The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the frustrations of how poor connectivity in a home office can wreak on online meetings. The ramifications of a weak connection in a small-office and home-office (or SOHO) does not end there: imagine the consequences for a small software development shop failing to deploy time-sensitive software for its clients, or a local legal firm failing to close on an important transaction, or a contractor left unable to purchase the construction material needed for its business.
The reliability of networks has become key as remote working and tele-working look poised to become the new normal for many workers in a post-pandemic world, including the massive volumes of business-critical activity happening on SOHO networks. With that in mind, a group of researchers from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa have forged a partnership with RabbitRun Technologies to advance network connectivity for the SOHO market.
The partnership will help develop Machine Learning-enabled solutions for making SOHO networks more resilient to a multitude of unanticipated circumstances, such as network outages, power failures, congested paths, and cybersecurity attacks. The partnership will leverage the programmability of software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN) to add intelligence and self-adaptivity into SOHO networks.
“RabbitRun is targeting a critical market with huge potential for growth. Our partnership strikes the perfect balance between highly innovative research, on the one hand, and responding to market needs on the other,” said Dr. Mehrdad Sabetzadeh, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa and member of the research team.
“The R&D performed in SD-WAN has traditionally been oriented around large enterprises. In SOHO, in contrast to enterprises, the processing and storage resources are limited; this necessitates that the bulk of the intelligence be pushed onto Edge devices, thus opening many interesting avenues of investigation on how AI can be best exploited for managing SOHO networks.”
Small businesses and the small offices they operate from are a fundamental driver of the Canadian economy. According to data published by the Government of Canada, as of December 2019, approximately 98% of employer businesses in Canada were small businesses. Beyond the research potential and market opportunities, the uOttawa research team wanted to put their expertise at the service of the common good.
“The fact that RabbitRun is a young Canadian SME makes this partnership particularly rewarding,” said Dr. Shiva Nejati, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa, and member of the research team.
“Furthermore, and noting the client base that RabbitRun serves, which is small businesses, telecommuters, remote workers, and mobile workers, I am very optimistic that our research will have societal impact. If we make a home office more conducive to running a professional business, for instance, we will have already removed some important barriers for women with young children or people with disabilities.”
“We look forward to working with Dr. Sabetzadeh, Dr. Nejati and their team at the University of Ottawa on this exciting partnership” said Pat Saavedra, Founder & CTO of RabbitRun Technologies. “This partnership will help pave the way for introducing AI-enabled decision making and versatility into the Metadata Traffic Controller Technology that powers our SOHO SD-WAN networking products.”
The University of Ottawa—A crossroads of cultures and ideas
The University of Ottawa is home to over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroads of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We are one of Canada’s top 10 research universities—our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today’s challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe.
About RabbitRun Technologies Inc.
RabbitRun Technologies manufactures innovative SD-WAN products powered by agile Edge devices, transforming applications and services using the internet. They offer channel partners easy to deploy solutions that reduce support costs, increase reliability, and improve customer satisfaction. Products are sold through telecommunications technology indirect sales channels, focusing on key networking needs of the underserved SOHO SD-WAN and Remote Worker markets.
For more information about RabbitRun, its products or to learn how to become a partner please visit http://www.rabbitrun.io/ and follow on LinkedIn and Twitter.
For media inquiries:
Justine Boutet
Media Relations Officer
University of Ottawa
Cell: 613.762.2908
justine.boutet@uottawa.ca
Brad Fischer
VP Channel Sales & Marketing
RabbitRun Technologies Inc.
Cell: 647.417.4902
Brad@rabbitrun.io