US software developer F5 Networks has announced its purchase of Israel’s load management solutions start-up, Traffix Systems. The American leader in Application Delivery Networking reportedly paid $135 million for the Israeli provider of G4 Diameter software and traffic administration services for cellular providers.

“Diameter traffic is mission critical for any carrier moving to 4G/LTE and IMS architectures. It enables billing, subscriber management, and interoperability between core IP systems and between carriers themselves,” John Byrne, Research Director Wireless and Mobile Infrastructure service at IDC, said in a press release announcing the sale. “With the load and complexity of mobile data network traffic growing dramatically, mobile operators require expertise in the data and application plane, in the form of converged IP services, and in the control plane with advanced Diameter routing, load balancing and gateway capabilities.”

This was F5’s third Israeli purchase – the company also bought Magnifire Websystems for $29 million in 2004 and Crescendo Networks for a reported $5 million last year.

“Bringing together F5’s superior expertise in IP for applications and data with Traffix’s industry leadership in Diameter and signaling for the control plane, F5 has the unique depth and breadth to make the transition from 3G to 4G and IMS much simpler, cost effective, and non-disruptive for carriers,” said Ben Volkow, CEO of Traffix Systems. 

Traffix started out in the Lab-One Innovations incubator program.