Habib Youssef, Ph'D

1
Network Evolution to the New Millenium

• Habib Youssef, Ph.D
• youssef_at_ccse.kfupm.edu.sa
• Department of Computer Engineering
• King Fahd University of Petroleum Minerals
• Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

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

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).

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).

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
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)

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 gt Information must be aggregated and
  generated by a service in such a way that it can
  be decoupled from the interaction with the device.

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

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

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
  couldnt 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

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

12
Fixed Wireless Internet Access

• Interim solution for businesses/homes that dont
  have access to CATV or DSL broadband access
• Unlike traditional mobile wireless technologies,
  fixed-wireless technologies are not designed for
  use with smart phones, PDAs, 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 customers 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

13
Global Wireless Market
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

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 90s have seen the emergence of Information
  Technology which integrates telecommunications,
  computing, TV, videoconferencing, and consumer
  electronics in every location (home or business)

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

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 10s or 100s of
  Billion Dollars to implement the last mile with
  optical fiber

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

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

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

21
Internet User Growth

• World Wide Web Users in Millions

1996
2000
1999
1998
1997
1995
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.)

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

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

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!

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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
36
Result Network Convergence

• Converged networking is an emerging technology
  thrust that integrates voice, video data
  traffic over a single network

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

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

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.

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
41
Converged Network Example 2

• 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

LAN Edge Network
LAN Edge Network
ATM
Packet Switched WAN
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

43
Prioritization Technologies

• 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

802.1p 3 Bits
DA
SA
Pr
Information
TR
VLAN ID
2 Byte 802.1Q Tag
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
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
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
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)

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

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.

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
51
IBM Home Director Products

• Home Director consists of
• a connection center that sits in the wiring
  closet
• control modules and connectors
• Through the center it is possible to control and
  manage all of the various computers and devices
  on the network.
• The system allows for asserting control from any
  point on the network and remotely from the
  Internet.

52
Home Structured Network
Lighting control
Power line
Network Gateway
Wireless
Thermostats
Broadband
Phone lines
Cat-5
Services
Surveillance camera
Cable modem/ ADSL modem/ Satellite
receiver/ Wireless transceiver/ combination
Connection Center
Mobile Phone
Telephones
Stereo
TV
53
Home-networked households in the US in thousands
1.5
6.5
Phone line
1.5
6.5
Power line
92
Wireless
1999 Total 600
1.5
6.5
87
2000 Total 1321
1.5
6.5
81
2001 Total 2478
1.5
6.5
75
2002 Total 3998
70
2003 Total 6006
54
To be continued...