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IP Internetworking Transport
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Executive Summary
Service providers are searching for ways to expand the
capacity of their networks in order to meet the growing
demand for IP-based services. The primary alternatives
for IP transport include IP over PPP over SONET/SDH
networks (sometimes referred to as Packet over
SONET/SDH or PoS), and IP over ATM over
SONET/SDH (IP over ATM).
PoS is a high speed method of transporting IP traffic very
efficiently between two points. IP over ATM offers a feature
rich environment for the provision of IP-based services
such as IP-based virtual private networks (VPNs), including
definable classes of service (CoS) and support for deterministic service level agreements (SLAs).
Service providers that wish to sell IP backbone services to
customers with similar service needs (that is, those in the
public arena that want to offer basic service guarantees)
will benefit greatly from using PoS. Those that wish to sell
differentiated services in order to gain a competitive edge in
an over-crowded IP transport market will want to consider
the superior bandwidth management and quality of service
(QoS) guarantees available using IP over ATM.
In the majority of cases, each service provider will use
a mix of these technologies to provide the best solution
for the variety of markets that are part of its service base.
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IP Internetworking Transport
Introduction 1
End-User Requirements 1
Service Provider Requirements 1
What is ATM? 2
What is SONET/SDH? 2
Transporting IP over ATM 3
Transporting IP over SONET/SDH 5
IP over ATM and PoS How Do They Compare? 5
Bandwidth Management and Network Engineering 5
Provisioning and Selling Services 6
Network Management 6
Scaling 6
Overhead Issues 7
Multiservice Networks 7
Emerging Alternatives 8
Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) 8
MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) 8
Conclusion 9
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IP Internetworking Transport
Introduction
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IP Internetworking Transport
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What is ATM?
What is SONET/SDH?
SONET (Synchronous Optical Network used in North
America) and SDH (synchronous Digital Hierarchy
used in Europe) are standards for the transport of data over
optical media between two fixed points. They use 810 byte
frames as a container for the transport of data at speeds
of up to OC-192 (9.6 Gbit/s)
Frame Relay
Cell Relay
Circuit Emulation
SMDS
Video Image
Video Image
53-byte ATM cells, carrying
multiple traffic types
Server
(Data traffic)
Server
(Data traffic)
ATM Multiplexer
ATM Multiplexer
PBX
(Voice traffic)
PBX
(Voice traffic)
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IP Internetworking Transport
ATM
VP
SONET/SDH pipe
VP
Application
VC
VC
VC
VC
Presentation
Session
Transport
Network
ATM
Datalink
Physical
(e.g. SONET, SDH)
SONET
Fiber
Fiber
Signaling
Multiplexing
and switching
Segmentation
and reassembly
ATM routing
Traffic management
SONET framing
encoding
link management
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IP Internetworking Transport
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Routing Services
Control Point
Management
Router
Router
Frame
Relay
Frame
Relay
ATM
ATM
Service Point
Service Point
ATM Switch
Router
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Router
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IP Internetworking Transport
MainStreetXpress
SONET
Router
Router
Frame Structure:
SONET
PPP
IP
PPP
SONET
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Network Management
The focus of network management in an take IP over ATM
network is to manage services rather than individual devices
or point-to-point connections. This is accomplished by configuring policies for specific customers within the network
management system, and having these policies automatically
propagated to all network elements that participate in providing a service to that customer. To maintain management
flexibility within this environment, the network manager has
the ability to pre-configure long-hold switched virtual circuits,
or allow the end user to negotiate admission to the network
under a specific traffic contract as part of a user-initiated SVC.
Since the management system associates a customer with
an end-to-end connection and a policy, it can maintain
the appropriate accounting and performance statistics that
are vital for billing, general customer service, and the
monitoring of IP SLAs.
Scaling
Scaling IP over ATM networks to accommodate additional
IP traffic is accomplished by growing resources within
each of the following four areas as required: network
management, routing management, data forwarding
and data transport.
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troubleshooting purposes. The majority of the commissioning work for individual nodes is done automatically
when the node is brought on line.
Routing management grows by adding more IP route
calculation devices (routing services control points) to
the pool of redundant resources already within the system.
As routing services control points are independent of the
forwarding elements, they can be scaled independently in
order to provide capacity when required. They provide an
effective means of aggregating routing resources in order
to reduce the number of physical devices and hence failure
points and entities that need to be managed.
IP data forwarding scales by adding devices at the edge
of the network according to the user demands within a
particular geographic location. As these devices do not
perform any routing calculations, they are relatively
inexpensive to own and operate.
Data transport capacity is increased by scaling the ATM
network, which uses an address scheme that allows for
multiple hierarchies and a route calculation mechanism
that sets up connections through a hierarchy of groups
of resources. As ATM data streams are divisible via virtual
circuits, the addition of new customers to the network
does not necessarily require the addition (or the purchase)
of new physical ports on the affected network nodes.
Scaling PoS router networks is accomplished by adding more
routers and/or increasing the capacity of core routers. As
routing and forwarding capacity are provided on the same
device, any upgrade to one implies an upgrade to the other,
with the associated cost impact. Further, each additional
routing entity places increased load on the routing system.
This is particularly unfortunate if the addition was an
unwanted side-effect of adding more forwarding capacity.
Although each router and each of the links between them
have traditionally been managed as separate entities, the
management software from individual router vendors has
improved recently in order to provide a more consolidated
view of the network as a whole. Network design is critical
as the network scales in order to prevent bottlenecks, and
to limit the amount of routing chatter associated with the
network-wide propagation of routing table updates.
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IP Internetworking Transport
Overhead Issues
IP achieves about 80 per cent of the available line rate when
operating over ATM whereas it achieves 95 per cent of the
line rate when running over PPP/SONET/SDH. This is
because in the latter case frames are transported directly into
the SONET/SDH payload, thus eliminating the overhead
required to support ATM (for example, the ATM cell header,
IP over ATM encapsulation and the partial fill due to the
fixed-length nature of ATM cells). As per some of the points
above, the benefits that come with the additional ATM
overhead include:
ability to sell differentiated services such as VPNs
customer isolation without the management overhead
of IP-level tunneling schemes
ability to engineer the network and thus control the use
of bandwidth; specifically to ensure it is used to derive
maximum profits
ability to provide deterministic guarantees of CoS and
QoS, which in turn makes it feasible to offer SLAs the
ability to manage services for individual customers, as
opposed to nodes and links for a pool of customers
Multiservice Networks
ATM was designed to work as a multiservice network fabric.
It accommodates various types of transport services including
frame relay, cell relay, circuit emulation and SMDS, and
various types of user traffic, including data, voice and video.
The blending of these services and traffic types within a
single network allows service providers to manage all of
them in a consistent management environment, and to
present a consistent interface to the customer for all types
of services. This also allows service providers to co-exist
with existing non-IP equipment within their own and their
customers networks.
SONET/SDH routers were designed to handle IP traffic only.
Service providers who operate these networks must also run
separate networks for frame relay, leased line, cell relay, and
SMDS traffic. In many cases, these other networks are being
consolidated onto ATM backbones to provide the advantages
listed above.
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Emerging Alternatives
ATM Switch
MPLS
IP
IP
MPLS
ATM Switch
Frame Relay
8 x OC-3
8 x OC-3
ATM
SONET
PPP
Frame Relay
SONET
WDM
WDM
WDM
ATM
Fiber
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WDM
Fiber
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IP Internetworking Transport
Conclusion
Within todays wide area networks, IP is transported using
both IP over ATM and PoS technologies. PoS is primarily
used for the aggregation of backbone router traffic in order
to extend the capacity of the original routers that supplied
the backbone for Internet connectivity. IP over ATM is used
in the wide area to provide transparent LAN services that
interconnect remote sites over an ATM backbone, and within
the enterprise to provide bridged and routed LANs using
MPOA technology. The next step is to migrate one or both
of these infrastructures, in order to respond to end-user
demands for extended IP-based WAN services.
IP over ATM is uniquely suited to providing differentiated
IP-VPN services to end-user business customers. The fundamental technology differentiator that makes this possible is
the virtual circuits that allow a service provider to provision,
manage, monitor, and bill for an end-to-end connection
that has a specific class of service for a specific customer.
In addition, the built in traffic management and quality of
service parameters allow the adoption of IP SLAs for the first
time. Combining IP with other ATM services also provides
significant advantages in terms of mixing many different
types of transport services (frame relay, cell relay, circuit
emulation, SMDS) and different media (data, voice, video)
and managing them as part of the same infrastructure.
PoS is a good solution for efficiently transporting IP-only
traffic from point to point. It is not, however, suitable for
providing end-to-end IP-based services such as VPNs. Future
standards such as MPLS, and new protocols such as RSVP
and L2TP, may allow service providers to offer VPNs with
guaranteed service levels, but it is unclear when or if they
will be able to work together, or if these networks will be
manageable when they grow to accommodate hundreds
of thousands of VPNs. In addition, these networks are not
likely to be adapted to anything other than IP-based traffic.
If and when all IP networks become a reality, and if the
emerging standards are ratified to provide ATM-like traffic
and network management features, PoS may become a viable
solution for providing true differentiated IP-based services.
Until then, PoS will continue to be the preferred solution
for undifferentiated Internet services.
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w w w. m a i n s t r e e t x p r e s s . c o m
Corporate Headquarters
Siemens AG
Public Communication Networks Group
N Marketing
Hofmannstr. 51
81359 Munich, Germany
Telephone: +49 89 722 38500
Facsimile: +49 89 722 41072
North America
Siemens Telecom Networks
900 Broken Sound Parkway
Boca Raton, Florida 33487
Telephone: 1 800 814 1680
Facsimile: +1 561 955 8351
Corporate Headquarters
Newbridge Networks Corporation
600 March Road, P.O. Box 13600
Kanata, Ontario Canada K2K 2E6
Telephone: +1 613 591 3600
Facsimile: +1 613 591 3680
North and South America
Newbridge Networks Inc.
593 Herndon Parkway
Herndon, Virginia U.S.A. 20170-5241
Telephone: 1 800 343 3600
+1 703 834 3600
Facsimile: +1 703 471 7080
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Newbridge Networks Limited
Coldra Woods, Chepstow Road
Newport, South Wales NP6 1JB U.K.
Telephone: +44 (0) 1633 413600
Facsimile: +44 (0) 1633 413680
Asia Pacific
Newbridge Networks Sdn. Bhd.
Suite 5-01/02, 5th Floor
Menara Keck Seng
203 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Telephone: +60 3 241 2409
Facsimile: +60 3 241 2418
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