Getting network traffic to flow smoothly between public and private networks requires complex configuration operations at the junctions of the various networks across most of the World.
Expensive and time consuming, it stops businesses from adopting new services and more flexible working practises.
If you were to draw an analogy between European network architecture and the state of the roads, you would probably conclude that drivers need to switch cars between rural and urban areas and custom-engineer their brakes and gears to drive on company-owned land. Similarly, the current network architecture throughout Europe causes many problems for IT support and engineering teams.
Increasing demands on WAN bandwidth was driven by a number of developments, most notably the change in business and consumer usage patterns. In the past, browsing the web was mainly a passive experience; pages were static and contained little interactivity. Today, there is more that companies and consumers can do on and with the web. Not only has the range of options increased, via social networking sites, podcasting and videostreaming, but with more sharing and collaboration via systems such as SharePoint and Wikis, companies and users are sending and receiving more data than ever before. Advanced applications such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), VoD and VoIP, which have been held up in the past by lack of bandwidth, are now driving demand for next-generation networks.
Consumer developments now have a noticeable effect on network traffic. At the turn of the century, despite services like Napster, most consumer internet traffic was generated by simple email and web browsing.
In 2007, it was estimated that YouTube users took up as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000. With developments like BBC iPlayer and 4-on-Demand seeing rapid uptake, network traffic may well spike in 2008.
However, there are also many business developments which have affected network traffic. Business-grade VoIP usually requires around 40Kbps per call and as companies introduce videoconferencing over IP, bandwidth requirements will increase further. With the introduction of SaaS, applications are now leaving the LAN and travelling across the WAN, putting significantly more pressure on ISPs and network providers.
All these factors are creating demand for more bandwidth and better networks.
To return to our transport analogy, in order to improve both roads and IT networks, engineers and architects need simultaneously to increase capacity and use one common method of ordering traffic. It would doubtless make life easier if all countries drove on the same side of the road. The same is true for network architecture, with many providers either in the process of upgrading networks to all-IP or already having such networks in place.
There are a number of plans afoot to resolve these problems. Rather than maintaining ‘translation’ equipment between its 16 different networks, British operator BT is currently upgrading to a ‘next generation’ all-IP core network, so traffic can easily travel over one network. It is also investing substantially in enhancing its local access methods to increase the bandwidth available to the user.
On the continent, most telcos are investing in fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP), including Iliad in France and Fastweb in Italy. Britain has been somewhat slow on the uptake: H20 Networks recently announced that it would be offering fibre connections directly to consumers and BT plans to complete some FTTP deployments this summer.
Many providers have been put off getting into the fibre market by the daunting and expensive prospect of laying new cabling. Where it has worked successfully, construction has often been handled in conjunction with utility providers, with H20 notably using sewers to deliver fibre optic cable.
Other kinds of local access methods are being developed. Providing very fast connections (around 50Mb/s), to offices within a kilometre of street cabinets, VDSL is especially useful because it makes use of existing copper infrastructure, with no need for additional cabling; the only requirement is a different set of routers.
Demand for additional bandwidth has also driven the development of Ethernet in the WAN, which offers a more flexible way of providing bandwidth to companies. In SDH networks, companies were limited in their choice of bandwidth sizes. Ethernet allows for more incremental increases giving companies opportunities to use bandwidth-on-demand and only purchase what they need, rather than being constrained by the capabilities of the technology itself.
So what are the benefits of these developments? Users’ internet experience will become better and companies will be able to do more, faster.
Over the last few years, companies have begun using VPNs so that remote users can access shared drives and email. In future, full LAN-speed desktop access will be possible via Citrix or Terminal Services over DSL, a development not possible in the past because of lack of sufficient or reliable bandwidth with SLA or QoS guarantees.
Now, desktop PCs and servers are sufficiently powerful to run most, if not all, applications very easily but network bandwidth is holding them back. Increases in controllable bandwidth will gradually make SaaS feasible for home and small office workers and drive vendors to SaaS-enabled applications which have commonly been installed on fat clients. This will allow smaller companies to run ‘enterprise grade’ applications such as ERP and CRM over domestic broadband connections. Evolving applications, such as VoD, will also run more easily over an NGN.
Companies will begin to exploit fully collaborative and sharing services, as remote users will begin to have the same experience as those within the LAN thereby improving their productivity and decreasing incidences of ‘employee downtime’.
None of these developments will happen overnight. With the memories of the dot com boom and bust still fresh, no major networking venture will be developed without a cast-iron business case behind it. Yet there is a clear and present need for improved and upgraded network infrastructure throughout Europe, which is driving telecommunications companies to invest in high bandwidth, all-IP networks. These networks will enable companies to use more flexible services, as well as helping telcos reduce costs and offer more flexible bandwidth.
NGNs will support the convergence of voice, video and data applications and begin to blur the lines between public and private networks and consumer and corporate applications.
Over the next few years, the European networking landscape will change radically. The previously passive, one-to-one world will gradually turn into an active, collaborative one-to-many environment where the geographical boundaries of the physical world are even more irrelevant than they are now.
Reference: mCubu Digital
