Larry Roberts, who was part of a team that gave birth to the Internet, launched a new networking company on Monday called Anagran and its first product.

The networking startup's first product is the Anagran FR-1000 Flow Router, designed for new generation video, voice, data, and wireless applications. The FR-1000 can eliminate network performance issues in applications like telepresence, Internet Protocol TV, and voice over IP, and consumes 80% less power than traditional Layer 3 routers, according to Roberts, Anagran's founder and CEO.

"Unfortunately, large fixed rate flows like video are not supported well with current-day routers which have freeze-frame, jitter, and general scalability challenges under even the most moderate levels of network congestion. As the traffic changes, we can't rely on this last-generation packet technology, which has essentially remained unchanged for 40 years, to power Internet performance," said Roberts, in a statement.

The FR-1000 watches and evaluates all traffic that travels through it. Instead of processing and routing individual packets, the router processes traffic based on specified priorities and assign the highest quality of performance to critical information. It uses the Intelligent Flow Discard approach to eliminate delay and packet losses.

The router also uses Behavioral Traffic Control to prohibit any traffic from using more than their suitable share of network resources. Thus, Anagran is able to guarantee quality video and voice, faster downloads, and minimal delay for all traffic, the company said.

The FR-1000 can be plugged into an existing IP network infrastructure. It works with other routers, WAN optimization or deep packet inspection products. But Anagran claims with the FR-1000, additional special-purpose appliances may not be necessary to improve network and application performance.

Anagran's router has been tested in multiple service provider and corporate network environments for over six months, and it's now widely available.

Along with Leonard Kleinrock, Robert Kahn, and Vinton Cerf, Roberts helped design and develop Arpanet, which is considered the first Internet packet network.

Roberts previously served as chairman and chief technology officer at Caspian Networks, but left in early 2004.