Network Evolution to the New Millenium

1. Network Evolution to the New Millenium Habib Youssef, Ph.D youssef@ccse.kfupm.edu.sa Department of Computer Engineering King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Habib Youssef

2. Outline • Introduction • Operator Challenges and Requirements • Network Convergence and Consequences • Glimpses at some new developments • Web Switching • ASP • Wireless Broadband Access • The Networked Home Habib Youssef

3. Introduction • Over the last few decades technological advances in telecommunication and computing have been happening at a breathtaking pace. • As we enter a new millenium, network operators are facing important challenges: • Enhance the network in the face of explosive growth in data traffic and demand of higher bandwidths. • The Internet has become a worldwide phenomenon which is driving forward the need for extra bandwidth to cope with new multimedia services (text, voice, and still/video images). • Most of the optical highways are being deployed to cope with the increasing Internet traffic (World Wide Web traffic). Habib Youssef

4. Introduction (contd.) • However, it is not economical for network operators to focus their evolution on the provision of Internet services only, since most of their revenues are still coming from voice services. • Hence, established operators are being forced to partner with a telecommunication operator with long-standing experience in the provision of both voice and data networking services. • Such a partner will help them determine the right mix of network investment to cope with growth in IP traffic, • in the longer term, it will help them move toward a common network infrastructure (Network convergence). Habib Youssef

5. Forecast revenues from voice and data services (Source: Yankee Group) Voice Data 200 194 185 US Dollars (Billions) 176 167 159 152 150 100 46 50 36 28 23 18 15 0 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Habib Youssef

6. Challenges faced by Operators • How to cope with explosive IP traffic • How to optimize revenues from both data and voice services • Which services are genuinely useful to the end users (residential or corporate) • Optimum migration strategy towards an open network with servers and intelligence that links the data and voice worlds (network convergence) Habib Youssef

7. Network services • In developing network services, operators must remember that, • Services are developed for users • Should be simple to use • provide users with easy ways of customizing their usage profiles • Knowledge is more important than information • services should be more data-centric rather than purely communication-centric. Hence, databases and data-mining tools will become key assets. • Access devices • Today telephone handsets and computers are the main access devices. However, in the future, access will be provided via a wider range of devices ==> Information must be aggregated and generated by a service in such a way that it can be decoupled from the interaction with the device. Habib Youssef

8. Operator Requirements • Internet Service Providers • Many operators are also ISPs whose short term objective is to increase profit by optimizing the cost of deploying and providing access to current services • In the long term, operators must seek to provided new value-added services in order to increase profit, e.g. • VPNs • Broadband RAS • Managed Firewalls, • VoIP • ASPs Habib Youssef

9. Operator Requirements (Contd.) • Local Exchange Carriers need a network that can support a mix of services and technologies, not just IP traffic • Switches/Routers that support both IP and ATM • Circuit emulation for leased lines • Frame Relay internetworking • ATM support • Voice over IP • Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) • Wireless access and mobility Habib Youssef

10. Wireless Access/Internet • We live in the “Information Era”, where pervasive access to information is becoming a necessity anytime and anywhere • Commercial illustrating importance of Internet anytime: • Young man who jumped from an airplane but couldn’t get his parachute to open. • He pulls his PDA device and connects to his insurance company web site to increase the limit on his term life insurance • Access to the Internet from a wide range of mobile devices • PDAs, Cellular phones, pagers, in-car computers, etc Habib Youssef

11. Wireless Access/Internet (Contd.) • Current common properties of these devices • Small screens, low power, little memory, limited keyboard, low bandwidth • Special protocols and data formats • See • http://www.wirelessinstitute.com/standards.html • http://www.wapforum.org • WAP Forum is focusing on creating a global wireless protocol specification that works across different wireless technologies, for adoption by appropriate industry standards bodies Habib Youssef

12. Fixed Wireless Internet Access • Interim solution for businesses/homes that don’t have access to CATV or DSL broadband access • Unlike traditional mobile wireless technologies, fixed-wireless technologies are not designed for use with smart phones, PDA’s, or other similar devices • An ISP using fixed-wireless technology • Sends data from central office or base station optical fiber to base station antennas • The base station antennas convert the optical signals into high-frequency radio microwaves for transmission to the antennas of customers in the same cell as the base station antennas • Te customer’s antenna captures the signal and passes it to the network interface unit , which converts the radio waves to electronic signals and streams them to the receiving computer Habib Youssef

13. Global Wireless Market Habib Youssef

14. Wireless Market Potentials • Canada • In 1994: 2.7 million wireless users • In 2000: 11.8 million wireless users • Saudi • In 1998: around half million • In 2001: around two million Habib Youssef

15. The case for Satellite access • Until about 60 years ago • Each individual communicated with about 100 persons, of which 80-90% lived nearby • About 20 years ago, these figures changed • Each individual communicated with as much as 500 other individuals, of which 80-90% are far apart. • The 90’s have seen the emergence of Information Technology which integrates telecommunications, computing, TV, videoconferencing, and consumer electronics in every location (home or business) Habib Youssef

16. The case for Satellite access (Contd.) • The challenge is to provide • Multi-application networks • Broadband access to everybody (2 Mbps and more) • Terrestrial networking solutions cannot meet all requirements • Wide area multicasting and broadcasting is not easy • A large investment is required to bridge the last mile between the customer and the local exchange • There is a growing belief that Satellites can play a complementary role in reducing the time-to-market • The subscriber has only to install a satellite terminal and subscribe to the service via a satellite in orbit Habib Youssef

17. The case for Satellite access (Contd.) • Wide bandwidth is already available in millions of homes (over 40 milllions in Europe alone) • Existing home installations can be used to a connect Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) • Such services will be provided by satellite onboard processing (OBP) systems • Existing telephone networks are limited in providing wide access to subscribers • More than two thirds of the investment of a telephone network is required for the last mile • Investments in the order of 10’s or 100’s of Billion Dollars to implement the last mile with optical fiber Habib Youssef

18. The case for Satellite access (Contd.) • Cable TV companies have an installed base of high-bandwidth transmission media (coax) for one-way distribution to subscribers. However • density is much less than the telephone network • A merging of telephone and CATV technologies has been taking place • To provide high-bandwidth to everybody everywhere requires • Huge investment • Time Habib Youssef

19. The case for Satellite access (Contd.) • Network technicians would recommend • Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) • Telecommunications managers would recommend temporary solutions such as • Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) • High speed/rate Digital Subscriber Line (HDSL) • Very High speed/rate Digital Subscriber Line (VDSL) • More cost effective solution seems to be Satellite access • Terrestrial network would continue to serve telephony applications • Satellites will be providing the wideband access needed by multimedia (interactive) services Habib Youssef

20. Growth in Network Usage • The World wide web has permanently changed networking. • Millions of individual users access the internet from home regularly • Home offices are on the increase • Businesses are using the Internet for commerce. • Increasingly, individual organizations are maintaining their own intranets Habib Youssef

21. Internet User Growth • World Wide Web Users in Millions Habib Youssef 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

22. Trends in Applications • Web pages now provide animated graphics, audio & video. • Ease of use is expected of applications. • Number of functions are expected from a single application (e.g., Web browsing, Mailing, Calendaring etc.). • Diverse data types are expected to be handled by a single application (e.g., Documents embedding spread sheets, graphics, voice etc.) Habib Youssef

23. Trends in Applications • E-commerce • E-Business • Building & maintenance of a complete Web Storefront • Electronic banking & cash • Electronic banking will displace checks & cash in commerce • E-trade • E-contact to create the “Cyber-salesperson” • Need for an integrated call center to establish the human touch in cooperation with web access • Collaborative browsing and multimedia access • E-branch to reach out to the places needed by the business Habib Youssef

24. Trends in Applications (Contd.) • Videoconferencing • Telecommuting • The E-office • Employees will perform jobs from remote locations • Distant learning • Online publishing • Majority of books & other publications will be online • Entertainment on demand • Movies, TV shows, Sports …. on demand Habib Youssef

25. Technology Drivers • Traffic is doubling every 9 months, while processing capacity is doubling every 18 months. • Rely on caching whenever possible! • Good data mining! Habib Youssef

26. Technology Trends • Devices capable of integrating a number of technologies are being designed and produced e.g. a single switch may interface ATM, FDDI, and Fast/Gigabit Ethernet. • Layer 2 and Layer 3 (IP switches) are being designed and produced. • To meet increased bandwidth needs and application sophistication new standards are being proposed. • Devices capable of prioritizing and filtering are becoming available. • Applications aware switching devices. Habib Youssef

27. Technology Trends (Contd.) • Increased ASICs usage to minimize size and improve performance. • Integration of a wide range of functions, thereby simplifying networks and reducing operating expenses. • Use of an open software platform, making it possible to integrate best available applications. • The Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) • to offer voice and mobile multi-media to the mass market (3rd Generation Mobile systems or 3G) • Networked Home Habib Youssef

28. Web Switching • A new generation of networking devices specifically designed to address the unique requirements of Web traffic. • They use URLs in addition to IP addresses to make switching decisions. • They are smart switches armed with • sophisticated URL load balancing capabilities • Network address translation • embedded DNS intelligence • use complex policies to manage and speed web traffic flows Habib Youssef

29. Web Switching (contd.) • They use URLs in addition to IP addresses to make switching decisions. • URLs provide a ubiquitous method to identify content across the Internet • Since a URL identifies only the content requested, not its location, so instead of viewing the IP address associated with this URL as the network address where the content/service is located, this address points to the virtual IP address of the web switch, which functions as a cache or content traffic manager. • By looking deep into the HTTP payload down to the URL, a Web switch knows what content is being requested Habib Youssef

30. Web Switching (contd.) • The knowledge of what content is being requested allows a Web switch to know • which user-defined and/or pre-set security policies must be enforced • which content is to be allowed or denied, and • which QoS requirements are needed for specific content or even users. Habib Youssef

31. Web Switching (contd.) • As the VIP address for a WEB site, Web switches intercept all traffic destined for that site • this permits them to predict hot-content before servers become crowded. • Web switches dynamically replicate hot content to a Web cache. • Further, a Web switch tracks which servers have delivered specific content, and therefore, new requests for that content can be sent directly to them resulting in improved server cache coherence/performance. Habib Youssef

32. Technology Essential Technology characteristics to support future applications • A variety of access technologies • wireless, cellular mobile, digital loop carrier, cable modem, IP, ATM, etc. • Manageability • Policy responsive network, administrative partitioning • Scalability • Cost effective growth, bandwidth on demand, Usage & application based prioritization, multi vendor solutions Habib Youssef

33. Technology (Contd.) • Reliability • Utility like uptime, self healing networks, embedded security enforcement • Next generation features & services • Advanced application functionality, ability to easily create new applications & services Habib Youssef

34. Standardization Efforts • Standards are necessary to maintain flexibility & to avoid the clutches of proprietary designs. • Some standards: • ITU: H323 • Supports packet switched networks to carry telephony traffic • IEEE: 802.1p, 802.1Q • Support prioritization of data traffic at layer 2, this enables QoS • IETF: RTP, ISLL, RTSP • Real-time Transport Protocol, Integrated Services over Specific Link Layers & Real-Time Streaming Protocol enable IP networks to carry multimedia traffic Habib Youssef

35. Case Example Why should the company pay for separate inter-branch telephone charges when the VPN could carry voice traffic? Leased Line / VPN Head Office Network Internet Leased Line/ VPN Leased Line/ VPN Branch Office Network Branch Office Network Habib Youssef

36. Result : Network Convergence Converged networking is an emerging technology thrust that integrates voice, video & data traffic over a single network Habib Youssef

37. Network Convergence Network Convergence entails convergence in various aspects e.g. • Payload Convergence • Different data types are carried in same communications format (e.g., layer 1 audio & video streams as well as layer 3 packets may be carried in layer3 datagrams ) • Protocol Convergence • The move is away from multi-protocols to a single protocol namely IP • Physical Convergence • All payloads travel over the same physical network (QoS & CoS may however be used to differentiate service requirements Habib Youssef

38. Network Convergence (Contd.) • Device Convergence • A single switch may support Ethernet packet forwarding, IP routing, ATM etc. • Application Convergence • A single application integrates formerly separate functions (e.g., Web pages allow interactive communication) • Technology Convergence • Same technology (e.g., ATM) is used for both LANs & WANs • Organizational Convergence • Centralization of networking, telecommunication & computing services under a single authority Habib Youssef

39. Converged Network Architecture • A large converged network will probably be composed of LANs and WANs • They will not be homogenous networks, due to: • Differing economic and performance requirements over LANs and WANs • Differing bandwidth, delay and jitter requirements • Two possible scenarios are presented. Habib Youssef

40. Converged Network Example 1 • Edge network: Switched or routed Ethernet • Core Network: ATM or Frame Relay etc. LAN Edge Network LAN Edge Network WAN core network Habib Youssef

41. Parallel core networks Traffic is filtered into different service classes at exit from LAN, and routed via different networks: Connection oriented ATM for multimedia traffic Packet switched WAN for bursty LAN traffic Converged Network Example 2 LAN Edge Network LAN Edge Network ATM Packet Switched WAN Habib Youssef

42. Bandwidth Conservation (e.g., Multicast IP) Information Delivery (Multicast) • Supported in: • New Routers, • Core & Edge Switches • NICs • Multicast IP Benefits • Conserves backbone bandwidth • No administration required: automatic Habib Youssef

43. In the switched LAN: 802.1p/Q 8 levels of priority Applied to Ethernet packet header State of standards Unanimous approval of draft In the routed WAN: IP ToS 8 levels of priority Applied to IP header State of standards: Has been a standard for years Prioritization Technologies 802.1p: 3 Bits DA SA Information Pr TR VLAN ID 2 Byte 802.1Q Tag Habib Youssef

44. Prioritization Guidelines Guidelines for Application Prioritization 7 Systems Management High-Priority Queue 6 Real-time Video 5 Voice 4 Business-Critical 0, 3 Best Efforts Low-Priority Queue 2 Less than Best Efforts 1 Background Habib Youssef

45. Switches that Support Multiple Queues • Multiple queues in all new core & edge switches • Built into hardware • 802.1p tags, without multiple queues, cannot provide priority Single Queue High Dual Queue Low Habib Youssef

46. Summary Explosive increase in Transmission Bit Rates And Switching Capacities Abundant Computing power, DSP, Compression etc. Distributed operating systems, Middleware, Intelligent agents, Real time database systems. Deregulation/ Convergence Technology Globalization, Deregulation Increased competition, Partnerships Rapid introduction of Revenue generating services Evolution in Network And Services User Growth & Appl. Sophistication Standardization Anytime, Anywhere, Anymedia connectivity, transparency, Flexibility, manageability, Reliability Habib Youssef

47. Networked Home • Networking technologies are starting to invade the home to link computers and tap into the Internet, to carry phone signals and TV programs, and communicate with home appliances, surveillance cameras, air conditioning units, lights, etc. • Now, prime candidates for home networks are homes with two or more computers. • In the US, homes with two or more computers are estimated to total 17 millions. • Physical basis for these networks: VG TP, Cat-5 UTP, electrical power lines, wireless schemes (in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz range) Habib Youssef

48. Networked Home (Contd.) • Projected revenues in the US market: • Home data and entertainment networking -- By 2001, will hit $725 million (Karuna Uppal, Yankee Group, Boston). • The biggest market right now for home networking in US involves control: heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning systems; lighting; pumps and sprinklers; and security. Total spending is expected to top $2.75 billion by the end of 2000 (Navin Shabharwal, Allied Business Intelligence). • Players • Start-ups or have been in the business for a short time. • Well established multi-billion Dollar companies such as Cisco, Intel, Nortel, Motorola, Lucent, 3Co, IBM, and Panasonic Habib Youssef

49. Networked Home (Contd.) • Difficulties • Lack of useful wiring in a residential network • There is no single affordable medium that meets all requirements • Some new homes in the US are being built with home networking in mind, namely according to structured wiring standards. • With structured wiring, the communication lines come into the office at a single point - the wiring closet - and radiate-out from there. Habib Youssef

50. Homes with structured wiring in the US (The Yankee Group) 1000s of homes 800 800 700 600 500 500 400 300 300 200 150 100 50 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Habib Youssef