Module (PSM) provides powerful security services for HTTP(s), SMTP, and FTP at BIG-IP system speed. PSM is perfect for environments that require more than layer 3 and layer 4 inspection services, where the expertise and management overhead needed to deploy a full-featured web application firewall isn't possible or there is a need to secure other protocols. Protocol enforcement services can be implemented on a per-virtual-server basis and configured within a matter of minutes.

SSL Acceleration^™

The BIG-IP SSL Acceleration Module dramatically improves the performance of servers while providing security, speed, and traffic management during business-critical online transactions. The module frees up servers from the difficult task of encrypting and decrypting data that must be secured for privacy reasons. This CPU-intensive decryption is migrated onto a high-performance device designed to handle SSL transactions more efficiently -- with up to 48,000 SSL transactions per second available on the BIG-IP 8800.