Broadband as a WAN Solution
Introduction
As an organisation you may be considering the replacement or upgrade of your communications infrastructure for a number of reasons.
These could include the introduction of new applications aimed at driving your business forward, greater capacity due to expansion, or a desire to compare the cost of your current network with available solutions in the market place.
Often, when attempting to introduce change, infrastructure costs can act as a constraining influence. The impact of a new application or service expansion may cause concern that existing connectivity methods could buckle under the increased load.
Additional bandwidth is often expensive, and upgrades might require new hardware. New leased line connections, as an example can also take weeks to implement.
If such costs and time implications are attributed against specific applications, they can cause overrun, and in severe cases make the introduction of the application itself no longer viable in part or in whole.
The implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning, Point of Sale systems, Corporate Intranet solutions, Extranet and Partner communications strategies all have one thing in common - the need for a robust, scaleable and economic communications infrastructure.
How Much Does Your Network Cost?
Broadband has changed the economics of access to the internet. Increasingly reliable and far faster than dial-up, it is now also seen by many businesses as a significantly more cost effective solution than the traditional leased line internet feed.
If Broadband could be harnessed to deliver secure private connections, it could also offer high bandwidth in the inter-office communications space. If such a solution is built without using the internet at all, then security and availability concerns are removed – This would offer the ability
to replace traditional leased lines and WAN technologies with higher bandwidth at less cost, but with a like for like or even improved infrastructure.
Broadband without Internet
BT offer a range of Wholesale products in their Broadband portfolio. These are primarily designed for Service Providers to be able to resell BT’s services as a means of providing internet access. For now, we’ll concentrate on BT’s IPStream product, as this is the simplest to explain. Service Providers commit to the installation and rental of a BT Central connection. This is normally a high bandwidth link from the Service Provider’s backbone to BT’s private commercial DSL IP network, which covers a high proportion of the UK.
The Service Provider can then resell ADSL Broadband links to consumers, SME’s and Corporate organisations. These ADSL links are “tagged” and securely tunnelled across BT’s DSL IP network, directly to the appropriate BT Central connection, arriving at the Service Provider’s network, where it can be routed onto the internet.
If, instead of installing the BT Central link at a Service Provider’s premises, it is installed at a private data-centre, connectivity is achieved between remote sites and the data centre purely over BT’s private commercial DSL IP network, without any access to the internet.
This connectivity can then take full advantage of the available ADSL technology to deliver bandwidth of 256kbps upstream and either 512kbps, 1mbps or 2mbps downstream. It is possible to bond these links together to further increase available throughput.
The same core network will be used by BT to develop SDSL services in the future, further protecting investment in this technology and providing potential upgrade paths.
Making Broadband Deliver
With the exception of the BT Central link, such a configuration as discussed above would be provided as an unbundled network, with no network termination equipment or day to day management.
Because ADSL Broadband was developed as an internet connectivity technology, it assumes that IP is used. This makes connectivity and integration with other network technologies very flexible, as IP has become the default standard world-wide.
There is a considerable amount of network termination equipment on offer, with most manufacturers providing compatible routers. Higher end equipment can include facilities to enable fail-over to ISDN or other connectivity. However, many of these solutions rely heavily on proprietary software built into the routers themselves, and require configuration expertise before they can deliver a reliable service. In addition, for larger networks the ability to report upon and analyse performance across multiple remote sites requires additional software and associated skill-sets.
As the BT Central link is a Wholesale product aimed at Service Providers, BT is not focussed on end-user support – there is an expectation that the customer for this product set is a capable network provider in its own right, and already has the vast majority of the necessary skills for supporting it.
There are a number of Service Providers who can offer a Broadband-based WAN, and their solutions vary from simply reselling the BT components, along with appropriate DSL routers, through to a fully managed service.
IT Techcare have developed, in conjunction with PowerNet, a fully managed solution we call Leased DSL for Business, and this is explained as an appendix to this paper.
Business Benefits and issues of Broadband WANs
As discussed above, WAN infrastructure can act as a “blocker” rather than as an enabler for new and emerging business solutions.
Broadband presents many of the basic components to change this, and offers the promise of the WAN being seen as an enabling asset within the organisation.
We consider the pro’s and con’s of a basic Broadband WAN to be: Potential Advantages over traditional technologies
* Available Bandwidth * Future Proof
* Scaleable
* Speed of implementation
Potential disadvantages when compared with traditional technologies
* Unbundled – no in-built network equipment or management facilities * As an emerging technology, ADSL has suffered from reliability issues * Contention
* Not available 100% throughout the UK at all locations Conclusion
Broadband promises to revolutionise the way businesses deploy inter-branch connectivity. Cost/performance achievable far outstrips conventional network connections, and the potential to deliver true business benefit in terms of cost reduction and application enablement is truly immense.
However, because it was developed for the Wholesale Service Provider market, it lacks the management facilities offered by more traditional networking technologies and solutions.
Unless an organisation is capable of developing or acquiring the necessary functionality and skills required to manage an unbundled WAN in-house, then a reliable partner should be sought to implement and manage the solution.
APPENDIX
Broadband as a WAN Solution
Introducing Leased DSL for Business
This document has been created as a response to our White Paper dated October 2003, so that you can distinguish between:
1. the potential benefits a Broadband WAN may bring together with the potential issues which should be borne in mind, and
2. our Broadband WAN solution.
We explain how IT Techcare & Powernet have addressed the issues posed by the availability of ADSL Broadband as an unbundled Wholesale product set, and how we have developed a comprehensive solution which we call Leased DSL for Business.
We believe that by deploying such a WAN, organisations can benefit from a communications infrastructure which opens up new opportunities to deploy emerging technologies.
The cost savings on offer can be invested in upgraded or new business applications, in the sure knowledge that the infrastructure is scaleable enough to support them.
Broadband used in this way allows your infrastructure to become an enabler, offering the flexibility of high bandwidth at low cost, rather than the more historic role of slowing down change due to the level of investment required in advance of the implementation of new business systems.
We have taken BT’s Wholesale Broadband offering, added our own management and monitoring software and combined ISDN connectivity, to deliver a fully resilient solution which provides 99.99% availability. This combination provides ADSL bandwidth capacity and impressive response times across a dedicated private WAN, with no use of the internet.
Objectives for a replacement or new WAN
We believe that the design brief and objectives for a replacement Wide Area Network solution should incorporate:
A fully Managed (and manageable) service Clear definition of service levels
Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) High levels of Scalability
The deployment of future proofed technologies Secure, robust and resilient communications links
Close Integration with existing networks and naming conventions Disaster Recovery capabilities
Service Components
Leased DSL for Business incorporates the all of the necessary analysis, design and implementation services to build a fully functional installed Wide Area Network.
Our LDSL Management Suite enables pro-active monitoring and intelligent diagnoses of faults, allowing our technicians to respond quickly and effectively on a 24 x 7 basis. As a result, we often resolve issues before end-users are aware of them. We allow your technical staff access to the Management Suite with full reporting and data extract capabilities, so our performance and the performance of the network is completely visible to you.
We deploy CISCO routers as standard, with a 4 hour on-site Service Level Agreement, and the ADSL links themselves are backed up with BT’s enhanced service care.
We install ISDN links for resilience, with separate network termination equipment to avoid a single point of failure. When combined with the intelligence built into the LDSL Management Suite, our solution delivers an infrastructure with the levels of reliability typically expected by traditional leased line-based networks, and underwritten by our standard Service Level Agreement.
Options are available for Quality of Service and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) enablement.
Standard Leased DSL for Business uses BT’s IPStream product. This is a contended service, whereby business user links are contended at the rate of 20:1. This does not impact the security of any link, but is merely a means of BT being able to provide IPStream at such competitive pricing. Contention is applied at BT’s equipment, and is set at a level which should not unduly impact individual link performance. We can provide un-contended connections at additional cost, but our experience to date has shown latency and response times from IPStream which suggest that this is not necessary. Round trip response times are well within the bounds of high quality voice communications, and as mentioned above, we have some innovative methods for the delivery of QoS.
We believe that Broadband has come of age, and can now deliver a robust and dependable WAN to the enterprise.
Summary of Benefits
Costing vs. traditional Leased Lines
ADSL Broadband is delivered to predetermined costs – Directly comparable with the traditional leased line (but potentially significantly cheaper). Once installed BT’s Wholesale pricing offers the ability for links to be charged on a quarterly and inclusive basis (24 x 7 un-metered usage). As an example, a fully managed Leased DSL for Business tail circuit, delivering 512kbps download capacity would cost less than £1,500 per annum plus VAT, including ISDN resilience. Installation and ongoing provision costs for ADSL Broadband do not increase with distance covered between sites.
Typical use for any Broadband link will be significantly faster than any traditional leased line it replaces. The entry level download speed for Broadband is 512kbps.
Commercial Terms
Our commercial terms and pricing are extremely transparent and flexible. We share the information with you about BT’s charges, and identify our management fees for implementation and ongoing WAN management.
We can implement a very low risk trial of the solution before moving on to a full implementation, and we will even consider novating your existing WAN service to ourselves to guarantee a smooth migration to Leased DSL for Business.
The following diagrams represent example Broadband connectivity – the first shows typical internet access, and the second shows how Leased DSL for Business delivers a private, secure and fully managed WAN without using internet facilities.
For further information on Leased DSL please contact IT Techcare Group PLC
Unit 17 – 18
First Quarter Business Park Blenheim Road Epsom Surrey KT19 9QN T. 01372 734100 F. 01372 739307 E. [email protected] W. www.it-techcare.com
